No one decides to get addicted to prescription pills. It can start with a single painkiller, legally prescribed by a doctor. It can happen to anyone, regardless of affluence, education level, age or even celebrity. It can even happen in Pacific Palisades. In fact, it is a growing problem here. But there’s hope for recovery.
That was the crux of the message delivered by Dr. Damon Raskin on Tuesday, Aug. 19 at the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club. Raskin, a doctor of internal medicine who specializes in addiction medicine and has a private practice in the Palisades, addressed a room of over 30 people to talk candidly about the problem of prescription medication addiction, something experts agree is a growing epidemic.
Rich Schmitt/ Staff Photographer
“It’s time to recognize it, and it’s time to do something about it,” Raskin told attendees, many of whom had loved ones suffering from addiction or suspected they may be suffering from it themselves. “This is a drug that even people with money can die from.”
Raskin said that prescription medication addiction can start with just a single dose of a prescription painkiller or opioid, as these drugs are highly addictive. Opioids work by stimulating the brain’s pleasure centers.
Since many people at some point in their lives are prescribed painkillers or have access to a medicine cabinet, the pervasiveness of prescription drug addiction is widespread. According to an Aug. 21 article by the Associated Press, medicines containing the opioid painkiller hydrocodone have become the most widely prescribed drugs in the nation.
The condition can snowball quickly until a user develops a tolerance to the drug and may eventually need upwards of 30 pills to achieve the desired effect.
“The more you take it, the more your brain needs to get the same stimulation,” Raskin said.
Because prescription painkillers are expensive (around $30 a pill), the habit quickly becomes too expensive to sustain and the individual will often seek out heroin for its similar affects and much lower cost, according to Raskin.
“This problem is happening here in the Palisades,” Raskin said, stating he saw three patients for prescription addiction in just the last week and that 55 percent of addicts obtain prescription pills from friends or relatives who knowingly provide them. Only 4.4 percent of people with a prescription pill addiction obtain the drugs from a dealer, according to Raskin.
Attendee Julia Winter and her daughter Kelly know firsthand how devastating the effects of prescription medication addiction can be. Darin “Koncreet” McClintock, Julia’s son and Kelly’s brother, died unexpectedly at age 32 in 2011 as a result of an addiction to Oxycontin, a drug he had been prescribed to combat the pain of a broken arm from a snowboarding accident.
The mother-daughter duo began the Darin McClintock Foundation in his honor, with a goal “to educate doctors and the public on the domino effect of that first prescription” and “to support rehabilitation from addictive prescription medication.”
Winter and Raskin agree that denial is a major factor contributing to the problem and that awareness is vital.
“I want to spread the message that there’s hope for these people,” Raskin said.
For anyone who is struggling with prescription drug addiction, treatment typically involves both supervised medical detox and therapy. Talking to a doctor is the first step to recovery.
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