Local Billboard Gets National Attention
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Tim [email protected]
Methadone is an opiate commonly used by rehabilitation clinics as a substitute for heroin for recovering addicts.
Kosciusko County Health Officer Dr. William Remington said the idea for the billboard came after county coroner John Sadler noticed a surge of methadone related deaths in the area.
Sadler said, from the end of December 2006 through February 2007 there were six cases of accidental drug overdoses, all involving methadone.
"Methadone was present in every one of them," Sadler said. "Basically the levels of the other common drugs of abuse weren't to a toxic level yet, but, in most of them, methadone was at toxic or lethal levels."
Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver said it didn't take long after the first billboard went up in April for calls about the sign and its message to start coming in. Weaver said the calls weren't all from Kosciusko County or even from Indiana.
"I had messages on my voice mail from all over the country," Weaver said. "I had a lot of calls from private citizens who saw it and had lost family member through methadone use," Weaver said. "They were very positive and supportive of it."
Weaver said most of the calls were supportive of the billboard campaign, but several were not. "We got a lot of heat on it initially," he said.
According to a post on the Methadone Support Organization Web site, the group, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., asked the county to change the sign's message to "Abuse of Methadone Kills."
Remington said he decided not to change the sign because of the additional expense and time it would involve. "This topic turns out to be quite a loaded topic," he said."The billboard has opened a can of worms and I think that's a healthy thing."
Remington said awareness about safe and unsafe uses of methadone can lead to good patient and doctor discussions about treatments involving the drug.
"It's a healthy debate for physicians and their patients," he said.
Sadler agreed. "It's educational and gets people talking and asking questions," he said. "To me, that's a great message."
Recently, Remington said, pain treatment clinics have begun using methadone as a treatment for chronic pain.
"Methadone is now available pretty cheaply," Remington said. "Because of broader use, it has become more common on the street."
Remington said, while methadone is legal, and can be used safely to treat pain and addiction, it poses a danger when people use it to try to get high. Methadone has a long half-life, which means it leaves the body slowly. Sadler said methadone can stay in the body for 96 hours, which means the drug is still present in the body long after the initial high wears off. Drug abusers take additional doses, building up dangerously high methadone levels in their bodies quickly.
Remington said people using the drug to get high often mix it with alcohol and other drugs.
"It's a bad thing to add to a poison cocktail to get high," Remington said.
Remington said people often don't know methadone can be dangerous. He said the purpose of the billboard is to help build awareness in the community of the drug's potentially lethal affects.
Remington and other local health officials met with officers of the Kosciusko Sheriffs Department to target the northeast section of the county, where most of the overdose cases originated.
The billboard will be moved to new locations in the area every four to six weeks for a year. Remington said it cost the health department $5,000.
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Methadone is an opiate commonly used by rehabilitation clinics as a substitute for heroin for recovering addicts.
Kosciusko County Health Officer Dr. William Remington said the idea for the billboard came after county coroner John Sadler noticed a surge of methadone related deaths in the area.
Sadler said, from the end of December 2006 through February 2007 there were six cases of accidental drug overdoses, all involving methadone.
"Methadone was present in every one of them," Sadler said. "Basically the levels of the other common drugs of abuse weren't to a toxic level yet, but, in most of them, methadone was at toxic or lethal levels."
Kosciusko County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver said it didn't take long after the first billboard went up in April for calls about the sign and its message to start coming in. Weaver said the calls weren't all from Kosciusko County or even from Indiana.
"I had messages on my voice mail from all over the country," Weaver said. "I had a lot of calls from private citizens who saw it and had lost family member through methadone use," Weaver said. "They were very positive and supportive of it."
Weaver said most of the calls were supportive of the billboard campaign, but several were not. "We got a lot of heat on it initially," he said.
According to a post on the Methadone Support Organization Web site, the group, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., asked the county to change the sign's message to "Abuse of Methadone Kills."
Remington said he decided not to change the sign because of the additional expense and time it would involve. "This topic turns out to be quite a loaded topic," he said."The billboard has opened a can of worms and I think that's a healthy thing."
Remington said awareness about safe and unsafe uses of methadone can lead to good patient and doctor discussions about treatments involving the drug.
"It's a healthy debate for physicians and their patients," he said.
Sadler agreed. "It's educational and gets people talking and asking questions," he said. "To me, that's a great message."
Recently, Remington said, pain treatment clinics have begun using methadone as a treatment for chronic pain.
"Methadone is now available pretty cheaply," Remington said. "Because of broader use, it has become more common on the street."
Remington said, while methadone is legal, and can be used safely to treat pain and addiction, it poses a danger when people use it to try to get high. Methadone has a long half-life, which means it leaves the body slowly. Sadler said methadone can stay in the body for 96 hours, which means the drug is still present in the body long after the initial high wears off. Drug abusers take additional doses, building up dangerously high methadone levels in their bodies quickly.
Remington said people using the drug to get high often mix it with alcohol and other drugs.
"It's a bad thing to add to a poison cocktail to get high," Remington said.
Remington said people often don't know methadone can be dangerous. He said the purpose of the billboard is to help build awareness in the community of the drug's potentially lethal affects.
Remington and other local health officials met with officers of the Kosciusko Sheriffs Department to target the northeast section of the county, where most of the overdose cases originated.
The billboard will be moved to new locations in the area every four to six weeks for a year. Remington said it cost the health department $5,000.
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