Feb. 3--Harrahs Cherokee Casino

Prescription drug abuse is a growing problem in Western North Carolina, and last week, a small group of professionals met in Haywood County to learn how to combat it.

Called Project Lazarus, the program is designed to get policies set in a community and work with neighbors to eliminate prescription drug abuse. Fred Brason, who developed Project Lazarus in Wilkes County, spoke Jan. 25 about the effort.

"This is an immediate issue that needs to be addressed," Brason said.

The project began because Wilkes County saw a tremendous increase in accidental overdoses from prescription drugs. There were 48 deaths last year in Wilkes County, making the county have one of the highest death rates from prescription drugs in the state. Brason said North Carolina is one of the highest states in the nation for this issue.

"North Carolina is ahead of the national average for unintentional prescription drug overdose," he said. "I'm not against pills, just for proper prescription. Of all the prescriptions in North Carolina, 45.4 percent are narcotics. In 2008, there were 15 million narcotic prescriptions written."

Brason said a majority of these drugs are given for a valid reason. The problem develops, he said, when the pills are given to others, such as family members or friends. The No. 1 prescription written for a controlled substance in 2008 was hydrocodone, with more than 4 million prescriptions written for it that year. According to Brason, nearly 56 percent of people who took prescription pain pills in 2006 (latest number available), received the pills from friends or family.

"Part of the problem is people found out the pills take care of the pain," Brason said. "It used to be people would go to a bar and have a few drinks. Now they're sharing pills in the parking lot."

When Brason and others first started work on Project Lazarus two years ago, they wanted to ensure the model could be duplicated in any county in North Carolina, especially counties in Western North Carolina where Brason said has higher cases of abuse. The project is designed to bring all of the agencies impacted by prescription drug abuse to the table to work together on a solution.

There are five components to the project: community knowledge and coalition; surveillance; prevention; rescue; and evaluation. All of the components require the joint effort of law enforcement, centers dedicated to addiction, education system and others who have a stake in decreasing prescription drug abuse.

Brason said some of the tools utilized include a master list of prescriptions written and to whom which can be accessed by physicians and pharmacists across the state to prevent doctor and pharmacy shopping, and a kit that contains a drug -- naloxone -- that can stop an overdose of narcotic prescription drugs. The kit contains an instruction DVD and a dose, which can be given to anyone receiving a prescription for a narcotic drug.

Aleasa Glance, with Haywood County Schools, found the presentation interesting and something that could benefit Haywood County, which has a high rate of prescription drug abuse according to Brason.

"It would be great if we could do it here," Glance said. "(Prescription drug abuse) is prevalent and it is a problem from what I hear."

One way students obtain prescription drugs is from the home, Glance said, by sneaking the pills from their parents' medicine cabinet and then swapping pills at school. There are policies in place to deal with drugs in schools, including random drug testing for those who drive to school or participate in extracurricular activities. Students caught with drugs at school are subject to suspension, as well.

Martha Teater, a family and marriage therapist, said Project Lazarus holds much promise. Teater and her husband, Don, manage an addiction clinic in Haywood County.

"I was really excited about it because it has tremendous potential," Teater said. "It saves lives, which is really cool. I like how it focuses on a joint effort with the patient and family, doctors, hospitals and pharmacy."

By having the model to go by, Teater said those in Haywood County would not have to start from scratch to build a program to work on the problem.

"It's really helpful to us because it's been done before and has been wildly successfully," Teater said.

For more information, visit www.projectlazarus.org.

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