The United States is facing a growing public health problem when it comes to opioid abuse. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 33,091 people died from overdosing on opioids in 2015.
What are Opioids?
According to the American Society of Medicine, “Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illicit drug heroin, as well as the illicit prescription pain relievers [such as] oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and others.”
Opioids are drugs that interact with receptors on nerve cells in the brain and nervous system. During this interaction, a sense of euphoria is released to help ease the patient’s pain. However, it should be noted that there are other methods doctors can use to treat patients who are experiencing pain.
weighed in on the opioid epidemic in South Florida and what can be done to fix it. Permission from S. Kjelson
Scott Kjelson, the director of student transitions and assistant professor at NSU’S College of Pharmacy, said, “Any time we are addicted to something or anytime our body is consuming something, we many times make new receptors… so, we need to start looking at how we treat pain differently as well.”
Defining Opioid Addiction
Kjelson believes that there is no specific group impacted by the epidemic. He also believes that society needs to change their perspective on those going through addiction.
“To be honest, there’s not really a target. I mean it’s more so that anyone could be effected by an epidemic. We have to understand that when people think of addicts, that’s not just a person that is walking around like a zombie.” -Scott Kjelson
“To be honest, there’s not really a target. I mean it’s more so that anyone could be effected by an epidemic. We have to understand that when people think of addicts, that’s not just a person that is walking around like a zombie,” said Kjelson.
One of the factors that makes the opioid epidemic difficult to address is the population of patients who correctly use opioids daily, such as the elderly or cancer patients.
“In a sense that if we’re not treating pain, which these opioids are being used for correctly, then we’re going to be standing on an imbalanced platform. The fact is there are patients that need it. Now, are these patients walking around like zombies and stealing things from nursing stations? No. Because they are being treated correctly,” said Kjelson.
Identifying a patient abusing opioids can prove difficult.
“Here is the problem, you are making pharmacists be police officers. Literally, questioning and profiling people. We’re not trained for that.” -Scott Kjelson
“Here is the problem, you are making pharmacists be police officers. Literally, questioning and profiling people. We’re not trained for that. That is one of the things that I think is the huge issue. Now we are getting trained to see those things and how to see those things. It’s really scaring doctors to prescribe. It’s making patients scared as well that they are not going to get their medications and [won’t be treated] for pain,” said Kjelson.
What’s Being Done in South Florida
On May 3, Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. According to the Miami Herald, this decision allows Florida to gain access to $54 million dollars from the U.S. Department and Human Services. This money would be used for treatment, prevention and recovery services.
“I would like to see Florida move a lot quicker and that’s what we’re working on now. I feel like we have an amazing team here in Florida throughout the legislative process and you know we are working on these major campaigns to really show we, as pharmacists, can change public health care outcomes,” said Kjelson.
NSU’s Response to The Opioid Epidemic
NSU is also doing its part in bringing awareness to the opioid epidemic. Just recently, Kjelson was the moderator for the “United Stance” symposium hosted by NSU. Kjelson wanted to use the symposium as a way to educate the community about the epidemic.
“Taking the powerful information that these experts have, giving it to the community in a manner that they receive it very fast, to the point, and call to action. Because if we’re truly going to get people involved and truly solve these public health issues, we need the public to be involved and aware,” said Kjelson.
Kjelson is currently in the process of drafting a bill to help educate patients who are taking prescription pain killers.
“I have put in now a bill forward with one of our state representatives and it’s to put labels on top of the big red labels on prescription bottles that there is a risk of opioid overdose and or addiction,” he said.
“Everyone is being affected by this one way or another. Whether it be a friend, a family member, or someone that is just abusing this as a recreational drug.”
-Scott Kjelson
The bill’s legislative session is slated for January, where the bill is currently waiting for the approval of the sponsorship.
“Everyone is being affected by this one way or another. Whether it be a friend, a family member, or someone that is just abusing this as a recreational drug,” said Kjelson. “We can’t allow this product or these products to take over our lives. Everyone should be vocal in some manner — whatever that manner is just [do something to help those in need].”
