Prescription drugs: Can Ridgefield cure itself?

It should be incomprehensible how something as minuscule as a 10-milligram capsule of Oxy-Contin or Percocet can be more lethal than a four-ton SUV.

However, this is reality in the 21st Century prescription drugs kill more people under the age of 34 annually than car accidents and its a trend that isnt going away anytime soon.

Although there is no statistic that indicates Ridgefield is any different from neighboring towns, prescription drug abuse and addiction remains at the forefront of the towns priorities as the national epidemic continues to grow along with number of drug-related deaths in town.

Deaths make the paper, but what should be talked about is what goes on leading up to these violent, drug-related deaths, said Liz Jorgensen, a Ridgefield drug and alcohol counselor. Its completely based on choice, which means its preventable and its frightening that something this preventable has surpassed car accident deaths

I am tired of going to funerals for kids in this area who have died from opiate-related deaths.

Is drug addiction a disease?

Theres no single answer to that, said Dr. Eric Collins, the physician-in-chief at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan. Drug addiction can certainly be looked at as a disease, but its apart of a much larger, more complex social issue

In theory its perfect to look at addiction as a disease, but the reality is that when people stop taking their antagonist medications after being treated, over time they regress back into their old patterns of use which quickly turns into abuse

Relapse from maintenance medication is a huge issue, but there are more important in the long run such as other health care issues, crime, poverty and some of these problems are interconnected, which makes prescription drug abuse really hard to rank it.

On a national level, Dr. Collins believes, the countrys tendency to incarcerate rather than it treat drug addiction is a more important issue because of the cost on society. However, at the local, community level there are other social factors that have contributed to the alarming situation.

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Prescription drugs: Can Ridgefield cure itself?