From left, Tommy Streeter of Warsaw and Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne. Photo provided by Bare Knuckle Recovery

Editor’s note: This is the second in a five-part series.

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Overdose deaths involving opioids across the United States reached 69,710 in 2020, up from 50,963 in 2019, the highest annual toll on record.

This is the second in a five-part series on drug addiction, based on an interview with Tommy Streeter of Warsaw and Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne, both former heroin addicts.

“To understand why so many people got addicted to heroin, you have to go back to the beginning of the opioid epidemic, which was in the late 90s. Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sacklers, came out with Oxycontin, an opiate pain medication,” Moellering said. “Oxycodone is an instant release formula. Oxycontin is the long-acting form of Oxycodone.”

With Oxycontin, the pills slowly release opioids for an extended period of time so the initial effects are less intense.

“They basically touted it as a miracle drug that was much more difficult to become addicted to … and they were correct to a certain extent because it was harder to abuse since it wasn’t an instant release. There was a coating on it that slowed absorption into the bloodstream,” Moellering said.

This created the perfect storm for doctors to write huge quantities of prescription pain medication for everything from a sprained ankle to a fractured hip.

The problem, Moellering explained, was that people quickly discovered you could scrape off the outside coating, crush the pill and it could then be dissolved in water, injected, snorted or smoked. At that point, it became an easily abused substance with a higher milligram than what you would typically get with something like Oxycodone.

“High school sports are a big deal, so a lot of kids get sports injuries, which lead to ACL surgeries, shoulder surgeries, so you’ve got this whole generation that was raised basically immune to the idea that opioids are dangerous,” Moellering said.

Moellering and Streeter were in high school during this time. 

“It was so easy to get prescription pills on the street. It was as easy as finding marijuana or getting somebody to buy you beer,” Moellering said “I got my first prescription of pain meds when I was 15 and had my first shoulder surgery.”

Moellering said he was given “something like 60 Vicodin” with no warning about being cautious.

“It was like ‘Hey, when you need these, take these and if you need more, call us,’” Moellering said. “And it’s not because my doctor was a bad guy. They were being told by these Pharma reps that people wouldn’t become addicted.”

This led to millions of people across the United States becoming addicted to pain medication.

“So you’ve got all these people who grew up becoming addicted to pain medication. Their parents had a legitimate script for Vicodin or Oxycontin, so kids are thinking, well, my mom takes this for pain, and their friends are using it so they don’t see any harm, and it’s readily available,” Moellering said. “So now you’ve got this crackdown. State and local governments are shutting these places down, putting different guidelines out and limiting the amount of prescription opiates you can write … but it’s too late. The population is already addicted.”

In addition, Moellering said, drug cartels were losing a huge amount of money on marijuana because the quality of marijuana in America was far superior to the marijuana in Mexico. 

“What the cartels did realize was that they were making a ton of money diverting all these pain medications to the population. Eventually their supply of pain medications dried up so what did they do? Started producing large amounts of heroin. They filled a void that happened to open just at the right time. And so now you see the explosion of heroin in the streets,” Moellering said. 

Heroin is more powerful, less expensive and easier to produce in large quantities and bring over the border.

Worse yet is what’s on the street today.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. On the left is a lethal dose of heroin; on the right, a lethal dose of fentanyl.

“There are no prescription pain pills. It’s all Fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than Morphine. It’s a synthetic opioid and 2 mg. can kill you,” Moellering said. “They’re putting it in everything. It’s pouring into the United States at rates we’ve never seen. There are lots of things that could be done to stop this. To think that the federal government doesn’t know what’s happening is … they do. They know exactly what’s going on.” 

People may not even realize that the drug they’re taking contains Fentanyl, as it’s often passed off as pure heroin. Because Fentanyl is more potent than heroin, it can cause a toxic buildup, leading to overdose at lower doses.

“Fentanyl is wiping out an entire generation very quickly,” Moellering said. “We have kids dying in Allen County that are 14, 16 years old. They’re selling these drugs on the street as prescription pain pills – they’re not. They look just like them because they’re using pill presses to make these things.”

Previously used strictly as pharmaceutical pain relief at the end of life or for surgical procedures, Fentanyl is now responsible for a growing number of overdose deaths.

Drug dealers are targeting children as new users of Fentanyl pills. Some teens are under the impression they’re buying Adderall, Xanax, Oxycodone or another medication.

“And they’re using Snapchat to do it because it disappears so they can’t track it,” Moellering said. “Snapchat is the new virtual open air drug market.”

Part one of the series can be read here.

In part three of the drug addiction series, scheduled to post at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, Streeter and Moellering talk about addiction and how opioids affect your brain.