Johnson County is not immune to the effects of the opioid epidemic, officials say.
By Kayli Reese
The use of heroin and other opioid drugs has been increasing throughout the nation, and Johnson County is no exception to this trend, area officials report.
Steve Steine, a clinical manager at Prelude Behavioral Services, said the Johnson County area, as well as Polk County, is not experiencing the opioid use epidemic at the same level as the rest of the nation has been over the past 30 years. However, he said, Iowa’s experience is on a smaller scale because of the demographics of the population.
Steine said Prelude takes data from its patients yearly. Last year, of the 2,229 Prelude patients in Polk and Johnson Counties surveyed about their drugs of choice, fewer than 1 percent of the patients named heroin and other opioids as their preference. At the end of the last fiscal year, June 30, he said, 6 percent of patients named heroin as their drug of choice.
Individuals in the community seeking out heroin do so, Steine said, because of not having access to synthetic opioids. Prescription opioids, he said, are in such an abundance that every man, woman, and child in Johnson County could have an abundant supply.
Drug culture has been a part of society for thousands of years, Steine pointed out. The use is not the main problem, he said; drug use is an indicator of underlying problems, such as chronic pain.
“We’re seeing a definite uptick in opioid use,” Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan said.
Sullivan said this increase can be contributed to people gravitating to what is available in terms of drugs.
Johnson County Supervisor Mike Carberry also said he sees an increase in opioid use in the area, because more overdoses have occurred.
“This is a problem that’s nationwide, statewide, and local,” he said.
Treatment methods being used for opioid use in Johnson County, Steine said, are referred to as medication-assisted treatment options. Drugs such as methadone and vivitrol can be given to patients. These medications trick the body into thinking heroin is in its system without giving a patient the high usually produced from the drug.
There is no great, clear solution to drug issues, Sullivan said. Johnson County looks at what prevention methods work throughout the county and has a tendency to follow that lead, he said. Examples of these methods, he said, include teaching public-safety officials to give Naloxone shots to individuals who have overdosed.
“I would like to see our resources go to more dangerous drugs,” Sullivan said.
He said marijuana should be decriminalized, and resources should instead be put into preventing use in opioids and amphetamines.
People may turn to using drugs such as heroin as prescription drug prices rise, Carberry contended.
Also, drug use is a health-care issue and should be treated as such; criminalizing the use of drugs should not be the focus, he said.
“Drug dealing is a criminal issue,” Carberry said. “Addiction is a health issue.”
Helping those who deal with drug addiction should be the focus of resources, he said, noting that lifting people up and helping those who cannot help themselves is of the utmost importance.