Published: March 24, 2008 09:57 am            

Pushin' Pills:

A deadly experiment

Dabbling in prescription medications can be deadly. It’s something Janet Turner knows well.

Turner, who is a licensed pharmacist at Inola Drug, had a nephew die from a drug overdose the day after Easter in 2006.

The only drug found in his system was Oxycodone. The autopsy report stated the level of Oxycodone found in his blood was not lethal.

“He died of side effects,” said Turner. “He hadn’t taken too much.”

Alfred, who was 20 at the time, died from aspiration due to adverse effects from Oxycodone. Aspiration is when fluid enters the lungs or trachea, preventing the person from breathing.

Turner explained Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Methadone affect the receptors in a person’s brain. Basically, Turner said when your brain tells you to breathe, the body can’t and a person chokes on their own

bodily fluids.

Turner thinks a previous overdose a month before weakened Alfred’s body, contributing to his death.

“He might have thought he was okay,” said Turner.

Alfred had developed pneumonia from the vomit he ingested during the first overdose.

Turner said Alfred’s friends found him passed out with vomit coming out of his mouth. His friends rushed him to South Crest Hospital in Tulsa, where he was stabilized.

Turner said he overdosed on a combination of Soma and Xanax.

She tried to speak with him while he was in the hospital, but Alfred didn’t want to agree to rehab.

“I told him ‘He’s got a second chance. Make sure you do it right,’” she said.

But she didn’t realize just what addiction would make a person say and do.

“They tell you they’re not going to do it again,” she said. Alfred even signed a contract with his mother that he would never take pills again.

“I think he really did try to not do it again,” she said. “We have to realize he’s an addict. They need help when they are that addicted. They just can’t stop.

“I didn’t realize until after,” she said. “I think he says he’s not going to do it again. He’s not.”

The last time Alfred would take pills was Easter 2006.

Turner cried as she

remembered Alfred at her

grandmother’s house that day.

As he was leaving to meet with friends, she has him on video



tape saying “I’m done with pills.”

She even questioned him earlier that day about taking pills. “He said ‘Oh no, I’m not. I’m just drinking a little bit’.

“If I was inside the house I would have known that wasn’t true,” she said, explaining family members described him acting “pretty out of it.”

Turner carries a lot of guilt, wondering if she could have done something to save him that day.

Her sister called the next day with the news that Alfred was dead. She said Alfred passed out in a chair at a friend’s house and was found the next morning. Emergency personnel pronounced him dead on scene.

Turner wonders if he thought he could take just one or two. She suspects his body hadn’t recovered from the first overdose and he choked to death on his own bodily fluids.

Since Alfred’s death, Turner has sought information on addiction. From discussions with other family members, she discovered Alfred began using drugs at the age of 13.

Turner thinks she may have suspected Alfred’s use, but she never knew how bad it was until the overdose.

“I just don’t think I knew to what extent,” she said. “I did not realize until after the first overdose how truly addicted he was. I don’t know a lot and still don’t.”

She said Alfred never told her everything. Turner would talk to Alfred about what he was doing and the potential consequences, but she doesn’t think he was honest with her.

“He didn’t want me to be disappointed and he knows what I’m gonna tell him,” she said. “When you do try and tell him, he lies about it ... He never admitted this. Complete denial until the end.”

She remembers her husband, Drew, telling her Alfred wasn’t being entirely truthful.

“I never realized the severity,” she said. “All you know is they’re not acting right. Don’t know why ... you just have your feelings.”

Turner warns people of the effects of Oxycodone and Methadone.

“You’re just asking for it when you’re messing with Oxycodone and Methadone,” she said, explaining Alfred started off with less potent medication and worked his way up to “harder stuff.”

“They start taking these and it takes more and more and more to get a high,” she said. “They just don’t have any idea. How far do you have to go down before it’s enough?”

Turner said having a nephew die from an overdose has made her more aware of drug abuse in general.

“It’s a rising problem, drug overdoses due to prescription drugs taken for recreational use,” she said. “I never realized it ... then you start opening your eyes and you start looking for it.”

She encourages everyone to talk about it and discuss prescriptions and the consequences with their children.

“Talk, talk, talk to your kids,” she said. “I just don’t think you can talk enough.”

Through her research, Turner’s discovered a child with one addicted parent will have a 40 to 60 percent chance of being addicted.

But a child with two addicted parents has a 90 percent chance that they will also fight addiction problems.

She said addiction is powerful. “You take your uppers, you take your downers. You wake up and do it again,” she said. “It’s just a cycle.”

From her experience, Turner thinks downers like Oxycodone, Methadone, Xanax and others are much more deadly.

“Stay away,” she warns. “Don’t try it because you don’t know. One dose of Methadone, you’re taking a chance. If your body doesn’t need it because you’re in pain, you are really playing with fire.”

She thinks the punishment for people who sell prescription pills should be severe.

“How are kids getting these,” she asked? “If they want to get it, they can get it.”

Turner questioned Alfred when he was in the hospital on the first overdose, but he would never admit where the pills came from.

“People know how to get their drugs,” said Turner.

She said people know not to go to the same doctor or pharmacist and to pay with cash.

She said recently, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs set up a database where all controlled substances sold at a pharmacy must be logged. Anyone filling a prescription for a controlled drug must give the pharmacy their

driver’s liense and that number is logged in the database.

“That probably will help,” she said.

But pharmacists are not required to go in and check, only enter the information into the database. Although doctors have access to the free database, doctors are not required to check when prescribing a narcotic either.

Turner’s husband, Drew, said most pharmacists attempt to work together and if they suspect someone is abusing the system, they’ll call each other to check.

Although the new database can help, Turner thinks the best way to combat the problem is by discussing the issue as a family.

Her entire reason for coming forward about Alfred’s death is to possibly keep another person from overdosing.

“Stop others from doing this,” Turner said with tears welling. “There’s a lot of guilt. You always think ‘if I would have done more.’

“I think they should do whatever they can up front so they won’t have to feel the lows of something this low,” she said.

As a pharmacist, Turner knows prescription abuse is out there and feels obligated to do something.

“I feel like God wants me to do this, to come forward,” she said. “I have a 12- and 8-year-old. I need to do all I can to make sure it’s safe.”

Turner says the key is sharing with loved ones.

“They will lie ... I don’t think he ever admitted he did anything to me except with the overdose,” she warned. “They don’t want you to know, no matter what. That’s just the power of addiction.”

        

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