Summati
THE
n Weekly USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C om mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n ta Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 17, No. 36
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
September 13, 2017
1 Section, 12 Pages
Opioids have been making headlines nationwide. The United States is in the midst of a 50 state epidemic and Florida is among the hardest hit. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose rates went up by 22.7 percent between 2014 and 2015 in Florida and it’s only getting worse.
Escambia County’s Growing Opioid Crisis by Heidi Travis
In 2015, there were 3,228 deaths by drug overdose in Florida, according to the CDC. Of those, 2,538 deaths were caused by opioids alone. Additionally, opioids were found to have contributed in some way to another 1,358 fatalities. This May, Governor Rick Scott declared the opioid epidemic a statewide public health emergency and signed an executive order that will allow Florida to accept a federal grant of $54 million dollars over the next two years. These funds will go towards treatment and recovery efforts throughout the state. Treatment centers, like Lakeview Center which received $700,000 from this grant, will put the money towards operations and programs such as STOP: the State Targeted Opioid Program which provides free treatment to addicts, to help boost recovery efforts. Of the total grant money, $17 million will be allocated to the direct care of clients with medication assisted treatment. An additional $10 million will be spread out among care coordination, for medications such as Vivitrol and Narcan, outreach into rural communities and prevention in schools. Additionally, first responders will have greater access to medications, such as Narcan, which are used to resuscitate individuals who are overdosing. Opioids are a class of drugs that include prescription pain relievers such as OxyContin, Vicodin, codeine, and morphine, but also include illegal drugs such as heroin and opioid synthetics such as fentanyl. Prescription opioids are generally safe when taken as prescribed by a doctor and are usually only taken for a very short time period due to their highly addictive nature. Along with pain relief, opioids produce a feeling of euphoria, which is usually the catalyst that leads to addiction. Addicts can struggle for many years to reach sobriety and relapse is always a danger due to the insidious nature of opioid addiction. Even after 17 months clean, 36-year-old Pensacola resident Ryan Forbes remembers his first hit. “I was given my first Lortab in 2003 by a coworker. I remember right where I was. It just took my soul. It was this feeling of energy and being pain-free. That feeling
was just awesome. It numbed any emotional weakness,” Forbes says. “It was this all-in-one pill I could take at work. It gave me a buzz, it was perfectly legal, and it numbed all of my physical and emotional pain. It was this false cure for life that I thought I’d found.” This single encounter set off a 12-year battle with addiction. At the time, prescription opioids were not as heavily regulated as they are now. Forbes notes that doctor shopping was much easier then because these pills were everywhere and they were culturally accepted. Prescription painkillers did not carry the same stigma as any other illicit drugs, so they flew under the radar for a brief time. “When you’re getting it from a smart man in a white coat with a nametag that says doctor, you don’t question it. How can this be bad? How could this be as addictive as the drugs we were getting off the street?” Forbes says. But the price of opioid addiction is very steep. It isn’t only about obtaining a high. Users very quickly develop a tolerance for opioids and increase their doses exponentially, or else they succumb to the devastatingly crippling effects of withdrawal. “The addiction is very severe. There are a few medications where withdrawal is deadly and opiates fall into that category,” says Dustin Perry, director of STOP at Lakeview Center. “You start to have an upset stomach, diarrhea, sweats, insomnia, hot and cold flashes. You feel absolutely miserable, so the best way to fix it is to take the drug again.” Both Perry and Forbes describe withdrawal symptoms as “the flu times one hundred.” Last year, Lakeview Center treated approximately 3,000 patients for opioid addiction. Of those, Lakeview treated 1,091 patients with methadone and another 269 with Suboxone. Perry says while Escambia County tracks closely to national numbers in terms of overdoses, we are nowhere near the numbers in south Florida, where the opioid crisis has hit critical mass. Still, the opioid crisis has challenges uniquely its own. For one thing, opioid addiction has no target demographic. It is universal, afflicting people of all ages and economic status. One of the biggest
barriers locally is transportation. With our community spread out as it is, getting to treatment centers is a particular challenge for recovering addicts. Perry notes that those who live in Cantonment, Pace, or Century may have a harder time getting to their appointments in downtown Pensacola. This is to say nothing of the fresh challenges law enforcement is facing. Sgt. Martez Lawrence, Supervisor of Narcotics for the Pensacola Police Department, has been on the front lines of the opioid crisis as it has unfolded in Escambia County over the last eight years. A 16-year veteran of the force, he first noted the spike in heroin cases in 2009 when he was still working as a detective. When the pill mills in south Florida shut down, heroin hit the streets with a vengeance. Now, he says, opioid investigations make up at least 50 percent of their case load. And it goes beyond heroin and prescription drugs. As the laws targeting illegal substances become more explicit, dealers and users are devising smarter ways to distribute and consume their products. “At this point, they are coming up with different ways to distribute these drugs. We were finding Xanax that were actually Fentanyl. They were taking Fentanyl and snapping them into a Xanax pill press. We’ve seen where they’re mixing the Fentanyl with nasal spray mix, putting it in a bottle, shaking it up and getting high that way,” Lawrence says. “So not only is it an issue because they are disguising it from law enforcement and it’s harder to see, but accidental exposure to it can be dangerous to law enforcement as well, so we are having to take extra precautions when it comes to how we operate now.” All of the officers in the narcotics division operate on a buddy system. Every individual is responsible for one other colleague and stays vigilant to any signs of exposure, addiction, or any other unusual behaviors. This method affords Lawrence’s team an added safeguard against accidental exposure, which is a much more present danger these days. “Some of this stuff can be absorbed through skin contact. Now what they are starting to do is mix drugs. Fentanyl seems to be the biggest one they are mixing into
other drugs. So, we may come across something that we would normally think is Spice – which isn’t harmful unless it’s ingested— but now has a mix of Fentanyl which can be dangerous just upon skin contact,” Lawrence says. Because exposure to these substances is so very harmful, officers are required to carry masks, gloves, and test kits. But it doesn’t end there; the very nature of the job is changing. Police work has always rigidly adhered to the letter of the law, but the opioid crisis has forced a more nuanced approach. “As law enforcement, our direction is always find the bad guy, charge them, put them in jail and the job is done. That is no longer the case anymore. It’s looking at it on a case by case basis. It’s the question of what is it that needs to be done to get this person reha-
Most of us self-medicate because we don’t know how to deal with the emotions life throws at us. bilitated so he doesn’t go back out there and offend, utilizing these same drugs,” Lawrence says. “Is this guy only a dealer or is he also a user? Usually, if they are users we try to cure that problem. Just putting them in jail doesn’t solve the problem, so we are having to change how we look at that aspect of the opioid crisis.” While most of Lawrence’s cases are localized, he has seen outside influence in Escambia county as well. Just recently PPD made an arrest in a case involving opioid shipments coming from China in a trade that was negotiated via internet. Cases like these become more complicated due to matters of jurisdiction and require the involvement of federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Drug Enforcement Agency, with which Lawrence says their department works very closely. Recently an Opioid Community Action Planning meeting was held, bringing together representatives from first response teams, treatment centers, hospitals, and law enforcement to discuss how to address the opioid crisis in Escambia County. Forbes, Perry and Lawrence were in attendance. In summary, a collaborative effort is being made between these agencies
in order to properly address this multi-faceted and complex problem. This approach has already shown to have greater success over former campaigns. Forbes, who after an incredibly transformative and deeply personal religious experience sought treatment from Lakeview Center, has nothing but good to say about the steps Escambia County is taking towards healing its community. For Forbes, finding Jesus was the pivotal first step in his healing process. Now he devotes his life entirely to helping others find their own way. In his opinion, the key to why this collaboration works is that it targets the real problem with addiction and removes the isolation it brings. “Most of us self-medicate because we don’t know how to deal with the emotions life throws at us. Not having my dad around made me pissed off for a long time. It gave me this ‘I’ll show you! I can do it myself attitude.’ That fuels addiction. There are a lot of reasons why people self-medicate,” Forbes says. “I guarantee you there is somebody that you know that is addicted. I want people to know it’s okay. It may not even be your fault. You might have just gotten hurt and trusted your doctor, then got addicted. Let’s work through this. You’re not alone. You are not alone.” Escambia County officials and law enforcement continue to work tirelessly with first response teams and counseling services to stop the spread of this opioid epidemic in our community. Through the collaborative efforts of these agencies, Escambia County should see fewer instances of overdose and drug trafficking, but more importantly, those who suffer from addiction can receive proper treatment at little to no cost, essentially cutting this epidemic off at its roots. If you or someone you know is addicted to opioids or is in need of treatment, please call: Lakeview Center Behavioral Health Services: 850-469-3500 The Friary: 850-932-9375 or 1-800-332-2271 The Summit Group: 850–437-8952 Lakeview Center Opiate Treatment Program (Medication Assisted Treatment): MAT Clinic – Pensacola: 850–466-3400 MAT Clinic – Century: 850-256-6165 MAT Clinic – Shalimar: 850-609-1040