Aired August 30, 2023
Listen on the KRDO Website
Dr. Jeremy Dubin. Front Range Clinic’s Chief Medical Officer talks about opioid use in Colorado and how you can help.
KRDO: Well, the final week in August marked is Overdose Awareness Week. A new study shows that 66% surveyed said that they or someone in their family has been addicted to some form of either alcohol, painkillers or illicit drugs. That equates to about two thirds of individual survey if my math holds up. Of course, substance misuse getting a lot of attention now thanks to shows like Netflix and or shows on Netflix like painkillers. We’re joined on the news line by Doctor Jeremy Doman with the Front Range Clinic. He is the chief medical officer. And Doctor Doman, thanks so much for joining us here on radio’s Morning News. Let’s talk about just how much of a crisis opioid use has become.,
Dr. Jeremy Dubin: thanks. Thanks for having me this morning. And thanks for raising awareness with this important topic. You know, sadly, opioid use disorder and the opioid epidemic is not a myth. It’s the number one cause of death under 50 years old right now in America is fatal overdose. And as you were saying, two thirds of those were actually secondary to opioids.
And this comes in lots of different flavors from prescription opioids to heroin to fentanyl and, you know, or substance use disorder impacts the lives of millions of Americans, over 100,000 people we lost last year actually from overdose. And that’s an increase of almost 30% from prior years. And this is most probably secondary to Covid, which was a the pandemic brought desolation and isolation to a population that was already pretty isolated in Colorado.
KRDO: How bad of a problem are we seeing?
Dr. Jeremy Dubin: You know, sadly, Colorado is right there with the national average. So we were hoping we were going to get away with it as far as the progress we’ve made. But what we’ve seen is that especially in our rural and frontier areas and some of our harder hit demographics, such as our bipoc LGBTQ communities, adolescent and senior communities, those numbers have stayed pretty similar to National, which has shown a 30% increase in relapse, overdose and mortality in the last few years.
KRDO: When we’re talking about issues related to opioids, I know a lot of people just hear, you know, the push to have, you know, either schools or police officers, first responders equipped with Narcan or something to treat it. But what other kind of treatments are there to actually deal with the core addiction?,
Dr. Jeremy Dubin: Great question. And you know, if you see a lot a lot of our funding and resources is going downstream to suicide prevention to to using Narcan to actually dealing with the overdose when some of what we should be doing at the beginning is actually dealing with prevention as well. So I’ll talk about treatment really quickly here in a sec. But prevention and challenging the stigma against addiction is so important. People feel like this is a moral failing when it absolutely is not.
This is a biochemical, chronic brain condition that we now understand has roots in genetics and biochemical vulnerability. So the idea that people can look at should look at this and think about the same way they would get their cholesterol checked or diabetes treated the same way that they do that they should think about approaching this with seeking help for addiction. There are treatments out there that work. The idea of of looking at the biochemical component of this and getting a medicine on board is often helps a lot of folks.
A lot of folks will can get better with a lot of different types of recovery. However, identifying that medicines can come on board such as buprenorphine or Suboxone or Naltrexone or Vivitrol, these medicines can help with cravings. They can help level the playing field for folks so that they can engage in treatment, engage in the psychological, social, emotional, even treating the co-occurring mental health issue that is fueling their conditions so their treatments are out there. Treatments work. These medications are often foundations and level the playing field for many people so that they can engage in treatment.,
KRDO: Are there any concerns with some of those treatments for just replacing, you know, one pill with another and not really looking at some of those, you know, deep down triggers?,
Dr. Jeremy Dubin: That question comes up often and these medicines have been proven to actually to lower the risks of overdose and relapse is conversion to hepatitis and HIV. And we’ve known this since using methadone in the 50s and 60s. I think unfortunately, the consequence of untreated addiction isn’t always pretty. So aside from heart attack and stroke and overdose, you also see crime. You also see families falling apart. You see lying and things like that. I’ve never met someone that wants to be addicted and doing this for over 20 years. And these medications that we use are tools. There are no right or wrong ways. There are no right or wrong medicines. There are right or wrong ways to use these medicines. And when these medicines are used in conjunction with a comprehensive treatment plan for folks, people get better. The statistics show that National Institute of Drug Abuse, Samhsa, CDC are all saying that if we don’t offer these medications to folks that are struggling with addiction, then it’s basically like saying someone with diabetes, we’re not going to give you insulin. We want you to just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and figure this out with diet and exercise. And as we know, that doesn’t help the majority of our population.
KRDO: Should we do if we think someone is overdosing?
Dr. Jeremy Dubin: A great question and it’s super important, especially during this week, but also any week. My 18 year old daughter carries Narcan around in her in her pocket book. Now, at the same time, she’s at the mercy of being the child of an addiction doc. So maybe that’s that’s part of that reason. However, knowing the signs of overdose are super important. So understanding that if you see someone that is their bodies going limp, their fingernails or lips are purple, they’re vomiting or having gurgling noises, they’re breathing or heartbeat is slow or they’re unable to be awakened.
That’s a sign of opiate overdose. And you want to call 911 immediately and activate EMS. If you have access to Narcan, use it. If you don’t know what it is, get the training. There’s lots of different folks that are giving this for free, for offices, for libraries, you name it. Really, there’s no one like, as you were saying in your intro there, that this condition has not touched.
KRDO: Right. Well, thank you, Doctor Jeremy Dubin, for joining us on this Overdose Awareness Week, Raising awareness. And you can find out more by visiting Front range clinics.com or giving a call to 866. MAT STAT, thanks.
