08/31/2019
Warning! LONG POST AHEAD! If you know me, you know I am verbose, and that I will stand on a soap box as long as I need to to get my message across. So indulge me if you will....this may take a minute, but it is life or death material......
If I could only get the message out loud and clear to everyone I know- fentanyl is EVERYWHERE. Yes, it is here in the upstate just as it is everywhere else in our nation. Our slower paced communities, ranked among the top places to raise a family are not immune....yes, it is even here.
Look at the stats, our overdose rate has increased 80% in the past year. EIGHTY PERCENT! We are talking about the deaths of our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members, our friends, people no one ever suspected of "having a problem." And this is important information. News coverage warns of the risk of overdose to those overusing pain pills or using he**in. That risk is petrifying and sobering, no pun intended. It is what drives me to work 12 hour days in the field of recovery. It is, as we know, a national epidemic. But it affects many more.
Why? The pills available "for sale" on our streets are no longer pharmaceutical grade. They are pressed pills. They look identical to the pharmaceutical formularies that are no longer available on the streets, Unsuspecting citizens are assuming they are ingesting something picked up from CVS, Walgreens, or the neighborhood pharmacy, something with guaranteed quality control and strength. Pressed pills more often than not are cut with fentanyl, which kills with its deadly strength, silently hiding behind the mask of a xanax, a lortab, an adderall- but they are not just an ordinary pain pill, anxiety pill, or adhd pill, these pills are a game of life or death roulette.
Your neighbor Joe, not someone with "a drug problem," has a panic attack after a stressful week at his successful corporate job. His associate Bob offers him a Xanax, that he has no idea is cut with fentanyl- his buddy Scott had given him a handful when he was dealing with the death of his mother to help him through the services. Your highschool student Tina injures her knee right before the state tournament, and without thinking, accepts the pain pill her best friend Lori gets from her boyfriend to help her "push through." No one suspected it was cut with fentanyl and that Tina would stop breathing during the night. These are the stories we hear every day. Couple those with the tragic deaths of patients suddenly cut off from their prescribed pain medication who find themselves in withdrawal, turning to someone they were told could "help them," and end up buying a pressed op**te w fentanyl. Or those struggling with substance use disorder who are always searching, looking for someone who can supply what they need, just so they won't be sick...so they can continue to try to hold things together, raising their children, keeping their job, paying their bills....as long as they aren't in withdrawal. It's no longer about "feeling something" for them, it is about not being sick. They are all at risk of overdose. Their families are all at risk of losing them. Our society is reeling with families in mourning for those gone too soon, those senseless deaths that are increasing as we speak. Eighty percent this past year and there is no end in sight. I am scared. You should be scared. We have to turn the tide, we have to slow the death toll. We have to move.
Treatment for substance use disorder is available, call me. Narcan is available, I will get it to you, call me. Education is critical- don't be silent and assume people around you understand what you now know....so preach it. Tell it to anyone you can. I think it's our obligation. You have to warn people about what is around us, for it will eventually affect someone they know or love. We panic and take precautions when we are told of meningitis documented in a school. We panic and take precautions when we are told that local mosquitoes are carrying dangerous viruses, or local waters are contaminated with dangerous bacteria. Our streets are filled with FATAL dangers. We should all panic and take precautions immediately. 80%.
I work in this field, so yes I see more. But what I see most is that dependency does not discriminate with gender, age, socioeconomic status, or any other demographic. The fear I speak of on our streets doesn't just affect "other people." This is about people just like you and me, whoever you are. Noone is immune.
If you know anyone struggling, help them. Address it, warn them and then support them. And let them know they can get help- don't let anything be a barrier. And let your loved ones know that you can't take anything you didn't pick up at the pharmacy yourself and have assurance that it is not cut with fentanyl. So don't risk it. Yeah, it's "that Greenville." Because every city, no matter how great, no matter the size, every city and town is at risk.
In a three-state drug bust, authorities arrested 35 people and seized enough fentanyl to kill roughly 14 million people in a three-state drug bust.
