BROOKINGS – Local health care providers, law enforcement officials, chemical dependency professionals and other community members gathered Thursday for a wide-ranging discussion on the opioid epidemic and how it’s affecting the Brookings area.
Two Brookings Community Opioid Guardianship Forums, hosted by Brookings Health System, were held at noon and 7 p.m. Thursday at the Brookings City & County Government Center.
The panel focused on three areas: upstream prevention and appropriate prescribing; addiction, treatment, and relapse prevention; and diversion prevention/medication disposal.
And all of the speakers acknowledged that opioid addiction is a problem in Brookings.
Dr. Richard Hieb of Avera Medical Group Brookings said health care providers are monitoring how they’re prescribing medicine much more closely.
Initial prescriptions for opioids are now for one week, with re-evaluation after that.
“In the past, we’ve had people coming back after a major surgery with a month’s worth of medication. Family practice and internal medicine doctors have been blamed for most of this because we do the most prescribing, we see the most people.”
Recent research has shown that someone can become addicted to opioids in a about a week, Hieb said.
“We’re monitoring much more closely what we’re doing now.”
Brookings County State’s Attorney Teree Nesvold said the stigma of drug addiction has to be removed so people can get treatment for the disease.
She’s an advocate for Brookings County Drug Court, a longtime supervised probation and a safe option for addicts who need help.
She said that the illegal sale of opioids is a real issue on the South Dakota State University campus.
Robin Erz of East Central Behavioral Health said the standing operating procedure for someone with addiction used to be to send them away for a 30-day stay at a treatment center. Now, the most effective treatment has longevity and addresses their problems in the community where they live.
“We’re seeing a significant increase in success in sobriety with that. There are relapses; it happens.”
She said she’s seeing a frightening influx of young people who are addicts.
“I can’t recall in all my years seeing so many young people come in with such horrific addictions at such an early age. … We’re seeing 12-, 13-, 14-year-olds come in.”
She said about 30 percent get drugs with their own prescription, 10-15 percent from friends, and another 30 percent get them off the street. Young people are also accessing their grandparents’ medicine cabinet, who might not notice missing pills.
“We’ve also seen in the community of late … an increase in violence. I can’t remember a time in the community where we’ve had so much violent assaults. I would venture to say nine times out of 10 it’s around accessing either money or the drugs themselves,” Erz said.
Erz said community entities and resources need to be weaved together to form a safety net, “so anyone in the community knows they can go and reach a person, and we’re going to work together to have that net below them and work toward their health and safety, as well as the community’s.”
Brookings County Detention Center Administrator Bart Sweebe said the sheriff’s office is one place unwanted or unneeded medication can be disposed of, and the sheriff’s office plans to be part of the next Drug Take-Back Day on Oct. 27.
“This reduces crime rates. Illegal drugs is not our only problem with people we have incarcerated. We have an opioid problem. … We have to get rid of the access they have to opioids.”
Scott Hawks with the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation said more young people are getting drugs online. He said the dark web and its anonymity allows people to purchase anything they want and it shows up at their doorstep.
“As a community, that is something to look for, packages showing up. We work very closely with the Postal Service to try and focus some of our efforts on the dark web, drugs being sent. A lot of it comes from overseas, and there are steps to try and prevent some of that from getting into our community.”
Veterinarian Dr. Jill Ayres said pet owners will use their pets to get access to opioids.
She cited a recent study that reports 13 percent of veterinarians have been aware of pet owners who have intentionally hurt animals to get narcotics. It’s a situation Ayres has seen.
Veterinarians have to be careful to keep track of what they’ve prescribed, and if a pet owner claims to have lost or misplaced drugs on more than one occasion, authorities may be contacted. Some owners will also request specific drugs, which is a red flag.
Dr. Konrad Hauffe said dentists are also targeted by people seeking pain medications.
Hy-Vee pharmacist Lori Couser said people come in with written prescriptions that have been altered. Electronic prescribing can prevent that, and electronic records that track prescriptions are a good tool.
Pharmacists can reject prescriptions that look like they’ve been altered, but customers can legally ask for then back. Then a pharmacist will alert all area pharmacies within a certain radius and call the patient’s provider.
Erz said the community cannot deny that opioid addiction is a problem here.
“We can’t plead ignorance any more. I think you’ve seen through a multitude of stories the impact this is having on our community. … If we don’t get in front of it, we’re going to get run over.”
She noted that the community and its resources don’t have the capacity they need.
“We can no longer push this under the rug, as much as we’d like to.”
Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister.com.
Register photo: Panelists at the Brookings Community Opioid Guardianship Forum listen as Dr. Richard Hieb, left, speaks about opioid prescriptions.
