PAINKILLER ABUSE CASES GROWING

FREEPORT - The addiction begins innocently enough. A little brown
bottle filled with a prescription medication for some kind of pain is
dispensed by the pharmacy and stapled neatly inside a small, white bag.

Some patients take the medication until the pain is gone and that's
it. For others, that one little bottle can lead to more bottles, in
what becomes a never-ending cycle of pill-popping and doctor shopping.

Michael N. Martin, 40, of Orangeville, knows all about doctor
shopping. He did that, he said, after back pain became so intense he
felt a greater and greater need to use more and more medication.
Martin, a paramedic, fell off a roof and injured his back in 1996.
Surgeries came in 1997, 2000 and 2003. Another herniated disc after
that resulted in doctors' recommendations for even more surgery.

"I was all bent over and couldn't straighten up," Martin said. He
said his discs dried out over time and caused bulging. Doctors told
him he could eventually end up in a wheelchair.

No one is immune from painkillers, not even senior citizens, who slip
into addiction just as easily as anyone else. It is becoming
increasingly recognized that the agony of arthritis, cancer
treatments, osteoporosis, or difficult operations is turning grandma
or grandpa - and sometimes their children and grandchildren - into
unwitting drug abusers who are either confused and stumble into
addiction; or just can't resist the high and the urge to increase the
dose once it begins.

In Freeport and Stephenson County, drug addiction among seniors is a
growing concern, health officials say. "It's here, it's here," said
Mildred Zimmerman of FHN's New Vision treatment center. "A Sunday
School teacher you know and love can be addicted."

Zimmerman said she has seen the addictions and the problems that stem
from commonly prescribed medications such as Vicodin and OxyContin in
the senior community in Stephenson County. So have the doctor's
offices, which routinely turn away so-called "pill shoppers" from all
demographic groups and income strata.

OxyContin abuse made headlines when conservative radio talk show host
Rush Limbaugh admitted on his show Oct. 10, 2003, that he was an
addict and abuser of pain medication. But the problem has been around
much longer than that.

Law enforcement officials say illegal distribution of OxyContin
occurs through pharmacy diversion, "doctor shopping" by patients,
fake prescriptions, and robbery - all means to satisfy an insatiable
demand for the drug by individuals and on the street.

Martin took drugs because he wanted to continue working and providing
for his family. More surgeries increased his risk for more damage to
his back, doctors told him. The pain was intolerable, he said.

"The doctors just continually prescribed the pain medication," he
said. In the beginning that was all right. "(Then) I became horribly
addicted to Vicodin and OxyContin."

He built a tolerance, he said, and ended up "doctor shopping,"
finally getting to a point where he had an unbelievable supply of
drugs. And that's how it goes, experts say. It takes more pills to be
normal, to accomplish what a few used to do.

"You need more and more and more, and you end up going to multiple
doctors, not telling each doctor where you've been and what you've
been doing," he said.

But everything all came tumbling down when Martin ended up in a
hospital for 11 days in a coma, he said.

Even before that, his family noticed the signs of abuse, he said,
because his personality began changing. Sleep was his greatest
desire. Away from home he put on an act, but his family knew better,
as is often the case. He learned through family after six months of
recovery how he was acting - chronically tired, irritable, and "just
not being there ... in a fog a lot of the time."

He went through drug-addiction treatment - a rapid detoxification -
and during that time realized what he had done. It took about six
months to rid himself of the addiction, he said.

"I let my family down," he said.

Now clean, he works as a paramedic and speaks out to help others
about pain-killer abuse. Doing so shows people that recovery is
possible, Martin said.

The problem now, he says, is with the elderly or people in their 40s
or 50s. Paramedics, like Martin, ask people what medications they're
taking when they go on calls, he said. He's learned that the elderly
are either over-or undermedicated, he said, and not taking medicine properly.

"They're relying on doctors to fix them," he says. "But someone - a
family member or friend - needs to help them understand what's wrong
with them and why they're taking the medication they are taking."

At Rosecrance Treatment Centers in Rockford, Al Baris, an emergency
room physician and an addictionologist at both Rosecrance and
Rochelle Community Hospital, said recent data suggests that
recreational use of prescription painkillers is surging.

"There's some recent data released in a federal SAMHSA (Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) report on
pharmaceutical prescription drug abuse - that in 2004, 2.4 million
people 12 years and older were estimated to be first-time users of
prescription opioids for nonmedical use," Baris said.

That's more than twice as many people as used cocaine for the first
time (1 million) and more than first-time marijuana users (2.1
million) during the same period, he said.

He doesn't blame the medical community.

"You have lots and lots of people with bad pain that has been
untreated for lots of years," he said, adding that it's difficult to
screen for abuse in situations of chronic pain.

Teens also are abusing prescription painkillers and whatever they can
get their hands on - something New Vision's Zimmerman said is an
extremely dangerous activity.

At "pharm parties," teens bring pills they've grabbed from others and
put them in a big bowl so everyone can take whatever looks appealing,
despite the consequences. Locally, Freeport District 145
Superintendent Peter Flynn said he has not had any information that
pharm parties have caught on here. An unannounced drug sweep by
Freeport police Nov. 7 showed the Freeport schools are predominantly
clean of drugs, Flynn said.

But Baris said parents should keep an eye on the pills in their bottles.

"Count them, know what they look like," he says. "Kids will take them
and experiment with them. If the kids like the psychological effect
of the drug they can fall in love with it relatively quickly and
they'll want to pursue getting more."

State Line Area Narcotics Teams Sgt. Michael Lehmann said he also has
heard of kids converting other people's prescriptions for OxyContin.

"People who have legitimate prescriptions sometimes sell their pills
or they steal them from mom and dad," Lehmann said.

About the drugs

What are these drugs physicians and counselors say are the most
popular addictive pain-relieving drugs?

Vicodin and its related medications, loricet, loritab percodan, and
oxycontin are opioid-based pain medications. Vicodin is a derivative
of opium, which also used to manufacture heroin. Vicodin successfully
diminishes pain, but it is highly addictive and withdrawal symptoms
of Vicodin addiction are very similar to the pain it was relieving.

OxyContin, approved by the FDA in 1995, an opium derivative, which is
the same active ingredient in Percodan and Percocet. OxyContin is
intended for use by terminal cancer patients and chronic pain
sufferers. It has been linked to at least 120 overdose deaths
nationwide. OxyContin (oxycodone hydrochloride controlled-release)
tablets are an opioid analgesic supplied in 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg, and
80 mg tablet strengths for oral administration.

Source: Narcanon