The Community First Solutions Addiction 101 program covered:
What Does Addiction Look Like? Signs and Symptoms of Users
Myths of Addiction.
Impact of Addiction On Our Community.
What is Narcan and Why it is Important?
The Science Behind Addiction and Pathways.
Treatment and Support Options Available.
STAYING WITH THE STORY
The Journal-News has been a leader in reporting on the impact locally of heroin and opiate addiction and how local health, government and police officials are trying to solve problem. Our reporters will continue to write about the programs, treatments and legislation at work to fight the growing number of drug overdoses, which some in Butler County have called an epidemic.
“They go in and say they are a friend of the family, and when nobody is looking - they rip the patch of the patient’s skin. When they rip the patch off, some of the patient’s skin comes off as well. But it doesn’t matter to them, they will suck off the skin while chewing on the patch.”
The facts, truths and lies that face drug addicts and those who live in the community with them, were discussed in great detail all week in a three session program called Addiction 101.
Community First Solutions introduced the program to help its employees and Butler County residents in the battle against addiction.
Overall, more than 13,000 Ohioans have lost their lives to drug overdoses since 1999 at an average rate of five people a day, and the leading cause of most overdose deaths are opiates, such as heroin and prescription painkillers, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The three-session program held this week was facilitated by Gregory Corban, clinical coordinator, Case Management Services with Community First Solutions. He delved immediately into dealing with use, abuse and addiction.
Corban had the more than 35 people who showed up at the final session on Thursday, play a game of word association.
“If I point to you, I want you to say the first thing that comes to your mind,” he instructed the group. “Drug addict.”
The answers varied from, family member, criminal, heroin addict, to neighbor. The word “cocaine” drew responses such as in my family, dependent, and bud light (that response drew a hearty laugh from the audience). Heroin had darker retorts; deadly, tragedy, prison, scary, epidemic and withdrawal.
“The point I’m making here is we have images of family that are countered by really negatives things you hear in the community that leaves an image in your head,” Corban said. “There is the stigma associated with treating an individual that has the illness of addiction.”
He added that addicts often use “izing” excuses — like rationalizing — to avoid dealing with their problem head on. But Corban made it clear that in his opinion, addiction comes in many forms from cigarettes to food, and dealing with how to quit or modify an addictive behavior is not easy in a society that blankets itself in denial.
“The young kid smoking a cigarette for the first time after peer pressure, or the patient in the hospital with a serious back injury with pain, who ask for…painkillers,” he explained. “There are many different ways and many different things to become addicted to.”
Corgan reinforced his discussion by asking the audience if they read the Journal-News' article published in January regarding Community First Pharmacy, becoming the first pharmacy in Butler County approved by the Ohio Pharmacy Board to dispense Narcan without a prescription.
“Did anyone read the comments?” he asked. “They were so intense, that I had to highlight them.”
Corgan then read the highlighted comments to the audience:
“‘This doesn’t solve the problem of people being stupid enough to take heroin in the first place.’ ‘Boycott this pharmacy, ban Narcan and let the addicts rot.’ ‘How stupid is this enabling the dopers, go ahead and shoot up might as well give them guns for suicide.’”
One audience member asked if the attitudes of those who commented on the Journal-News story were the prevailing attitudes shared by a majority of people in communities surrounding Butler County.
“Narcan isn’t used, and according to our pharmacist, can’t be used to get high. It is used to save lives,” Corgan said.
He left the audience with a powerful story of addiction related to fentanyl, an opiate that is more powerful than heroin. Corgan said that there are reports of addicts going to visit patients in hospice care to get a fix.
Corgan said an addict will go to a hospice care center, ask for an elderly sick patient who they know will have an analgesic patch attached to their skin to relieve pain. The patches contain fentanyl, which leeches into the skin to help dull the patient’s pain.
“They go in and say they are a friend of the family, and when nobody is looking, they rip the patch off the patient’s skin,” Corgan said. “When they rip the patch off, some of the patient’s skin comes off as well. But it doesn’t matter to them, they will suck off the skin while chewing on the patch.”
About the Author