The recently declared Opioid Crisis in the United States has had an effect on people around the United States. People in the Rolla community have also been affected.

According to a recent story in the New York Times by Josh Katz, Opium is a narcotic derived from a kind of poppy. Opioids are drugs that are developed from this substance. Morphine and heroin are both opioids. More modern opioids include painkillers such as Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin. Opioids regulate pain receptors and the reward center of the body. This is part of the reason they are addictive.

Erik Williams, a certified registered nurse anesthetist explains how one may first become addicted to these pain killers.

“Usually it starts off when they go and have surgery. Their surgeon prescribes them pain medications for the pain afterwards but then for some reason or another they remain taking the pain pills for one reason or another and low and behold, they’re taking them. There’s another way they can end up taking them. If they’re people that have chronic pain conditions, bad backs, injuries related that have never healed up they can be prescribed opioids from their family practice doctor, from their physician, and they will continue taking them because the pain is always there it seems like.”

“One of the ways we deal with that, for example, any time someone has meds they’re not going to be using we ask them to bring them into the police department. We have a drop off box in the lobby of the police department. We take bags and bags of meds every day,” Rapier said.

Williams acknowledges that the crisis is an issue in the United States and explains how he and other medical professionals experience it.

“[The Opioid Crisis] is a big problem in this country. There are many individuals that come in for surgery and they take so many painkillers every day and they’ve been taking them for so long that when we give them our anesthetics. The painkillers in anesthesia they do not respond to them. It’s like giving them water. It doesn’t make a difference,” Williams said.

The awareness given to the Opioid Crisis is increasing however, resulting in preventative measures. Williams discusses how his department has been contributing.

“In terms of anesthesia, we have tried some new strategies to help these patients to receive less opioids because we feel that sometimes it can start from having a simple surgical procedure and so by giving them less of it, hopefully they won’t have to keep taking it,” Williams said. “We don’t sensitize them to taking it, so in the end they won’t have to take as much. They won’t need as much,” Williams said.

The next question is, why has the opioid crisis occurred? The answer is partially due to tradition, as explained by Williams.

“Traditionally, you’re a doctor, they’re in pain, you can’t take ibuprofen for some reason, you have an ulcer in your stomach or you have some kind of odd allergic effect from it. Well, they’re going to give you that medication. Not so much anymore, because they’re more aware, more hyper senstive of the opioid crisis going on but that’s traditionally what happened. It’s always been the preferred method. It’s always been a part of treatment plans by physicians and it’s probably always gonna be used. But we have to learn to use them in a better strategic fashion. In a way that’s more helpful to the patient, a more responsible way,” Williams said.

While the opioid crisis is a serious problem in the US and a better system is being developed, opioid is also important in the treatment of chronic pain and cancer patients. According to him, there are other ways to treat pain however.

“There are many other options to opioids. Opioids affect the pain receptors in the body but there are other medications that are non-addictive that can take away the pain.”

However, the Opioid crisis is not just affecting people going in for surgeries or pain.

“I don’t think you can control people who experiment with drugs. I think people who want to do it are going to go out and do it. However, if there’s less prescriptions laying around the house. Let’s say you’re giving twenty pills for a surgery, twenty opioid medication, pain killing medications for a medical procedure and have some left over. It’s better than having those left around for someone to grab, or steal, or experiment with and I think that would remove some of the risk but I think there’s a lot of problems with that,” Williams said.

Officer Wayne Rapier with the Rolla Police Department explains how he has observed this in the Rolla community.

“What you see with students is more recreational use. Where the kids bring it from home because it’s cool. Or they’re buying it from their friends,” Rapier said.

What leads to this issue is the improper disposal of these opioids. A student may find some at home or at a friends house and not consider possible consequences.

“The pill that was prescribed to your friend is not necessarily good for you. Because you really don’t know what effect it will have on you,” Rapier said.

“Part of the problem is when you go to the doctor and you have an injury and the doctor gives you a script for 50 percocet and you need them at the time and of course you have some people that because of the nature of that injury, but then you become addicted to it,” Rapier said.

The Rolla Police Department offers the option to bring leftover, unnecessary medication to the Police Department for proper disposal. This is to avoid tempting other people to take medication not prescribed to them. This Crisis is a public issue, but like many public issues, a lot of people will register that it is a problem but not do anything about it. An important step toward the resolution or betterment of the situation is awareness.

“When you learn about your, body you should learn about all the common medications that you would take for a common cold. You should also learn about the common medications you would take with a surgery and that can be done in the school and it also can be done at the doctor’s office when you go in for a treatment, a procedure or for something, they need to sit down with you and make sure that you understand the effects; long term, short term and all the effects. And that you can be addicted to these medications. The physicians should understand that if they prescribe that to you, they should be liable for it,” Williams said.