Opiate Dependence Outpatient Program Video

Air date: Oct. 29, 2010

For more information: Substance Abuse Services

Transcript

Hal Clement, 10News anchor: It is now the second leading killer in San Diego County, and tonight you'll hear from a woman who knows the dangers first-hand. A danger so widespread that a local hospital has just created a special unit to fight it. 10News reporter Jennifer Jensen explains.

Samantha, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital patient: I was just exhausted. I was looking in the mirror and thinking this is it. This is a real problem here.

Jennifer Jensen, 10News reporter: Samantha hides her face, ashamed that she is a recovering addict — addicted to prescription drugs for more than 20 years.

Samantha: Even the day I would pick them up from the drug store, I'd start panicking I was running out.

Jennifer: Her addictions started when she was prescribed Vicodin for her wisdom teeth, then expanded into Norco and OxyContin. She took about 500 pills a month.

Samantha: Even from the get-go I was calling for refills. See, I was already an addict without even knowing it.

Jennifer: That's until she sought help from the new Opiate Dependence Outpatient Program at Sharp's Mesa Vista Hospital, where she would become the program's first graduate; a program started last year because of the increase in opiate use here in San Diego, especially among adolescents.

Abby Burd, medical social worker, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital: It has basically the same high as heroine and it's a very powerful high and it's very addicting.

Jennifer: Therapist Abby Burd of the Opiate Dependence Program says it's troubling that there has been an increase in the amount of patients seeking help for addiction to OxyContin, a pain medication that many young adults first find in their own homes that they swallow, snort or smoke.

Abby: A lot of people do start with access from their families. They might find it just sitting around in their parents' medicine cabinet. First they use it just to get that high. They like the high, they like the buzz, but if they do it often enough, for several days in a row, they're going to find the day they don't take it, they'll get sick.

Jennifer: In San Diego County, prescription drug related deaths have increased 85 percent over the past 10 years. The medical examiner's office says prescription drug deaths are the second leading cause of death in the county, behind cardiovascular disease, and they are to blame for 443 deaths last year alone. Emergency room visits related to the misuse of pain relievers like OxyContin rose 150 percent from 2004 to 2008, yet the emergency room is where Samantha often sought the pills for her addiction.

Samantha: I was an Academy Award-winning actress. I said I wrenched my back and it's terrible right now. Nothing hurt and nothing was wrong with me. I just wanted more pills.

Jennifer: It wasn't until she was caught trying to fill two different prescriptions, by two different doctors that she admitted defeat, that she was an addict. And she says her one message to suspecting parents is "don't wait."

Samantha: They'll hate you a lot worse when they're in the street, homeless, because you didn't do something when you could've.

Jennifer: Jennifer Jensen, 10News.