Pain pill abuse is a big factor behind the heroin epidemic in Reno and Sparks. The deadly illegal drug has been rapidly gaining popularity.
Doctor Denis Patterson has been prescribing drugs for 10 years now. And even though he hasn't been at it that long, he knows pill abuse, has taken a turn for the worse. As he told us, "I mean we just hear some of the wackiest stories that you could ever imagine. Patients will falsify stories in order to get more pills, and I need to do my due diligence to verify their stories."
And when those stories are not verified, and when the patient doesn't get the pills they want...they use an increasingly popular alternative. One recent case here has become all too typical. As Patterson told us, "I declined to prescribe to them. A week or two later they ended up using heroin, and as a result infected their hip, and had to have it replaced. And what we're finding out is that as the government has put more restrictions on pain medications and regulation, that doctors are learning to say no to patients...which is leading to patients to turn to the street."
Across town, Curt Fonken is a drug counselor at The Life Change Center in Sparks. The center he works in treats 500 addicts, ranging in age from 17 to 81. There's the 28-year old man who switched to heroin after his doctor reduced his prescription: "Somebody offered him heroin. And eventually, it was all heroin. And moving from pills to heroin is a very easy thing to do."
And when crackdowns or arrests cut the supply of pills, addicts make the switch. He says for young people, the fear of heroin is gone. As he put it, "We see kids…hear about kids in high school that are actively using heroin."
Curt says you will often find an Oxycontin addiction before the heroin, which is seen as a cheap alternative. Today, dealers are hooking a new generation of smack addicts. He told us, "I asked a couple of clients this morning, 'how available is it?' And they say you can get it anywhere."
Easier access…and cheaper than pills, means heroin seizures and overdose deaths are way up. Curt says they “unfortunately lose some. Some will overdose...and we won't see them again." They are stories they have heard time and time again here. Since prescription pill abuse in Nevada has skyrocketed, those hooked on pills find the can get heroin, with the same high...at a much cheaper cost. Curt says, "You know, its $30 dollars for the pain pill versus $10 for a balloon of heroin."
As for that 28-year old man Curt was helping? "He stayed in treatment, and he's still here today. He's doing very well. He's turned his life around, he's working." It's one success story...in a field with too few happy endings. As Curt told us, "I'd like to be able to work myself out of a job…but I don't see that as happening."
