Meeting – Thursday, February 22

“Tennessee’s Opioid Crisis”

Betty Kaczmarek gave us warning signs of opioid addiction to be aware of with family and friends.

Betty Kaczmarek, a retired pharmacist, gave a very sober talk about the opioid epidemic in our country and the impact it is having on people right in our own neighborhoods.  Betty started with some history of how we got where we are today – in many cases, Doctors have over prescribed addictive pain killers.  Patients have gotten hooked and will go to any means to keep their supply sources flowing.

In Tennessee’s case, roughly 300,000 residents are misusing drugs and an estimated 83,000 or so are addicted according state numbers attributed to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Tennessee has had a 26% reduction in opioid prescriptions but that has been almost mirrored by a similar increase in overdoses or near fatal drug-related incidents.  That revelation makes it clear addicts cut off from prescriptions will turn to more dangerous drugs on the street, such as heroin or fentanyl.

In the Tennessee legislature,  they realize the problem is multi-generational and that rather than pushing people off opioids, the first priority is capping prescriptions for first-time users, labeled “opioid naive,” before they can become addicted.