Pubdate: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 Source: Hendersonville Times-News (NC) Copyright: 2008 Hendersonville Newspaper Corporation Contact: http://www.blueridgenow.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/793 DRUGS ARE TO KILL PAIN, NOT PEOPLE The same prescription drugs that can help patients suffering from debilitating pain can also be illegal and deadly when they fall into the wrong hands. That lesson hit home last week when the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office charged a Fletcher man with murder for selling a powerful prescription painkiller to a teenager who died of an overdose. Officers say it is part of a trend. James Michael Arnold, 23, of 273 Willis Way, was charged Sept. 8 with second-degree murder, possession with the intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance and sale or delivery of a controlled substance. Investigators say Arnold sold a Fentanyl pain patch to 19-year-old Justin Kane Anderson, a student at Blue Ridge Community College who died of an overdose on July 20. Sheriff Rick Davis and District Attorney Jeff Hunt held a joint news conference to urge residents to carefully guard prescription drugs such as Fentanyl. “We want to warn people who legally own Fentanyl to keep it under lock and key,” Hunt said. “We also want people to know if you are selling materials and then an overdose occurs, you have the chance of being charged with second-degree murder.” Anderson’s death may be part of a deadly trend. Officers suspect a half dozen or more fatal overdoses may be due to the drug, but don’t yet have the toxicology results to know for sure. Davis said the public needs to know that Fentanyl is much more addictive than heroin. Fentanyl is prescribed for severe chronic pain such as from arthritis and cancer, Flip Fisher, a pharmacist with Whitley Drugs, told reporter John Harbin. The drug is so powerful that a used patch still contains enough of the drug to kill a human or animal. “When they take off the patch, we tell the patient to flush it down the toilet,” Fisher said. The patches contain a powerful dose of the drug intended to be absorbed into the skin over several days. People abusing the drug are chewing the patches or diluting the medicine and injecting it, the sheriff said. Investigators spotted a trend in which people who died in unattended circumstances were found to have high levels of the drug in their systems. While some cases involved drug abusers, others involved patients who were lawfully prescribed the drug but taking it improperly. As more drug dealers traffic in such drugs, it is a good thing that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes law officers teach in elementary schools include lessons in prescription as well as street drugs. DARE added more emphasis on prescription drug abuse to its classes for fifth graders four years ago. But local officers who teach the classes say they need to include even more information on the dangers. “Prescription drugs are now one of the top abused drugs among teens,” said Hendersonville Police Lt. Tim Griffin, veteran DARE instructor. “The reason it is so highly abused is because it is so easy to get.” As responsible adults, it is up to each of us to make sure that does not happen. We must treat Fentanyl and other prescriptions as we would a loaded gun, keeping them under lock and key. We don’t need any more promising young lives lost in pursuit of a meaningless high. - --- MAP posted-by: dan