The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

December 23, 2011

Detective addresses drug issues with nurses

By Sarah Plummer Register-Herald Reporter

Detective Jason McDaniel, with Beckley Police Department’s Narcotics Division, spoke Thursday with Raleigh County school nurses about drug problems they may come up against within the schools. One issue he does see increasing in schools — mimicking the larger population — is prescription drug abuse.

Prescription drugs, he said, have presented a unique challenge for police. Instead of traditional drug runs coming through large cities like Detroit and Chicago, “there is a connect, or two or three, on every corner. Prescription drug abuse has changed who drug dealers are. Now they can be 70-year-old grandparents on fixed income.”

McDaniel explained that prescription drugs are not always considered as dangerous as other drugs because people think “it’s only a prescription pill. It came from a doctor. It won’t hurt anyone.”

Pills are socially accepted, he said. Much like pot, they see pill use across all cultures and all social status.

For this reason, McDaniel said the gateway drug, which has been considered marijuana, has become prescription pills.

“They are acceptable because if you go into someone’s home and see a prescription in the medicine cabinet, you aren’t going to be shocked. It’s not like they have heroin or crack in there. There is a legitimate need for every pill,” he said.

The most common prescription drug found in the Beckley area is oxycodone, he said.

“One problem for law enforcement is that they are legal,” he continued. “If I pull a guy over and I see a bottle of pills that have his name on them, I may know he is selling them in my heart, but unless I get a controlled buy, I can’t arrest him.”

Luckily, McDaniel said he sees the police becoming more successful at cracking down on drug abuse by encouraging doctors to check up on their patients’ prescriptions and verifying MRIs.

Once oxycodone is harder to find on the streets, however, the police expect to see an increase in another opiate — heroin.

“Heroin is coming and there will be a huge increase in overdoses because of it, but it will be easier to fight because we can track heroin. It will be coming from designated drops instead of every pharmacy,” he said.

McDaniel showed the nurses confiscated heroin and crack and explained the different methods of taking the drugs to make sure they can recognize these substances.

“I think there is not as much education in schools about prescription drugs as there should be. When I was in school, every day we heard ‘don’t drink and drive.’ There were signs everywhere. Pill education needs to be in the schools and needs to be every day,” he stated.

McDaniel also spoke to the nurses about a drug they frequently see in their line of work — Ritalin.

For a child with ADHD, Ritalin helps calm him or her; however, for an adult who is not ADHD, Ritalin is like speed, he said.

If a nurse thinks an adult is using a child’s prescription, their best line of defense is to report child neglect.

“It is easier to prove that a child is being neglected because they are being denied their prescription than to catch the parents taking or selling the drug,” McDaniel said.

“Every nurse has the right to call a child’s doctor and report they suspect a child is not being given his prescription and ask the doctor to have him blood tested,” he said.

McDaniel also said school nurses will also run into steroids.

“You would be amazed how many kids are being provided steroids by their parents. They are in Raleigh County gyms and high schools,” he said.

He also pointed out that kids still use a large variety of inhalants to get high, like correction fluid, deodorants, hair products, fabric softeners, rubber cement, felt tip pens and many petroleum products.

— E-mail: splummer@register-herald.com

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