Prior Lake forum explores opioid addiction, prevention

Prior Lake American

Addiction can affect anyone but is also completely preventable if the community takes certain steps, several addiction experts and local officials said at a Thursday forum on opioid abuse at Prior Lake City Hall.

The conversation, which was organized by the Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative, featured addiction specialist Carol Ackley, state Rep. Tony Albright and Scott County Drug Task Force Commander Jason Arras as speakers and Prior Lake Mayor Kirt Briggs as a moderator. It gave several southwest metro residents a lesson in addiction and its effects.

“There are a lot of people who don’t believe addiction is a disease,” Ackley said. “None of us are immune. Anyone who chooses to use a mood-altering chemical runs some risk to become addicted to it.”

Ackley, who has been educating others about addiction for more than 25 years, said addiction impacts the part of the brain that’s responsible for instinctual survival. This means when a person becomes addicted to drugs, the need to use can be as strong as the need to eat or sleep.

“That’s addiction — a highjacking of the survival pathway,” Ackley said. “It’s very similar to the things you would do if you were starving to death. It’s the exact same pathway. They will do things, say things, take risks and work outside their normal boundaries, because it’s about survival.”

Certain people are more at risk for addiction, Ackley said, with at least of the risk being genetic and the rest being environmental.

“No one chooses to become addicted,” Ackley said. “That’s a process that happens biochemically. Most people choose to use a mood-altering chemical at some point in their lives, especially if I include caffeine or nicotine in that list.”

Risks include adverse childhood experiences, poor nutrition, high stress levels, inadequate coping skills, chronic illness, involvement in crime and more, with the strongest risk factor being early onset of use, Ackley said. She said opioid addicts in particular tend to have struggled with trauma.

Arras said 75 percent of heroin addicts start with prescriptions to painkillers.

“We are prescribing these people into their addiction,” Arras said.

The stigma attached to drug addiction is a barrier to recovery, Ackley said, adding that those in recovery need supportive communities.

“It’s really important we attack this as a community,” Ackley said. “When we’re all operating in the same direction, we can make some progress on this really tragic situation.”

She added drug addiction is 100 percent preventable — if a person who is vulnerable to addiction never uses, that person can never become addicted. Ackley said she recommends searching medicine cabinets and disposing of narcotics.

“Addicts will go to garage sales, ask to use the bathroom and look in the medicine cabinet,” she said, adding that she knew young addicts whose first opioid use came from raiding their parents’ medicine cabinets.

People can call the local police department to learn how to properly dispose of narcotics. Certain drugs should not be flushed down the toilet, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

People can address drug addiction on a personal level by getting educated and teaching their children proper coping mechanisms and mindfulness, Ackley said.

“If you’re raising children, be open and honest and direct with them,” Ackley said. “If kids can formulate a question, they deserve an answer.”

Arras said parents should be active and inquisitive in their children’s lives.

“Own your home,” Arras said. “It’s our jobs. I believe parenting is a verb, not a noun.”

On a legislative level, Albright said the Legislature is working to prioritize and expand state services to meet the need.

Ackley said the motivation has to be external for a person to realize they are addicted to drugs, adding that seven out of eight people in Minnesota who need treatment for substance abuse won’t get it.

“When the pain of the consequences outweigh the pleasure — in that small, narrow window of opportunity, you can get someone’s attention,” Ackley said.

At the end of the conversation, Briggs offered a sobering statistic — seven Americans died of addiction in the time it took for the forum to take place.