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Use of pain pills shoots up in Oklahoma

 
BY VALLERY BROWN | Published: September 20, 2009    Comment on this article Leave a comment


Supplies of prescription pain medication in Oklahoma more than doubled over a four-year period ending in 2006 — enough in one year to give every state resident about 60 painkillers.

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From legitimate to illegitimate
Chris Smith, agent in charge of diversion at the state narcotics bureau’s Lawton district, said there are several ways drugs are being shuffled from legitimate to illegitimate uses.

→Doctor shoppers: Not all of the doctors are using the prescription monitoring program or they aren’t reading it correctly. Patients will jump around from doctor to doctor until they get what they want.

→Professionals: Doctors, nurses and pharmacists are writing unnecessary prescriptions or helping people obtain the drugs for nonmedical use.

→Acquaintances: Giving drugs away to friends or family.

→Thefts: Those who steal the drugs from a friend or relative.

→Dealers: People who obtain the drug from any number of sources and then sell it on the street.



BY THE NUMBERS

Increases in supply of federally regulated prescription pain pills in Oklahoma 2002-2006:

→Morphine: More than 120 percent

→Oxycodone: 90 percent

→Hydrocodone: 70 percent

→Meperidine (brand name is Demerol): 10 percent.

→Codeine: Down 20 percent statewide

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System

Using drugs illegally
200,000: Number of Oklahomans 12 years and older who used prescription painkillers without a prescription or just for the feeling or experience.

Source: 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health

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More than 2.2 million grams — the equivalent of about 200 million, 10 milligram pills — was shipped to the state in 2006. A report released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration shows most of those drugs went to pharmacies.

Controlled pain pill use and abuse has been escalating in Oklahoma since 2004, said Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Doctors are prescribing pain medications more often and more patients are asking for them, he said.

"There’s really nothing showing the use is going down,” Woodward said.

The most recent federal data shows Tulsa and Oklahoma counties ranked nationally among the top 15 areas of highest prescription pain pill misuse. Oklahoma is the only state to have two regions in the top 15.

In fact, information from the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program show a nearly 40 percent increase in the number of doses of hydrocodone dispensed by pharmacies between Sept. 2007 and June 2009. Oxycodone increased by about 30 percent over that same time period. This doesn’t include drugs in a liquid form like cough syrup.

Dr. Charles Shaw, an Oklahoma City-based specialist with more than 20 years of experience in treating addiction, said painkillers have replaced marijuana as the "gateway drug.”

"Many young people experiment with pain medications and become hooked,” he said. "Most of the ones I see are in their 20s and have lost everything.”

Woodward said in 2008 there were more than 600 prescription drug-related deaths in the state.

"Sometimes people just don’t become aware it is a problem until someone close dies or becomes addicted,” said Chris Smith, agent in charge of diversion for the state narcotics bureau.

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Related Topics: Health and Fitness, Medical Treatments and Procedures, Pain Management, Psychoactive Drugs



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