Pain Pill Addicts Turn to Heroin As bad as the current prescription drug abuse epidemic is, it can lead to worse. Once a person becomes addicted to pain pills, they oſten turn to heroin as their drug of choice. Prescription drugs have become such a hot commodity that addicts have re- alized that heroin is cheaper and oſten easier to obtain. Several cities and states have re- cently reported that heroin arrests and over- doses have skyrocketed, and the increase is believed to be another consequence of the prescription drug abuse epidemic. Accord- ing to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAM- HSA), the number of people who say they have used heroin in the past year jumped 53.5 percent between 2002 and 2011.
Why the problem? Prescription drug abuse oſten begins with legally prescribed pain medication for legitimate injuries, but these drugs are so habit-forming that it may not take long for someone to get hooked. Once addicted, us- ers have a variety of methods for obtaining medication: • Availability of online pharmacies has increased the ability to obtain prescription drugs.
• Technology has led to beter prescription forgeries that go undetected by pharmacies.
• Abusers oſten visit multiple physicians to obtain prescriptions for opioid-based pain relievers—also known as “doctor shopping.”
Opioid Use in the Workplace Many employers are concerned with the impact of prescription drug use in the work- place. Although opiates can have a legiti- mate medical use in alleviating pain, work- place use may cause impairment of physical and mental functions. Injured employees who are prescribed opiates are oſten given
40 datia focus
larger and larger doses that increase their tolerance for the drugs without improving the ailment, leading to more absenteeism and increased workers’ compensation costs. Abuse of these medications can also in- crease the risk for accidents and workplace theſt, and can impact job performance and affect the safety of co-workers. Results from more than 5.5 million drug
tests reveal an increase of over 40 percent in opiate positives in a four-year time span. Additionally, post-accident drug tests found opiates up to four times more oſten than pre-employment tests, suggesting that these drugs may be playing a role in workplace accidents5
. Workers in safety-sensitive positions
(such as truck drivers, pilots, and nuclear workers) who use these drugs can expose an employer to potential liabilities because they put themselves as well as the public at risk. Even if an employee is taking a legally prescribed drug, some companies choose to re-assign that employee to a position that is less safety sensitive until he/she is stops taking the prescribed drug. Te practice of drug testing both pro-
spective and current employees is a vital tool in creating and maintaining a drug-free workforce, and is crucial in reducing non- medical prescription drug use. While prescription medications can pres-
ent a number of challenges to organizations, the following practices can help employers reduce risks: 1. Develop a drug-free workplace policy and make it visible in the workplace.
2. Screen potential employees for drug use using the testing method that most effec- tively identifies repeat drug users.
3. Request a drug panel that includes ex- panded opiates.
4.Maintain a post-accident drug screening policy.
5. Train supervisors to recognize the signs of potential abuse and implement and main- tain reasonable suspicion testing policies.
6. Document every incident in writing and enlist another manager as a witness when confronting an employee with a potential abuse problem.
7.Maintain a good Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Increased options for treatment increase the likelihood of abus- ers see king help.
Prescription Drug Abuse by Teens is Also on the Rise Nonmedical prescription drug abuse is also on the rise with young people, and is creating a new generation of addicts. One in four teens report misuse or abuse of a prescription drug at least once—that is a 33 percent increase in the last five years6
.
Teens can mistakenly believe that prescrip- tion drugs are harmless, and oſten raid their parents’ medicine cabinets to obtain the drugs. According to Te Medicine Abuse Project, about 2,500 kids begin to abuse medicine every day. A dangerous practice among teens
is what is known as a “skitles party” or “pharm party”—a gathering in which teens throw all of the pills that they poached from home into a big bowl, mix them up and take a handful without knowing exactly what they are ingesting. Parents oſten underestimate or do not
understand the risks of teens misusing prescription drugs. One in six parents sur- veyed said that they thought that using pre- scription drugs to get high was safer than using street drugs. When teens were asked about the last substance abuse conversation they had with their parents concerning pre- scription drug abuse, only 14 percent said they had even discussed it. By comparison, 81 percent said that they had talked about the risks of marijuana with their parents. “Parents fear drugs like cocaine or heroin
and want to protect their kids. But the truth is that, when misused and abused, medicines—especially stimulants and opi-
fall 2013
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