By Marney Simon | Sentinel Staff
The village of Shorewood took a step last week in addressing a crisis that’s reached a tipping point from coast to coast.
On Oct. 25, the village welcomed Dr. Kathleen Burke, Director of Substance Abuse Initiatives with the Will County Executive Office, for an information session on opioid abuse.
More than 20 members of the community came to hear about the causes and dangers of opioids and how they can help respond to the epidemic.
Illinois is one of 16 states where more people die of drug overdoses than from car accidents.
The “In Plain Sight” trailer in an interactive educational display for parents, grandparents and guardians, where caretakers can learn the signs to look for in their teen’s room for possible use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. (Photo by Marney Simon)
Burke said 21 to 29 percent of patients who are prescribed opioids for pain misuse those drugs. Of those people eight to 12 percent will develop a use disorder. That disorder can often lead to a transition to heroin, which offers the same effect but is cheap and easy to get. Burke said 80 percent of the people who use heroin were first exposed to opioids through a prescription, adding that dentists offer opioids to their patients at a higher rate than any other doctors.
“We were a country where we did not want to suffer any pain. And we went from not having much to help us, to having too much,” Burke said. “This addiction has been spread because of the overprescribing of pain medication… They’re not good for chronic pain. They’re good for acute pain. You break your arm, you break your leg, you have hip surgery. For just three to five days, it’s fine. But, long term chronic pain, your tolerance will go up and it will stop working effectively.”
Nationwide, opioid overdoses jumped 30 percent between 2016 and September 2017. In Will county that number is higher at 40 percent, but in the Midwest, the increase has been as high as 70 percent. Burke said the reason is the introduction of fentanyl.
The synthetic opioid is often manufactured and shipped to the United States from China, where much smaller doses can have deadly effects. Fentanyl is 50 percent stronger than heroin, which can lead to faster overdoses and death.
Most people who overdose on fentanyl are between the ages of 25 and 45.
Those who have developed dependence need to use daily in order to avoid being “drug sick,” which includes the painful symptoms of withdrawal.
Burke also noted that adverse childhood experiences and environmental factors are some of the strongest contributors for someone who is susceptible to addiction. Use of drugs in the home, family history of substance abuse, mental health disorders, and environmental factors can all push someone toward addiction.
Meanwhile, rehab and recovery tend to be expensive and out of reach for many people.
Law enforcement noted that even smaller municipalities like Shorewood are not immune from the opioid epidemic.
“It’s a very large topic,” said Shorewood Police Chief Aaron Klima. “There’s a very large spectrum of treatment and response issues in law enforcement, all sorts of components that go into this.”
Burke said one way to battle the epidemic is through community and school communities, by introducing strategies to prevent use and abuse rather than rely on police to arrest drug users, a strategy which doesn’t address the underlying addiction.
According to the Will County Coroner’s office, Will County has seen 62 cases of overdose deaths due to heroin/fentanyl in 2018. One death was a traffic fatality where heroin was a contributing cause. Of those, 22 people deaths have occurred in Joliet, and three in Shorewood.
Burke’s information sessions are also training sessions to administer naloxone, an opioid neutralizing nasal spray that can counteract an opioid overdose.
Participants were able to bring home two doses of naloxone following the training. Burke said the neutralizer should be available for anyone who suffers with opioid addiction, but also for anyone who uses prescription opioids for pain management, as well as people who may be prone to accidentally misuse their prescriptions.
Narcan has been made available for purchase at pharmacies for around $80. Non-first responders who administer Narcan are covered under the state’s Good Samaritan Law.