Matthew Absher and Brandon Moxley are two young men who got hooked on prescription drugs and then died from accidental overdoses. Sadly, stories like theirs are starting to become more and more common in the area.

“The number of overdoses is going up dramatically,” Surry County Emergency Services Director John Shelton said earlier this year when new statistics came in.

In 2008, the number of overdose deaths in Surry County was 10. In 2009, it jumped to 30 deaths.

But those are just the number of people that die from overdoses in the county. Medics are able to save most of the overdose patients by using a medication that can reverse the affects of narcotics or by resuscitating patients, but for some it’s too late.

“We run at least 365 overdose calls a year or more,” Shelton estimated.

“It’s a terrible problem in this county. It’s huge,” Shelton continued, having just returned from the scene of yet another drug death.

The majority of the overdose deaths are accidental, and most of them are not caused by illegal narcotics.

“We have more overdose deaths by prescription drugs by far,” said Surry County Sheriff Graham Atkinson.

Atkinson and Shelton explained that most prescription drug overdoses occur when people have been off of the medications for a little while then try to start back at the same high level they ended with. Many people don’t realize that people gradually build up a tolerance to the drugs and can take large amounts only after a period of time. If they stop using them for even a short period, their bodies have to build tolerance up again before they can take large amounts, otherwise their bodies can’t handle it.

“Your tolerance level drops really quickly,” Atkinson said.

Surry is not the only county that has a high number of overdoses and instances of medication misuse and abuse. Wilkes County has one of the highest per-capita death rates from prescription drug overdoses in the nation. In Alleghany County, Capt. Carlton Edwards said, “It is a problem here as well. It seems to come in streaks with us.”

A problem for all ages

Although the number of overdose incidents are high in the county, those statistics don’t even begin to scratch the surface of how many people actually abuse prescription drugs locally. Sheriff Atkinson said prescription drug abuse is probably the biggest drug issue in the county. Other law enforcement officials agree.

Chief Darryl Bottoms with the Pilot Mountain Police Department said, “It’s a big problem right now. I think it’s really just kind of jumped in the last couple of years.”

Angela Allen runs the House of Recovery Faith and Hope in Mount Airy for women and children struggling to overcome addiction. She said 95 percent of the women and children in her program suffer from prescription drug addiction, and many of them have had friends who died of overdoses.

Physicians and pharmacists also recognize the problem. Dr. Will Ballard with Jonesville Family Medical Center said, “We certainly see it and are aware of it ... I think it’s a growing problem.”

And it’s not just physicians in family and emergency care practices that see the problem. Dentists also see the abuse and have people try to use them to fulfill their addiction needs. Dr. Jim Harrell Jr., Surry County Commissioner and local dentist, said, “We deal with this on a daily basis.”

Addiction to medications is not something that just adults suffer from. Officials are seeing it with people of all ages. For many youth, getting prescription drugs is as simple as opening their parents’ medicine cabinet. Allen has seen 13-year-olds hooked on prescription drugs, and her 14-year-old daughter sees some of her peers in school struggle with the problem.

Shelton said, “In the school system it’s sort of a trendy thing. Youth feel like if they don’t use they don’t fit in.”

Easy to obtain

Chief Dale Watson with the Mount Airy Police Department said that prescription drug abuse is partly such a big problem because the drugs are more easily obtained than illegal narcotics. He said, “At one point they’re obtained legitimately.”

“A lot of people that are addicted to prescription drugs have them legally,” Atkinson admitted.

Atkinson said that once people become addicted to prescription drugs but doctors stop prescribing them, there are multiple illegal avenues they can use to get the medications. They could do this by faking pain to other doctors, forging prescriptions, “doctor shopping” or hopping from doctor to doctor, buying from people selling their medications to make money, or traveling to states or countries where there are fewer regulations.

Prescription drugs can even be easily obtained in some schools. Shelton talked to one high school student who he said told him, “I could get access (to prescription drugs) at least five to six times a day.”

Ed Lewis, student resource officer at East Surry High School, said that unfortunately, prescription drugs are the most accessible substances for teens, yet most of their parents aren’t aware that their kids are using them.

Addictive regardless of

purpose of use

People can get addicted to prescription drugs regardless of what they’re using them for. Although some people start off using prescription drugs for recreational use, or just to get a high, many become addicted to medicine they initially used for a legitimate purpose.

Allen relayed the story of one young woman in her program who was in a severe car accident and was prescribed medication for six months to a year to control the pain. The woman quit using the cocaine and marijuana that she had previously been abusing, and instead became hooked on the medication. She went from taking four to eight pills at a time to crushing it and snorting it to boiling it down and injecting it.

But many who become addicted don’t have a history of prior substance abuse. Frankie Andrews from Pilot Mountain has gone through the pain of losing two nephews, Matthew Absher and Brandon Moxley, to prescription drug abuse, but he realizes that he is not above becoming addicted himself. Andrews went to the doctor a few weeks ago for a sickness he had contracted and the doctor gave him a strong prescription cough medicine that helped him sleep like a baby. He then poured the medicine out because he was scared by how good the medicine made him feel.

“Prescription drugs is a very easy thing to become addicted to. You talk yourself into it ... You can only do that so many times before it becomes a problem,” Andrews warned.

Potent when abused

Since prescription drugs can be legally obtained, many people don’t realize how strong the medications are.

Jamie Edwards, an evaluator for Project Connect the Dots, said, “People think it’s okay because a doctor gives it to them.”

Shelton said most people don’t realize that they’re just as dangerous as illegal drugs when abused.

Atkinson said, “People need to understand that a drug is ‘any substance other than food that affects the way your mind and body works.’” So whether the substance is legal or illegal, it still has the potential to be deadly if misused. Medications are made to do something very specific to your body and must be used as directed, Atkinson pointed out.

When the medicines are altered or misused, they can be extremely potent. The sheriff said prescription abuse first started becoming a big problem in the area about a decade ago when people realized this. Many medications have a time release value, but people found that if you crush the pill, it releases all of the potency at one time. The most abused medications are pain pills, and when crushed, these medications can be as powerful as illegal narcotics such as heroin. Officers have even found people sitting up dead in a chair after smoking Fentanyl patches to get really intense highs.

“It’s not just illegal drugs that are a problem,” said Atkinson.

Between the ease of access, the misconceptions about prescriptions and their potency, and the fact that many are obtained legally, officials note that this is a more complicated and prevalent problem than most people realize.

Shelton said, “It’s going to take a lot of people to turn this thing around.”

Contact Meghann Evans at mevans@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.