The University adds questions regarding painkiller use to Core Alcohol and Drug Survey
By Caitlin Yilek Opinions Editor yilek12@up.edu
D
avid, a University of Portland senior, used to start his mornings by snorting Vicodin, a narcotic used to relieve moderate to severe pain.
David did not have moderate or severe pain. Nor did he have a prescription.
"A lot of people used them at my (high) school and coming from a family of alcoholics, it makes sense," David said about his addiction.
David estimates he spent more than $1,000 in a year on painkillers such as OxyContin, Codeine and Vicodin, which he bought from friends.
During one of David's highs he mixed painkillers with alcohol.
"I hallucinated for a day and hooked up with my friend's girlfriend," David said.
In late February, a random sample of 1,600 University of Portland students received the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey. According to Kristina Houck, a counselor at the University Health Center, the Health Center administers the national survey every other year and the results from the survey affect prevention education on campus.
For the first time, the survey covers prescription drugs.
"We have no doubt there are likely students at UP who are either abusing or becoming dependent upon painkillers," Paul Myers, director of the Health Center, said.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service, reports that 25 percent of people ages 18 to 20 have used prescription drugs for a non-medical reason at least once in their lives. And by students' sophomore year in college, about half have been offered the opportunity to abuse a prescription drug.
"Prescription drug abuse is using a medicine in a way that it was not intended when the prescription was written by a health care provider," Tim Crump, a family nurse practitioner at the Health Center, said. "On college campuses, you have a large student body congregating together and sharing ideas or daring each other to do risky things and in certain cases that can be a dangerous situation."
Painkillers, which are prescribed for moderate to severe pain and block pain messages from reaching the brain, are the prescription drugs most frequently abused.
"One reason (people) choose to abuse prescription drugs is due to the misperception that abusing prescription drugs is safer than using illegal drugs," Houck said.
However, it isn't.
Abusing painkillers can lead to an increase in blood pressure and heart rate, organ damage, addiction, seizure, heart attack, stroke and death.
David started abusing painkillers out of curiosity and says the dangers did not deter him from taking them.
Jane, also a senior at the University, began experimenting with drugs in high school because her brother was addicted to painkillers.
"Looking back I can't ever remember any physical problems (with my body) while on Vicodin," Jane said. "It was mostly just fun."
For a while.
"On Vicodin everything is sort of hazy and nothing really matters," Jane said. "It's really hard to be stressed or upset when you are on painkillers. All of your problems don't matter, but once you come down (from the high) you have to face your problems and want to do more (drugs)."
Although Jane was able to escape reality through painkillers, the escape was only temporary.
"(Painkiller) abuse inhibits the dopamine reuptake process in the brain, resulting in an increased volume of dopamine - the brain's pleasure chemical - in the brain, resulting in a high," Houck said.
Abusing painkillers has negative health effects, and it is also illegal.
Jane says she hung out with people who had access to a lot of different drugs, until she was arrested her freshman year at UP. She spent four days in jail and had $15,000 in fines, not including lawyer fees.
After abusing painkillers for a year, David stopped after he almost died while driving high.
"I wasn't paying attention at all and almost got hit by another car, and another time by a train," David said.
Others have not been fortunate enough to stop abusing painkillers before an overdose.
Last November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the number of deaths from overdose of painkillers more than tripled over the past decade. Prescription painkillers led to the deaths of almost 15,000 in 2008, up from 4,000 in 1999.
By 2008, the epidemic of prescription drug overdoses (which includes painkillers among other prescription drugs) approached the number of deaths from motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of injury in the United States, according to the CDC.
Though the drugs never affected his grades and his family never knew about his addiction, David's actions while on painkillers led him to make the decision to quit.
Painkillers, which include Oxycodone, Methadone and Hydrocodone, now account for more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined in the U.S., the CDC reported.
David has dealt with his friends overdosing.
"One friend went into severe overdose," David said. "He fell asleep for a day and a half and was happy to wake up."
His friend continued to use painkillers, despite his near-death experience.
"The big danger with (painkiller) overdose is respiratory depression," Crump said. "An overdose can last from four to eight hours, and if your breathing slows for long enough, it can be lethal."
According to Crump, patients who overdose need to seek immediate medical attention to get medication that will block opiate receptors and reverse the respiratory depression.
The CDC believes the number of painkiller-related deaths is underestimated because the type of drug is not specified on many death certificates.
Health care providers can prevent prescription painkiller overdoses while ensuring safe, effective pain treatment through responsible prescribing, according to CDC Director Thomas Frieden.
