Prescription drug deaths reach record high-KOTA_FDLFD

Prescription drug deaths reach record high
Sep 30, 2011
By PJ Randhawa, Reporter
Nancy Keuter has experienced more than her fair share of grief.

"After my husband died...becoming a single parent, it was hard bringing up both the kids and working," said Keuter.

It was only 2 years ago that Nancy lost her 18 year old son Dustin to one of the most dangerous and growing trends in the nation.

"On June 18th, 2009, a friend of Dustin's delivered a prescription drug to my home... Three of Dustin's friends were with him, and Dustin overdosed. They failed to call 911, failed to get the help my son desperately needed," said Keuter.

Accidental drug overdoses now kill more people than car accidents nationwide.

In 2009 alone, almost40,000 Americans died of drug overdoses...many caused by drugs like Xanax, Oxycontin and Vicodin.

"The purity and strengths of these have increased over the years... The doses have gotten huge. That's because we want to treat chronic pain patients. It also makes them much more divertable.," said Dr. Dana Darger, Director of Pharmacy at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

Although South Dakota ranks dead last in the nation for the number of overdose deaths, experts say it's a problem that has the potential to get a lot worse.

"We've seen an increase in the abuse, and when the abuse comes, the overdose comes. Hydrocodone, oxy, morphone have kinda become a big part of what our street crimes unit purchase on the street. Approximately six out of ten interactions," said John Wenande, a Drug Diversion Investigator with the Rapid City Division of Criminal Investigations.

"When they found six different prescription drugs with Dustin's girlfriend, it made me sick to know that people can just go from one doc to another to another to get these pills," said Keuter.

A year and a half ago, Nancy lent her voice and story to help South Dakota pass a new prescription monitoring program into legislation.

"It gives the doc or pharmacy to check if patient is receiving meds from other providers. Pharmacy and law enforcement can also check that under certain regulations," said Wenande.




Nancy hopes the new regulations will help keep prescription pills out of the wrong hands.

And she warns parents of the dangers lurking in their own homes.

"I was shocked. How easy it is to get a hold of the prescription drugs. My message is that education starts in the home. We need to lock up our meds, talk to our kids," said Keuter.

And she says that's the key to slowing this trend down so no parent will have to experience the same loss.

Nancy encourages parents touched by drug-overdose related tragedy to reach out for support. She credits the website FriendsDontLetFriendsDie.com for helping her through her darkest hours.

"I really want parents to be aware [that when this happens] it was someone's child that died. They were a person. Don't be ashamed that they did these drugs. That's your child, you need to educate and get people to know about this," said Keuter.

For more information on how to prevent overdoses, visit the HereToHelp website.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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