By Katie Galyean
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Prescription drug abuse is becoming a major problem in both rural and urban North Carolina. Bladen Online is taking a closer look at Prescription drug abuse in Bladen County. This is the second in a series of stories more closely examining the issue.
In an article by Physician L. Manchikanti, it states Americans only make up 4.6 percent of the world’s population, but they consume 80 percent of the world’s entire opioid supply. Bladen County has certainly not been exempted from the statistic.
David Chesnutt, Executive Director at Carolina Crossroads, a substance abuse treatment center, said, “since 2012, I would say 80 percent of the guys that come through here [are prescription drug addicts].”
“I’ve worked with over 1,000 men,” said Chesnutt, “and originally it was crack cocaine, always marijuana, alcohol, meth was in play, and there was a little bit of prescription drug abuse. Around 2011, it was like we crossed an invisible line.”
Chesnutt said that since opening Carolina Crossroads a year ago, 24 people from Bladen County have come in and about 80 percent of those had prescription drug abuse problems.
Chesnutt included that a lot of the time an addiction to a prescribed drug will start innocently. “It’s starts with just [being injured], going to the doctor, them giving you way more pills than you needed to begin with and you getting hooked on them,” he said.
Lee, a man currently going through the program at Carolina Crossroads, said, “I had my first back surgery when I was 34 and got addicted to the opioids. My first surgery, I think I got about 120 Percocet 10.”
Lee said that after that he had two more back surgeries and every time he went, his prescription would include larger doses of Percocet as well as other medication.
“I looked forward to that, to [back surgery],” Lee said, “I never did anything to intentionally harm myself [but] I couldn’t wait to see what I would get next. That’s where my addiction took me. And each time it was no problem getting what I wanted.”
Eventually, Lee was taking, chewing and snorting the pills.
After getting into a bad wreck, Lee had all of his pills taken from him. “Just like that,” said Lee. “Of course, there are doctors who will help you with [withdrawal] too. Detoxing clinics and stuff like that. Replacing one substance with another.”
“You are going to feel like you are dying,” said Roby Jones, the Administration Director for Carolina Crossroads, commenting on withdrawal from opioids. “It’s going to hurt so bad, pain like you’ve never felt before.”
Withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, muscle aches, restlessness, excessive sweating, blurry vision, abdominal cramping, high blood pressure and more.
Chesnutt said there was one man who came into the program with an addiction to opioids and did not sleep for five days. “When you take that out of your system, it’s like your clock and your body is just destroyed,” he said.
“This is psychological, mental pain,” said Chesnutt. “Pain that I’ve put myself in.”
Another big problem often seen at Carolina Crossroads is emotions. “[The men] have handled all their emotions with drugs,” said Chesnutt. “They feel mad, they do drugs. They feel glad, they do drugs… When they start to dry out, everything starts to wake up because they’ve been asleep. That’s the reason we have trouble with guys [for up to] 10 days, their body is just waking up again, it’s like coming out of a coma.”
However, Chesnutt and Jones do not recommend going to a detox facility while going through withdrawal. Jones compared withdrawal to how a child remembers to not put their hand on a hot stove. “How do they know not to do that anymore? It burns. Same thing here, if you remember that withdrawal, that pain, it’s a lot easier not to go back to it.”
Chesnutt shared about a man who came to Carolina Crossroads to go through withdrawal naturally. “He knew there was no end [at a detoxing facility], it was just another high. That is how pitiful the system we got is.”
After Lee had his pills taken after his wreck, he had to have hip replacement surgery. Lee told the doctor that he had an addiction problem and the doctor agreed to give him Tramadol instead of Percocet.
“I just left it in his hands,” said Lee. After about a month of taking Tramadol, Lee said he noticed something had changed. According to Jones, Tramadol has a chemical in it that has synthetically been made to operate as an opioid.
Eventually, the Tramadol led Lee back to the opioids. “I was like, I can control this,” said Lee. “But you can’t control it. End result, my sponsor brought me [to Carolina Crossroads]. I needed to be here a long time ago.”
Gavin, another man currently going through the program at Carolina Crossroads, has struggled with opioid addiction for about 12 years. In 2009, Gavin overdosed from mixing different medications together and taking them at once, otherwise known as pharming.
“My daddy found me the next morning, unconscious on the floor,” said Gavin. “If my dad had gone straight to work that day and didn’t come by to check on me, I wouldn’t be here.”
According to the Charlotte Observer, fatal drug overdoses have jumped almost 75 percent since 2002 in North Carolina alone.
Chesnutt said that his own cousin had overdosed last year on heroin and many of the guys he has worked with in the past have gone back to drug abuse and ended up overdosing and dying.
Gavin said about a year after he overdosed, he received a call that he needed to go pick his son up from school. “I wasn’t supposed to get him that day, I was off work that morning and took some [pills],” he said. “By the time I picked him up and got halfway home, it had begun full effect.”
Gavin wrecked and was charged with driving under the influence, child endangerment among other charges. He lost custody of his child and went to another treatment facility called Open Door Ministries. Eventually, he did earn back his rights with his child and all charges except the DUI were dropped.
Gavin was clean for a while until he had to have neck surgery last year. He, like Lee, told his doctor that he had an addiction problem. “His response to me was, ‘Well what are you going to do, chew on leather? You have to have something,” said Gavin. He also said if his mother had not been with him that day, the doctor would have written him a prescription for medication that day, before the surgery.
Even if an addict has been clean for several years, they still have to watch what medications they take. Chesnutt, himself a previous addict of marijuana and crack cocaine, said even though he never had a problem with pills, he still watches what the doctor gives him. Chesnutt struggles with chronic pain in his shoulder.
“Even if I go and he legitimately does x-rays, all he is going to do is write me a prescription for some drugs, that’s all a doctor can do,” said Chesnutt. As an alternative, Chesnutt sees a chiropractor and does therapy.
“It’s bad that the doctors have got to be an ugly word, really it is,” said Chesnutt. He said while the addicts must take responsibility for what they have done, the doctors and medical organizations also have to take responsibility.
“They are the ones who pick up the pen or type it in,” said Chesnutt. “The drug companies are making unbelievable money.”
Gavin said, “Personally, I think there should be a lot more 800 milligram ibuprofen prescriptions for minor pain.”
“There is no need for a guy with a turned ankle to leave with a bottle the size of a coffee cup full of pills,” said Chesnutt.
“That shouldn’t be the first response, but it seems to be,” said Jones.
Another problem Chesnutt brought up was the affordability of the prescription drugs. “I see a lot of guys, they are taking prescription drugs and can’t afford it. The street value of these drugs are outrageous, so when they can’t afford it anymore… they’ll turn to anything that will get them high now, [usually] heroin,” he said.
Lee said his addiction got to where he would take 30 to 40 Percocets a day.
“If he is taking that much and buying them on the street for $7 to $10 a pill, that’s a bunch of money,” said Chesnutt. “People stop taking pills and go to heroin because it is cheaper and it is pure opioid.”
“I’m seeing guys 18 to 25 years old come in here and heroin or opioids have beat them down in a couple of years like a guy who is 60 years old and drank for 40 years. These guy’s tails are whooped,” said Chesnutt.
“It will effect every area of your life,” said Jones. “You will lose your job, you will lose your family, you will lose everything that you have just because you cannot function without a chemical in your body.”
Lee and Gavin both agreed that Carolina Crossroads has been the best facility they could have gone to.
“The main thing for me, is it has given me personal time to myself to be able to re-establish that connection with God and be able to work on things in life… I have learned that I can come here and stay however long, but if I don’t let go of the things that are beating me up, it’s just a matter of time before I use again. I’m thankful that I’ve been able to realize that here,” said Gavin.
Lee said, “What this place has done for me is give me a safe place to get clean and to walk closer with God. I’ve rededicated my life and got baptized. My family came. It’s a great thing.”
Chesnutt said there are two steps in recovery. Step one is to go to a place like Carolina Crossroads and get your life straightened out. “We have to take responsibility for our sin, our addictions,” said Chesnutt.
The second step is transitional living. “We want to see guys transition to transitional living and that is the step we are walking towards right now,” said Chesnutt. “The program is 42 days so these guys need to transition and go somewhere, but there is no where for them to go.”
Chesnutt said they are hoping to be able to open a transitional living facility in the Open Doors Ministry center that they came from previously. He also said they are hoping to open a women’s program.
“Thank God we have Carolina Crossroads, but Bladen County, every county, needs a men’s and women’s program,” said Chesnutt.
Carolina Crossroads helps work with the families of these men as well. Chesnutt said that when he gets a call from a family member of an addict, he tells them that he is praying for the addict, but also that he is praying for the family as well and asks if there is anything he could do for them.
Visitation at Carolina Crossroads is on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. They host a church service on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and a lunch around 11:30 a.m.
“Me, Rob, we mingle around and talk to the families and if they want to, we go sit down and God is reconciling the families,” said Chesnutt.
If you would like to contact David Chesnutt or Roby Jones, they can be reached at the Carolina Crossroads office at 910-549-8487 or by email at secarolinacrossroads@gmail.com. You can visit Carolina Crossroad’s website at www.secarolinacrossroads.com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss.
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