DRUGS ARE TO KILL PAIN, NOT PEOPLE

The same prescription drugs that can help patients suffering from
debilitating pain can also be illegal and deadly when they fall into
the wrong hands.

That lesson hit home last week when the Henderson County Sheriff’s
Office charged a Fletcher man with murder for selling a powerful
prescription painkiller to a teenager who died of an overdose.
Officers say it is part of a trend. James Michael Arnold, 23, of 273
Willis Way, was charged Sept. 8 with second-degree murder, possession
with the intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance and sale or
delivery of a controlled substance. Investigators say Arnold sold a
Fentanyl pain patch to 19-year-old Justin Kane Anderson, a student at
Blue Ridge Community College who died of an overdose on July 20.

Sheriff Rick Davis and District Attorney Jeff Hunt held a joint news
conference to urge residents to carefully guard prescription drugs
such as Fentanyl. “We want to warn people who legally own Fentanyl to
keep it under lock and key,” Hunt said. “We also want people to know
if you are selling materials and then an overdose occurs, you have the
chance of being charged with second-degree murder.” Anderson’s death
may be part of a deadly trend. Officers suspect a half dozen or more
fatal overdoses may be due to the drug, but don’t yet have the
toxicology results to know for sure.

Davis said the public needs to know that Fentanyl is much more
addictive than heroin.

Fentanyl is prescribed for severe chronic pain such as from arthritis
and cancer, Flip Fisher, a pharmacist with Whitley Drugs, told
reporter John Harbin. The drug is so powerful that a used patch still
contains enough of the drug to kill a human or animal.

“When they take off the patch, we tell the patient to flush it down
the toilet,” Fisher said.

The patches contain a powerful dose of the drug intended to be
absorbed into the skin over several days. People abusing the drug are
chewing the patches or diluting the medicine and injecting it, the
sheriff said. Investigators spotted a trend in which people who died
in unattended circumstances were found to have high levels of the drug
in their systems. While some cases involved drug abusers, others
involved patients who were lawfully prescribed the drug but taking it
improperly. As more drug dealers traffic in such drugs, it is a good
thing that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes law officers
teach in elementary schools include lessons in prescription as well as
street drugs. DARE added more emphasis on prescription drug abuse to
its classes for fifth graders four years ago. But local officers who
teach the classes say they need to include even more information on
the dangers. “Prescription drugs are now one of the top abused drugs
among teens,” said Hendersonville Police Lt. Tim Griffin, veteran DARE
instructor. “The reason it is so highly abused is because it is so
easy to get.” As responsible adults, it is up to each of us to make
sure that does not happen. We must treat Fentanyl and other
prescriptions as we would a loaded gun, keeping them under lock and
key. We don’t need any more promising young lives lost in pursuit of a
meani