BY LESLIE CRAIG HENDERZAHS
Church Church Hittle & Antrim, Partner/Owner
The Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health reported a 75 percent increase in Hoosier deaths from drug overdose from 2011 to 2017. Do you know someone who has been directly affected by the opioid crisis? If you are fortunate enough to answer “no,” and you live in Indiana, it may be because you are unaware of a loved one or friend who is dealing with this crisis.
Opioid addiction is a disease that most people do not talk about openly. No one wants to draw attention to their personal connection to or experience with opioid addiction. There is an intensely negative stigma around the crisis, and yet, it adversely impacts our everyday lives in Indiana.
In 2018, during a meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association’s Legal Education Conclave, my eyes were further widened to the insidiously increasing difficulties plaguing Indiana families due to substance dependency and the opioid crisis.
It’s time for all of us to start learning more and talking about opioids in Indiana, not just at a legislative or law enforcement level, but also among our friends and over our dinner tables. It’s time to empathize with families trying to find answers to help their children, grandchildren, siblings or spouses.
For many families, it is well past time to seek better solutions to save Hoosiers’ lives. In fact, more than 1,700 Hoosiers died from drug overdoses in 2017 – an all-time high – according to reports released in October 2018 by the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation.
Solving the opioid crisis is vital to our state’s economy. In order to keep our existing businesses strong and attract new ones, manpower is needed. We need workers who can function full time.
And while this economic impact is easily quantified, it is when we get personal that our hearts and minds can see and understand the impact. For example, particularly in rural communities and areas of southern Indiana, resources are being used to protect innocent children. When parents are unable to care for their sons and daughters, taxpayers are paying for services to help these children survive. We are also seeing older family members trying to care for young people, which impacts the physical and mental health of older people who might be on Medicare/Medicaid, thus increasing the taxpayer burden.
Perhaps most startling and heartbreaking, infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, a condition resulting when infants of expectant mothers taking opioids, are born addicted. From 2015 to 2016, more than 3,000 infants suffered from NAS, an increase of 86 percent from the prior year.
In the private sector, organizations such as Gleaners provide kids with meals when parents fall victim to opioids, including illegal sellers who have criminal punishments and aren’t available to care for their children because they aren’t present or are incapacitated. Many other nonprofit organizations are also creating and changing services to help victims of opioid addiction.
From a social and emotional standpoint, anyone with a child in school is affected and should be ready to engage and help their student understand the epidemic. Inside many of our schools, students are spending time learning about opioid addiction. This increased awareness is a good thing, but it also brings to light that we are being forced to deal with issues that most parents wished their children never had to think about.
Our state’s judiciary and the government are taking steps to combat the opioid epidemic. Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, Loretta Rush, chairs the National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF). The team was formed in 2017 to lead the way in providing solutions and recommendations to courts at every level to support the judiciary, provide resources, determine opportunities for collaboration and help individuals make a successful recovery.
Separately, in November 2018, the office of Attorney General announced it had filed suit against Purdue Pharma, a major manufacturer of opioids, for its alleged role in accelerating the crisis.
As a state, Indiana has many desirable characteristics that draw people here to live, raise their families and do business. We have a robust system of colleges and universities, our cost of living is low, and our workforce is known for its strong work ethic. But we also have some negative statistics related to increased crime and diminished number of workers that blemish our record – rates at least partly attributed to opioids and other drugs.
Although opioids have been on the illegal market for at least 15 years, I think the severity of today’s opioid issues has come unexpectedly to most of us. As far as the Midwest goes, some people might describe us as “happily sleepy.” Hoosiers generally feel safe, and believe our state is a good place to raise kids, but now we need to open our eyes to what is happening. We should be concerned as a collective group to make things better for the next generation and the one after that. We should care about maintaining and continuing to improve the good attributes of Indiana that make us want to live here.
The courts, advocates, physicians, elected officials and many others continue working toward improving the crisis level of the economic and social fallout from the opioid epidemic. Experienced, passionate experts widened my eyes to not only the criticality of dealing with opioid issues, but also the hope and progress Indiana has made. With increased public awareness, I hope we can all do our part toward the greater good, educating and thereby protecting our families, opening their eyes to the potentially addictive effect of opioids and their devastating consequences.
Opioids’ impact on the brain
No one wakes up one morning and intentionally decides to become addicted to fentanyl. Nevertheless, people become addicted to opioids every day.
During the 2018 ISBA Legal Education Conclave, I was enthralled by a talk delivered by Dr. R A. Chambers, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Indiana School of Medicine. To the group of mostly attorneys, he illustrated the adverse scientific effects of opioids on cognitive processes as reflected in the brains of rats exposed to the drugs:
- The first had no exposure to opioids. Inside its brain you could see a clear connectivity, like clear roadways and interchanges.
- The second had moderate exposure to opioids. Its brain still had connectivity, but it was more splintered and the roadways not as clear, no longer distinct.
- The third had been exposed for the longest period of time. Inside its brain, I could not discern any direct connectors. It was a tangled mess.
This damage to the brain can happen with no intent of the addicted person. In some cases, addicts sought treatment for a legitimate injury, took medications as prescribed, and became addicted due to the addictive properties of the drug.
Sometimes, the seed of addiction is planted even earlier. A child may be prescribed a drug, such as codeine, in something as common as cough medicine. This one exposure can influence how his body reacts to drugs in the future.
Looking at these images was the first time I saw and began to appreciate the clear scientific aspect to addiction issues. It’s a step toward deeper understanding and empathy.
Go to cchalaw.com for more about Leslie and Church Church Hittle & Antrim Attorneys at Law.
You should start with adults not being able to sign theirselves out of rehabs.