Between the Lines: Prescription drug abuse plagues southwest Virginia
A recent article published in The Washington Post by Nick Miroff describes the seriousness of prescription drug abuse in rural southwest Virginia.
Though the article focuses mainly on miners, some of the statistics are astounding. For instance, individual deaths due to overdoses associated with prescription painkillers have increased by 270 percent in the past decade, and in one county the rate of such fatal overdoses is 13 times that of counties in northern Virginia.
As the numbers show, this is not a statewide problem but a regional problem. Unfortunately, the problem existed long before Mr. Miroff wrote his article, and the problem has manifested itself in ways that no drug enforcement agency could ever see coming.
As a native of southwest Virginia, it pains me to see hardworking coal miners depicted as hostages to their addictions. The coal industry is booming in the Appalachia area and these workers are fueling record profits for regional coal companies (while taking in good wages themselves in most cases). Yet the many dangers and long hours underground have led many miners to turn to drug usage.
The problem has also infiltrated the school system and caused many students to leave high school with serious drug addictions. Many of these youths are unable to attend higher levels of education and often resort to stealing (sadly, from relatives more often than not) in order to feed their addictions.
A worker is often prescribed painkillers by a doctor if he or she is injured on the job (as is common in mining). Once the worker is ready to return to work, the nature of the drugs he or she is prescribed often makes it hard to stop using them. So the worker either turns to another doctor to get a prescription, or searches for painkillers on a widely expanding black market which provides the same drugs at elevated prices.
The response by employers has been to routinely drug test workers. Unfortunately, by taking jobs from those who can’t pass drug tests, the problem does not go away but simply shifts to other areas. The response by the health care community has been to rely increasingly on methadone, a substitute drug meant to help addicts get off prescription painkillers.
My own county has been involved in a debate over the placement of methadone clinics which many citizens believe to taint their communities. These clinics draw out the worst of the worst in terms of addicts, and the rates of success found through such forms of treatment are disappointing, to say the least.
Methadone itself has led to many fatal overdoses and users often simply trade one addiction for another involving methadone. Though the usage of methadone as a treatment has increased significantly in recent years, so has the sale of painkillers. Hence the rise in addictions and the rates of death associated with them.
It is clear that the problem of prescription drug addiction is widespread in this area and is showing no signs of improvement. But who is to blame and more importantly what is to be done?
Law enforcement agencies have been trying to crack down on the black market for painkillers, but they are fighting a losing battle. The drugs don’t have to be imported from other countries (although they often are), but are instead flooding the region due to over prescription by legitimate doctors and illegal prescriptions by corrupt doctors—both of whom are just as involved with the problem as are the addicts themselves.
In the bigger picture lie the prescription drug companies. My own town of Abingdon recently saw the federal prosecution of two company executives responsible for marketing OxyContin as being “less addictive” than other painkillers, a statement proven to be a blatant lie. These two executives were found guilty and forced to pay hefty fines—but will never see the inside of a jail cell.
This is the crux of the problem. Countless individuals have become prisoners to these drugs. Their jobs suffer, families are torn apart and children grow up in homes plagued by these addictions—all within a community that is becoming frighteningly indifferent. And the companies who market these drugs and make small fortunes on their prevalence in our pill-popping society—who do they have to face at the end of the day?
State and federal government must put more time and resources into discovering treatments that provide a light at the end of the tunnel. Likewise, drug companies must be forced to play a more direct role in treatment programs and if necessary the cost of such programs should come out of their bottom line. After all, it is not they who stand to lose—it is those who have become victim to the drug culture which they helped create.
Patrick Callahan is a senior political science major.
