DENVER – Blair Hubbard knows all too well the damage overprescribing prescription drugs can have on individuals, families and society.
The Denver-area recovering heroin addict’s struggle began with prescription pain medication. She took more than she was supposed to and liked the pleasure she gained from it too much. That’s when she found out that heroin was cheaper and stronger than the pain pills she was taking.
“I hope that through my experience I can help other addicts, because it’s hard. It’s a real struggle,” Hubbard said Thursday in Denver at an event with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell and Gov. John Hickenlooper. “Society, in general, they don’t understand that addiction as well as they could understand it.”
Burwell and Hickenlooper held a roundtable discussion at Denver Health, where they later addressed the media about the need to counter the over-use of prescription drugs in Colorado and across the nation.
“We’re facing this epidemic of heroin abuse that comes out of prescription drugs,” Hickenlooper said. “We recognize we don’t have sufficient capacity.”
Much of the burden rests with the federal government to assist states with reducing the use and prescription of addicting medication. Burwell said her department is focusing on three areas: reducing prescriptions; ensuring that medicated, assisted treatment exists to help those looking to recover; and making sure there is access to naloxone, a drug that prevents death in cases of overdose.
Colorado still has a long way to go in terms of prevention. Improvements are still being made to the way the state monitors and tracks prescriptions, including agreements across state lines. But Colorado and the nation have made progress in the last few years by developing partnerships and planning.
A strategy in Colorado to reduce prescription-drug abuse aims at preventing 92,000 Coloradans from misusing or abusing opioids by 2016, which would result in a 40 percent reduction. Colorado has reduced prescription-drug abuse by at least 16 percent, going from the second-worst state in the nation to a ranking of 12th for self-reported non-medical use.
Hubbard is four years into her recovery. Now she’s earning a master’s degree in counseling.
“What I wish people understood better is that it’s so much more than that. I’m not trading heroin for methadone,” Hubbard said. “I’m trading the entire lifestyle.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com
