Abuse and addiction tied to opioid prescription pain killers have been identified as a major health problem not only for members of the Cherokee Nation but for the region’s population as a whole, according to health officials.
A report released Thursday by STAT, the online health and medicine site started by the Boston Globe, highlighted issues of the scope and treatment of the opioid crisis within the Cherokee Nation.
Attempts to obtain information from representatives of the Cherokee Nation regarding the cost of treatment and the amount budgeted for treating the growing problem were unsuccessful.
While illicit narcotics like heroin and marijuana, along with alcohol, all contribute to drug abuse in the Muskogee area, the region’s biggest drug abuse issue comes in the form of prescription drugs, according to Lindsey Roberts.
“Abuse of prescription drugs is a really big problem here,” said Roberts, regional prevention director for a four-county area including Muskogee, McIntosh, Hughes and Wagoner counties.
The regional drug prevention effort is a part of the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods and the Nonprofit Resource Center.
The organizations are funded in part and supported from the City of Muskogee Foundation. Other funding comes from grants, Roberts said.
Julie Watson-Ledbetter, who serves as director of development for Neighbors Building Neighborhoods, said the misuse of prescription drugs may not be on the minds of many people.
“But we rank in the top 10 in the state for prescription drug overdoses,” Watson-Ledbetter said. “Those drugs are just as dangerous as illegal drugs and are so addictive.”
Roberts said the issue is one that deserves much more attention than it usually receives. She said prescription drug overdoses are becoming more and more common.
Pam McKeown, public information officer for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health Services, said the numbers of residents entering the department’s treatment programs for opioid addiction in recent years for Muskogee and Cherokee counties has represented between 9 percent and 17 percent of all cases.
For a five-year period, Muskogee County has had between a low of 33 patients enter the state’s treatment program in 2014 to a high of 57 patients in 2012. So far in 2016 through November, Muskogee County has had 57 people enter the program based on opioid addictions.
McKeown indicated the numbers of people treated in Oklahoma for opioid addiction has increased in each of the past five years with totals for 2016 incomplete. The state reported 1,716 people entered treatment in 2012 while the number had grown by more than 25 percent to 2,170 in 2015.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a report indicating in 2014 more people died from opioid overdoses than for any prior year on record. National totals for 2015 were not yet available.
Between 1999 and 2014, HHS reported 165,000 deaths across the nation related to prescription opioid overdoses.
In an earlier report as part one of his regular columns, Cherokee Nation Chief Bill John Baker called prescription drug abuse “rampant” with abusers being younger and younger.
“Oklahoma ranks in the top 10 nationally of overdoses and deaths related to opioid abuse,” he said in a prepared statement issued in June. “Additionally, Indian Health Service reports that opioid abuse-related deaths among tribal populations is almost double the general population.”
Baker said opioid painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone and hydromorphone account for about 75 percent of prescription drug overdose deaths.
“We have a crisis in Oklahoma and throughout Indian Country, and we must raise awareness of the issue and create sustainable prevention plans for families, schools and community organizations,” he said.
“Addiction and the escalating rate of overdoses are a simple matter of life and death,” Baker said. “We are taking a serious look at how we can best help our citizens to break the cycle of abuse.”
In October 2014 the Cherokee Nation opened the $5 million Jack Brown Center in Tahlequah as a treatment facility to help Native American youth ages 13 to 18 to overcome drug and alcohol addiction.
The 28,000-square-foot, five-building campus with a farmstead architectural style was designed to serve up to 38 teens. Baker said the facility was important because the Cherokee Nation puts a high value on heath and welfare.
By Mike Elswick Phoenix Correspondent
