A couple of weeks ago I felt a twinge of lower back pain. In the early 1990’s, I injured my back during a youth water sports camp. Part of the camp was a day rip with canoes. The campers were divided into four groups with each group engaging in a different adventure each day. One group learned about sailing with wind surfers in the cove, another group did small craft sailing with 14’ sailboats, the third group had a safety and survival workshop where each camper became certified in CPR, and the fourth group went canoeing on a river. The groups rotated activities, which meant that the canoes had to be transported every day. In order to make everything happen, I was shuttling canoes, including loading and unloading them each day. Somehow, I lifted and twisted in just the wrong way and my back rebelled. Fortunately the most intense pain came after the end of the camp when I was back at home.

The pain was sharp enough that I ended up flat on the floor of our home. My wife called our family doctor who phoned a couple of prescriptions to the pharmacy to get me through the worst of the pain until I could be seen in the office. One medication was a muscle relaxant, the other was an opioid pain medication. I took the first dose of both medications and went to sleep. I slept for 22 hours and when I woke, I was pretty sure that a second dose of those medications was not the right thing for me.

Later, I went to a dentist for treatment of an abscess and left the office with a prescription for an opioid pain medicine. I was advised to “stay ahead of the pain” by taking a pill before the Novocain administered in the office wore off. Having had the previous experience with the back pain, I was reluctant to take the medicine, but also afraid of the pain. I ended up taking one of the pills and later disposed of the rest of the bottle.

Still later, I received morpheme in the emergency room when I was being treated for flash burns on my face, chest and arms. I experienced a paranoid reaction. I knew that my thinking was irrational, but I couldn’t suppress the thoughts. My behavior was bizarre. At one point, I was plotting an “escape” from the emergency room where I was being treated. After I reported that experience to my family doctor, I decided to report a morpheme allergy on my medical records. I also decided that all opioids were not good medications for me.

I’ve know for a long time that pain medications have dramatic effects on me. I ask dentists to administer half of the dose of Novocain that they might otherwise use. Otherwise my face will remain numb for hours after I leave the office.

My family physician in South Dakota once commented to me that I was at low risk for opioid addiction because I had such adverse reactions to the times I had received the medication.

Meanwhile, physician education changed dramatically. Doctors used to learn in medical school that people with real pain cannot become addicted to pain medication. That incorrect information led doctors and dentists to prescribe too many opioids and often in inappropriately large quantities. Those prescriptions became a gateway for addiction for many people and those addictions led to tragic deaths.

Addiction to opioids became so intense that in many places around the world, those addicted would turn to heroin to satisfy their dependency simply because the street price of heroin was lower than that of prescription drugs. Deaths from drug overdoses increased. The demand for drugs resulted in various drugs being laced with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid drug prescribed for severe pain, nerve damage, spinal injuries and major trauma. The problem with fentanyl on the illegal market is that dosages are inaccurate and accidental overdose is a constant risk.

Addiction to pain medication has reached crisis proportions in many places. Just north of where we live, British Columbia has the highest death rate from opioid overdoses. The rate of those deaths was 5.8 per 100,000 people in 2000. It rose to 44.2 per 100,000 in 2021. Hospitalization rates have skyrocketed and despite several major governmental programs aimed at stemming the crisis, the rates of death continue to climb.

Addiction to pain medications is serious business. Sadly, this crisis has spread to younger people with devastating effects. In one study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 65% of youth overdoses occurred in youth who had no prior opioid use. A first experimentation with pills can, and does, lead to death. Narcan, a medicine that is effective in treating fentanyl overdoses, is now readily available. First responders are trained in recognizing the signs of overdose and in administering the life-saving medication. If the youth survives that first dose, addiction is another possible result of even a single dose, leading to an ongoing risk of death.

Young people recovering from overdoses have reported that drug dealers in our area have offered free pills to middle and high school age children, presumably to create addiction to boost sales of illegal drugs. One local survey discovered that half of counterfeit oxycodone pills have lethal doses of fentanyl in them.

Despite the efforts of law enforcement and border control officers, illegal drugs pass across the border in both directions on a regular basis. It is simply too easy to smuggle drugs from one country to the other. The opioid crisis in British Columbia is also a crisis here in our county.

Solving this crisis will take a coordinated effort of many people. Law enforcement officers, court officials, treatment providers, policymakers, physicians, teachers, parents, community members and the youth of our community need to come together and work together to address the tragedy that is upon us. Like many other issues, the crisis is upon us before we have come together. Like many other issues, the response needs to come from the entire community. I know I say this all the time, but we are all in this together. All of us need to take advantage of opportunities to become educated and active in working to decrease access to these dangerous drugs and treat addiction as quickly as possible.

Like many other topics I have addressed in my journal, I have no easy solutions.

Fortunately for me, physical therapy has proven to be effective in treating back pain. I now know that when I feel the twinge, the appropriate response is careful stretching exercises. I’m not shy in telling my doctors and everyone who will listen about alternatives to medication to treat pain.