The FNMI Workshops Charity is committed to Identifying, Exposing & Eliminating the Opioid Crisis!

Opioid AwarenessWhat are Opioids?

Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, fentanyl (asynthetic opioid pain killer), and prescription pain relievers available legally by prescription: oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine ,and morphine.

Prescription Opioids (pain killers) can be prescribed by doctors to treat moderate to severe pain, but can also have serious risks and side effects. When misused—taken in a different way, in a larger quantity than prescribed, or taken without a doctor’s prescription— a user can become addicted.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever. It is many times more powerful than other opioids and is approved for treating severe pain, typically advanced cancer pain. Illegally made and distributed fentanyl has been on the rise in several states.

What is Prescription Drug Abuse?

There are several ways legally prescribed opioid drugs can be abused…

  • Taking prescription painkillers in a way that was not prescribed, such as taking too many pills at one time, combining pills with alcohol or other drugs, or crushing pills into powder to snort or inject them.
  • Taking someone else’s prescription painkiller, even if you’re doing so for the medication’s intended purpose, to ease pain.
  • Taking prescription pain killers for the sole purpose of feeling good or getting high.

Get the facts about Opioids.

Learn what Opioids are and how they can be abused.

Deaths from fentanyl & other synthetic opioids, rose a staggering 72% in just one year, from 2014 to 2015.

Repeated prescription opioid abuse can lead to addiction and even death.

Making the connection – How does prescription drug abuse lead to heroin use?

Abuse of prescription pain medicine can start several ways. Some start abusing it at parties or with friends socially to get high or fit in. Others start taking prescription medicine when prescribed by a doctor for legitimate purposes, such as a sport injury or dental procedure. In both cases, use of prescription medication (opioids) can turn to dependence, abuse, addiction and then heroin use.

Someone that starts abusing opioids and develops an addiction often turns to heroin when they can not attain prescription medicine. A family member might start locking up their medicine or a doctor might refuse prescribing the prescription. From fear of withdrawl, an opioid abuser will resort to the less expensive option of heroin.

Nearly half of young people who inject heroin surveyed in three recent studies reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin.

Some individuals reported switching to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids.

What is Naloxone?

Naloxone is a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent overdose by opioids such as heroin, morphine, and oxycodone. It blocks opioid receptor sites, reversing the toxic effects of the overdose. Naloxone (NARCAN®) can be given by intranasal spray, intramuscular (into the muscle), subcutaneous (under the skin), or intravenous injection.

All public schools have naloxone available. The new requirement is the result of legislation that was passed.

DID YOU KNOW?

Opioid addiction is a disease.

  • Addiction, also called option use disorder, is a serious medical condition. It is a chronic, relapsing brain disease with symptoms that include compulsive seeking and use of the drug, despite harmful consequences.
  • It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain; they change its structure and how it works. These brain changes can be long lasting and can lead to many harmful, often self-destructive, behaviors.
  • While the initial decision to use drugs is mostly voluntary, addiction can take over and impair a person’s ability to use self-control.

Opioid abuse now has the nation’s attention.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdose deaths and opioid involved deaths continue to increase in the United States. More than six out of ten overdose deaths involve an opioid. The number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and heroin) has quadrupled since 1999. From 2000 to 2015 more than half a million people died from drug overdoses.

How did we get here?

In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive; opioid overdose rates began to increase. In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, including prescription opioids, heroin, and illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

Worldwide, about 500 000 deaths are attributable to drug use. More than 70% of these deaths are related to opioids, with more than 30% of those deaths caused by overdose. According to WHO estimates, approximately 115 000 people died of opioid overdose in 2017. Opioid overdoses that do not lead to death are several times more common than fatal overdoses.

Because of these alarming numbers- the nation has refocused their attention to educating youths at earlier ages to inform and educate on the dangers of opioid abuse. The hope is to reach children early before being exposed to opioid abuse and supply them with the coping skills and knowledge that they utilize for the future.

PREVENTION

Through extensive research, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)has identified 16 principles for parents, educators, and community leaders to use to help guide their thinking planning, selection, and delivery of drug abuse prevention programs at the community and school level. In addition, research indicates that early intervention can prevent many adolescent risk behaviors.

EYE OPENING NATIONAL OPIOID STATISTICS

Deaths from prescription opioids—drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone—have more than quadrupled since 1999. Each day, more than 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for not using prescription opioid as directed. The majority of drug overdose deaths (more than six out of ten) involve an opioid.

Among new heroin users, approximately three out of four report having abused prescription opioids prior to using heroin.4

DID YOU KNOW?

The opioid epidemic has reached adolescents (12 to 17 years old).

  • In 2015, 276,000 adolescents were current nonmedical users of pain reliever, with 122,000 having an addiction to prescription pain relievers.
  • In 2015, an estimated 21,000 adolescents had used heroin in the past year, and an estimated 5,000 were current heroin users.
  • Most adolescents who misuse prescription pain relievers are first given them for free by a friend or relative.

Drug Prevention Education.

Educators know that teaching the whole child is important in drug prevention education. In addition to specific drug prevention education content beginning in Kindergarten, Maryland educators teach students the skills needed to appropriately analyze influences, access valid information, communicate effectively, make healthy decisions, set-goals that promote a positive quality of life, practice health-enhancing behaviors, and advocate for self and others across all grade bands.

From a prevention standpoint, it is essential that our youth develop the protective factors needed to lead a drug-free life. The skills below can be infused into a variety of content areas, disciplines, and across grade bands.

INTER-PERSONAL SKILLS

  • Empathy building
  • Active listening
  • Non/verbal communication
  • Assertion and refusal skills
  • Negotiation and conflict management

COPING + STRESS MANAGEMENT SKILLS

  • Self-control skills
  • Coping with (peer) pressure
  • Time management skills
  • Dealing with difficult situations (conflict/loss)
  • Goal-setting skills

VALUES ANALYSIS + CLARIFICATION

  • Skills for identifying what is important
  • Influences on values and attitudes
  • Aligning values, attitudes and behaviors

BUILDING SELF AWARENESS

  • Self-assessment skills
  • Identifying personal strengths and weaknesses
  • Positive thinking skills
  • Skills for building self image and body image

DECISION MAKING SKILLS

  • Critical and creative thinking skills
  • Problem solving skills
  • Analytical skills for assessing personal risks and consequences
  • Skills for information gathering and generating alternatives

Learn what educators are doing to help fight opioid addiction.

STUDENTS LEARN:

  • Development of self-confidence and self esteem
  • Rules and duties in families
  • Sharing and caring for family and friends
  • People who can help them when they have questions or concerns
  • Physical and emotional differences and ways of accepting these differences
  • Recognition of medicines and awareness that rules apply to medicines
  • Safety rules for medicines and dangers of taking incorrect dose

STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE:

  • Valuing one’s body and recognizing their uniqueness
  • Positive attitudes towards self and confidence in their ability to deal with varied situations and other people
  • Healthy attitudes towards medicines, health professionals and hospitals
  • Healthy attitudes towards the use of alcohol and tobacco
  • Empathy towards people living with addiction

STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO:

  • Demonstrate basic listening skills and work effectively in small groups
  • Communicate with friends and others and deliver clear messages
  • Express feelings openly and honestly when sick or hurt
  • Make choices relating to toys, food, sleep, play, friends and drugs
  • Set goals to keep themselves safe and drug free
  • Follow simple safety instructions and know when and how to get help from adults

Understand appropriate safe practices for using medicines safely and the consequences of the use and abuse of opioids.

Pre-adolescence is a critical time for students to develop the protective factors needed to live a drug-free life.

Research has identified that a key risk period for drug abuse is when children advance from elementary school to middle school. This is where they will experience new academic and social situations, such as learning to get along with a wider group of peers. It is also during early adolescence that children are likely to encounter drugs for the first time and experience social pressures to experiment and/or use drugs.

To build upon the protective knowledge, attitudes, and skills (KAS) learned in elementary school, drug prevention education programs should create learning experiences that promote the following KAS in curricular materials.

PROTECTIVE FACTORS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

STUDENTS LEARN:

  • School rules relating to medicines, alcohol, tobacco, solvents and illegal drugs
  • Laws relating to the use of legal and illegal drugs
  • People who can help them when they are sick or have questions and concerns
  • Recognition of a variety of feelings and changes in relationships
  • Short term effects of legal drugs e.g. smoking and alcohol use and/or other locally available substances
  • Physical nature of changes during puberty, myths and personal hygiene

STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE:

  • Acceptance of responsibility for their actions and safety
  • Respect for the opinions and lives of others
  • Positive attitudes towards people living with addiction
  • Positive attitudes towards personal hygiene and health
  • Acceptance of themselves and change
  • Accepting attitudes and beliefs about drugs and people who use them
  • Understanding media and advertising presentations of alcohol, tobacco and other legal drugs

STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO:

  • Communicate effectively with a wide range of people
  • Identify problem or risk situations and make decision based on accurate information
  • Cope with peer influences, assert their ideas and convey their decisions
  • Use decision making and assertiveness in situations relating to drug use
  • Adjust to changes in their lives
  • Maintain friendships
  • Resist dares and other peer pressure

RX FOR UNDERSTANDING: BE SMART ABOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUGS (GRADES 5-8)

Easy to use, standards-based, cross-curricular lesson plans for grades 5-8. The lessons in this guide represent a cross-curricular approach to teaching with a concentrated emphasis on national education standards, including the National Health Education Standards and the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics.

KIDS HEALTH: DRUG EDUCATION • HEALTH PROBLEMS SERIES (GRADES 6-8)

Despite the fact that they’re illegal and dangerous, drugs are still accessible to kids and teens. These activities will help your students learn what drugs do to the body and mind, and enable them to counter peer pressure to take drugs.

HEADS UP SCHOLASTIC: OPIOIDS AND THE OVERDOSE EPIDEMIC

Lesson plans, related articles, classroom materials and critical thinking questions for drug education with a focus on opioid overdose.

Know the signs of drug use in pre-adolescent children.

  • Negative changes in grades
  • Changes in general behavior, including
  • unusual tiredness, sleeping & eating habits
  • Skipping classes or school
  • Dropping longtime friends
  • Loss of interest in usual activities
  • Changes in appearance
  • Secretive behavior, laughing for no reason

Understand the physical, psychological, social, and legal consequences of opioids, including fentanyl and the factors that influence a person’s use of opioids.

In health education class, students demonstrate strategies for refusing opioids from peers and healthcare professionals while learning about addiction. Health educators teach students the skills needed to recognize the signs and symptoms of drug misuse, dependence, addictive behaviors and how to apply appropriate strategies to intervene and help a friend or family member.

Drug prevention education programs intended for high school students should build upon the protective factors taught in previous grades and use a social norms approach that places emphasis on combining drug information with the social and resistance skills needed to be drug-free. In addition, school personal can connect students to services such as school counseling and recovery assistance.

STUDENTS LEARN:

  • Pressures that can influence health behaviory
  • Physical characteristics of the body and benefits of exercise
  • Non drug taking as an attractive lifestyle
  • Abstinence, moderation and alternatives to drug use
  • Definition of drugs, misuse and drug abuse
  • Drugs and the law
  • Short and long term effects of the most common legal and illegal substances, related diseases, such as HIV and problems in their country

STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE:

  • Willingness to use school and community resources for information about drugs
  • Personal commitment to not use drugs and confidence in personal ability to resist
  • Understanding of the environment, social, and cultural influences on young people’s drug use
  • Value in their own health and the health of their family, now and in the future
  • Acceptance of responsibility in relation to future roles
  • Empathy for people with disability or illness, especially addiction

STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO:

  • Use relationship skills and communicate with parents and peers
  • Give and get care in a variety of situations for health related issues
  • Set short and long term goals
  • Manage their own conflict, aggression, stress and time
  • Identify and assess personal risk and practice universal protection
  • Make decisions and assert themselves and deal with positive and negative peer pressure

Know the signs of drug use in adolescent children.

  • Negative changes in grades
  • Changes in general behavior, including
  • sleeping & eating habits
  • Distancing themselves from longtime friends
  • Sleeping during classes
  • Acting out in class or becoming confrontational
  • Loss of interest, withdrawn in the classroom
  • Skipping classes & school

WHAT TO DO:

Find out if your friend is experimenting with drugs, or if he/she may be addicted. Neither one is good—but you may need more support if your friend is addicted.

Understand that addiction is a brain disease.

Just like you wouldn’t expect someone with cancer to be able to heal herself without a doctor’s help, the right treatment, and support from family and friends, you can’t expect your friend to heal herself.

Know that it’s never easy for anyone to admit that they have a drug problem. You’ll need to be patient—and not give up easily.

Listen, encourage, share, and support. Sounds easy, right? But it’s so hard. We provide further tips and resources in a previous post we wrote titled

“How to Help a Friend in Need.”

WHAT TO SAY:

Just telling your friend that you’re concerned can be a big help. Your friend may not want to talk about it, and the effects of drugs on the brain may keep him from “hearing” you or acting on your advice.

Assure your friend you are there for her and that she is not alone. People with drug problems often have gotten in with the wrong crowd—and they don’t want to turn away from these so-called friends for fear of being alone.

Suggest that he speak to a trusted adult who will keep it confidential. Maybe there’s a family friend who could help?

Turn to a professional for immediate help. If the problem looks to be too big for you to handle alone, or if you’re worried your friend may have suicidal thoughts that she could act on.

Learn about teen drug abuse and find out ways to start a conversation about prescriptions drugs and other opioids.

Teen Drug Experimentation

Half of all new drug users are under the age of 18. Experimentation plays the biggest role in teenage drug use. However, experimentation is a fact of life and just because a teen has tried drugs or alcohol doesn’t mean they will become an addict. It’s more important to understand why some teens are tempted to experiment. Common reasons teens abuse drugs include curiosity, peer pressure, stress, emotional struggles, and a desire to escape.

The majority of adults with an addiction first experimented with drugs before they turned 21. The good news is that the rates of teenage drug abuse have been declining. If you think your teen is using drugs, there are teen addiction treatment options available.

Starting the conversation about drug use and abuse.

The best way to get a teen to communicate about their drug use is by asking compassionate and understanding questions. Open, honest conversations are some of the most powerful tools parents can use to connect with— and protect —their kids. But when tackling some of life’s tougher topics, especially those about drugs and alcohol, just figuring out what to say can be a challenge.

Know the signs of drug use in teens.

  • Negative changes in grades
  • Changes in general behavior, including unusual tiredness, sleeping & eating habits
  • Skipping classes or school, missing curfew
  • Dropping longtime friends, not inter
  • Loss of interest in usual activities, unusual tiredness
  • Changes in appearance, poor hygiene
  • Smell of smoke on breath or clothes
  • Secretive behavior, laughing for no reason

Mind your meds.

Two-thirds of teens who report abuse of prescription medicine are getting it from friends, family and acquaintances. Make sure the teens in your life don’t have access to your medicine. Follow these three steps to find out how to monitor, secure and properly dispose of unused and expired prescription and over-the-counter cough medicine in your home.

STEP 1: MONITOR

Parents are in an influential position to immediately help reduce teen access to prescription medicine because medicine is commonly found in the home. But how aware are you of the quantities that are currently in your home? Think about this: Would you know if some of your pills were missing? From this day forward, make sure you can honestly answer yes.

STEP 2: SECURE

Take prescription medicine out of the medicine cabinet and secure them in a place only you know about. If possible, keep all medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter, in a safe place, such as a locked cabinet your teen cannot access. Spread the word to other households that teens may have access to, and encourage them to secure their prescriptions as well.

STEP 3: DISPOSE

Safely disposing of expired or unused medicine is a critical step in helping to protect your teens, your family and home, and decrease the opportunity for your teens or their friends to abuse your medicine.

By being able to recognize and respond to an overdose, you can save a life.

5 steps to preventing an opioid overdose

Signs of an Overdose

  • The person can’t be woken up
  • Breathing has slowed or stopped
  • Snoring or gurgling sounds
  • Fingernails and lips turning blue or purple
  • Pupils are tiny or eyes are rolled back
  • The body is limp

5 Steps to Respond to an Opioid Overdose

  • SHOUT their name & SHAKE their shoulders
  • CALL 9-1-1 If unresponsive.
  • GIVE NALOXONE: 1 spray into nostril (or inject 1 vial or ampoule into arm or leg)
  • PERFORM CHEST COMPRESSIONS.
  • IS IT WORKING? If no improvement after 2-3 minutes, repeat steps 3 & 4. Stay with them.

Naloxone

Naloxone is a safe medication that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, buying time for a person to get emergency medical care.

Opioids include substances like heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, morphine, oxycodone, and methadone. Sometimes, drugs may contain opioids without the person knowing. Giving naloxone can save a life.

Naloxone takes between 2-3 minutes to work and wears off within 30 to 90 minutes, so it is important to seek further medical attention.

If you have a naloxone kit, remember to:

  • Store it at a temperature of 15-25° C.
  • Check the expiry date

Whether your naloxone is expired or you think it’s been exposed to the elements, any PHU office can replace it free of charge.

How to get Naloxone

If you or someone you know uses substances that may contain opioids, the Porcupine Health Unit and most pharmacies provide free take-home naloxone kits across the area.  See the Government of Ontario’s Where to Get Naloxone page to find out where you can get a free kit or call any health unit office.