Sunday, July 29, 2012
Boomers Continued from page 21
JIM RASSOL | Son Sentinel/MCT Ron Dash, right, with his son Sam Dash pose for portrait in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Ron Dash, born in the middle of the baby boom, started smoking weed at age 13. He went on to run his own business, married and raised a family. But he increasingly had problems with prescription and illegal drugs. Finally, after his wife threatened to leave and take their son, he got help and has been sober since 2006.
factors that primed them for prescription and illegal substance addiction, according to Jim Hall, director of Nova’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse. For one, they were teens or young adults during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, when society embraced experimenting with illegal drugs like marijuana and LSD. The younger people are when they take their first drink or their first toke, the more likely they are to become addicted adults, Hall said, due to brain development not being complete until about age 25. And by the time baby boomers reached adulthood, physicians were increasingly prescribing legal but addictive sedatives, tranquilizers and opioids to help their patients calm down, sleep or just get through the day. Beginning in the 1990s, consum-
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia |
ers were bombarded with ads for such medications, said Dr. Barbara Krantz, medical director at the Hanley Center for substance abuse treatment in West Palm Beach. “They became more comfortable with a quick fix,” she said. Statistics show people now in their 50s are far more likely than previous generations to be struggling with dual addictions to alcohol and prescription or illicit drugs. Hanley’s residential treatment program for boomers is usually at or over capacity, and midlife and senior adults are the majority of the center’s clients. Krantz said Hanley started separating the boomers from the 65-and-older seniors about three years ago, after noticing the two groups had very different needs and backgrounds. One boomer who sought help at the Hanley Center was Ron Dash. His journey to the edge follows the shifts in cultural perceptions about drug use. He starting dabbling in social drugs at 13, and by the time he graduated was the coolest kid in his Long Island high school because he always could score weed. He opened a business at 23, married and had a son — and turned to Valium when he was anxious or oxycodone when his hangovers gave him severe headaches. But it wasn’t until he was 53, and unexpectedly found himself facing a family intervention, that he realized something was terribly wrong. The clincher: His then-8-year-old son, Sam, held up a family picture and ripped it in half. “Drugs had become my solution to anything that I didn’t like the way it felt. And I functioned that way for a very long time,” said Dash, of Palm Beach Gardens. He has been sober since going through treatment in 2006, and regularly returns to the Hanley Center to speak to others in his age group. “I can tell you when I go back to Hanley, I see less and less young people and more older ones,” he said.
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Pharmacy Continued from page 20 signatures, he would notice if a word were misspelled or if an unusual dosage was prescribed. He said it seems like most of the people looking to get prescription medications illegally know better than to try his pharmacy. “Word gets around. I haven’t had a fake prescription presented here in months. You’ve got to be pretty darn good to slip one by us,” Mimbs said. Mimbs said there are two medications that stand out in his mind as the most sought after and abused in Gainesville, oxycodone and hydrocodone. “I would say those are the two most abused drugs I see. Years ago they used to be the amphetamines, but they’ve graduated to the pain pills now,” Mimbs said. Patients may have a legitimate pre-
scription for a controlled substance and try to have it refilled more times than they should. To help prevent patients from getting too many pills, pharmacies keep detailed records and notes of the patient’s medication history. The records include how frequently medications should be filled and notes about the customer. If the patient is covered by insurance the company will notify the pharmacist if a certain prescription is being filled too frequently. But some patients may still be getting away with refilling their prescriptions too often. “If someone is pharmacy shopping, I would have no idea if they were a privately paying customer,” Mimbs said. To help ensure that all prescriptions are legal, Mimbs said they have a policy that requires his staff to know the doctor or know the patient. “That’s why it’s best to stick with one drug store. So you’re known, so to speak,” Mimbs said.
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