Coming up with solutions to prescription drug abuse in Nevada was front and center in Carson City today. Outside the legislative building, we asked Patty Chang of Carson City if she considers the prescription drug situation a crisis here. "Absolutely I do. I think it’s too easy to get, I think it’s too easy for people to dismiss it. Patty has a story to tell the governor: "I’m going to speak in honor of the families that have had to go through the same situations that I had to, and hopefully to help at least 1 person."
Patty has had a hard, fast and brutal education about prescription pill abuse in Nevada. She had no idea the scope of the problem when she met her future husband…"He came to my house to fix the plumbing. And he was a charming, charming man." He was prescribed pills, kicking off the tragic cycle that killed him within 2 years: "He began to self-medicate with prescription medications that were given to him by many, many doctors."
Patty has a problem with how the state polices prescription drugs. According to her, there was no policing at all: "He got them everywhere he could, he had no problem with it. Prescription pads, prescriptions, he bought them at meetings...even AA meetings."
Inside, panel members like Mike Willden, the governor’s Chief of Staff, have no direct experience… but they see what many of us do. As he told us, "You know, a couple of times a year you'll see people bring their drugs in and give them back for law enforcement to take back. Well that makes you think, why do we have to run a take-back program? That says to me we're over-prescribing. That tells me they're too readily available."
And when the session started, Governor Sandoval began with how much of a crisis this is. As he put it, "At least 1 person in Nevada dies every day from an opiate overdose." And he passed on the pain he hears about from too-easily accessed prescription medication: "Now I think many people are in denial that there's a problem. And in the meantime, our friends and family...dying."
He was followed by testimony that illustrated just that. One mother faced the panel and began, "When my son was 15, he tore his ACL tendon and was prescribed Oxycontin by his primary care." It was a story that ended with heroin addiction. Another view came from Reno family Dr. Vance Alm, who spoke of the difficulty in detecting who’s and addict, and who's not: "I can't tell them by just looking at them. I can't tell by any means what their pain level is."
The battle against the crisis in Nevada will be staged on multiple fronts. The governor's assigned panel…a judge, an FBI agent, doctors, state officials, an assemblyman…will eventually come up with a plan in meetings like this. In August there's a 2-day summit, to finalize what this task force comes up with.
