Drugs

Yesterday was an interesting one for me. In the morning I traveled to Annapolis, Maryland for the quarterly TRIAD/SALT meeting. TRIAD is an organization consisting of three parts: Police Departments (Mainly Sheriff's Offices), AARP, and senior citizens doing things to ensure that our older citizens enjoy a scam-proof life. SALT stands for the "councils" under TRIAD (Seniors And Law-enforcement Together). I am the civilian coordinator for Carroll County TRIAD.

The main topic of this quarterly meeting was Elderly Abuse resulting from drug-related activity. We watched a film provided by the Office of the Vermont Attorney General. We saw surveillance footage of care-givers doing some unbelievable things.

For instance, a care-giver at a Hospice facility actually removed a pain patch from a dying patient, sucked on it to get a high, and then put it back on the patient.

A care-giver took pills from a bottle with drugs that were supposed to be given to a terminally ill person.

A nurse asked a patient if his pain was bearable... when he said "yes", she took the pills he was supposed to get.

There were other equally gross situations. These people were caught because a family member questioned why pain was not being relieved for their loved one. There must be other situations that have never been caught.

This film should be given wide distribution. Toni Katz of the Maryland Attorney General's Office is showing the film to Ombudsmen in all of the 27 Maryland Counties and I will be asking her to bring the film to the TRIAD Conference that Carroll County will be hosting in October 2009.

When Elaine had her first knee operation, she had to be in the hospital for a number of days, so her usual prescription pills had to be given to her by a nurse. On the first day, the nurse handed her all of her daily pills and told her that she had to take them all at the same time. This would have been very bad for Elaine because certain pills have to be given once in the morning and once in the evening. To take them at the same time could be extremely dangerous.

Elaine refused to take them at the same time and had to almost physically fight with the nurse to get her to give in and separate the pill taking time. The nurse was not happy about this.

About 8 years ago, a family friend went into the hospital for observation concerning a rather minor physical complaint. She, like Elaine, had to have several prescription drugs. As she lay there in bed, a so-called social worker came to see her and said that she had looked at the list of pills that our friend took and called her a "drug-addict" and said that she had to report her to the police. Our friend, who was not that ill, dropped dead the next day.

Ms Katz gave us a lot of information about the drug scene. She reminded us that we should not leave drugs around the house, in full view. Senior Citizens are probably all guilty of that. However, we should realize that visitors (and even Grandchildren) could possibly have a drug or money problem. An unguarded bottle of oxycontin might be an overwhelming temptation.

Also... what should one do with pills that are no longer needed? Ms Katz says: Don't flush! Crush! and mix them with kitty litter if you have it. Cover it and put it into the garbage can for pickup. (If people flush pills, we could end up with a Bay filled with "high" fish.)

While we are on the subject of drugs, remember that cattle ingest lots of drugs.. to make them grow bigger.. to make them mature earlier.. and when we eat the big hamburger, could we also be ingesting the drugs that they ingested.. just a little while later? Why do we have such big fat kids these days? Medical records indicate that some young teen-agers already have clogged arteries.

Are other meats any better?

I hope I haven't depressed you too much today.