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Want meds? Grin and bear it if you can

f you can tolerate pain after a surgery, do so without drugs.

If you have a headache or minor ailment, tolerate it without drugs.

If you feel sick, try the holistic approach to treatment without drugs.

You get the message.

Try to approach “getting better” or “feeling better” without taking drugs prescribed by your doctor.

We say this in the aftermath of a very good Town Hall meeting last week at Lock Haven University to address the opiate drug crisis in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

Did you read the statistics?

r Opiate drug overdoses in Pennsylvania in the past decade claimed 4,642 lives.

r Rural communities have especially been hit hard, with rural counties seeing a 42-percent increase in drug-related overdose deaths between 2015 and 2016.

r Clinton and Lycoming counties occupy the middle space on the spectrum of drug overdose death rates, with Clinton seeing 10 overdose deaths in 2016 — more than double the amount in 2015 — and Lycoming seeing 34 overdose deaths. In Clinton County, most of those deaths were attributed to fentanyl, and in Lycoming County the deaths were largely due to heroin. Fentanyl was the second highest cause of overdose deaths in Lycoming County.

Congrats to LHU and health sciences professor Dr. Beth McMahon for helping to keep this issue at the forefront of our attention. She and Deputy Chief Probation Officer Ed Hosler arranged a panel of heavy hitters to talk about the crisis at the town hall.

LHU Provost Dr. Donna Wilson drilled down on the issue, saying, “It’s a matter of life and death, it’s a matter of family and social fabric, and it’s a matter of the future of our children.”

Clinton County President Judge Craig Miller, in just one statement, said what the courts have learned from this ongoing challenge: “We believe that the opiate issue is a health disorder, a disease… not a crime. But I’m not saying that jail isn’t a part of the solution.” That marks a significant transition in court thinking on drug addiction, we believe.

For those who brush off the crisis, consider this: One of the biggest issues facing Clinton and Lycoming counties is drug-addicted pregnant women who give birth to babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), meaning they are born dependent on opioids.

Strides are being made, and let us tell you, it’s encouraging to learn this:

UPMC Susquehanna has also imposed a policy of a three-day maximum opioid prescription coming from hospital and emergency workers in order to discourage patients from abusing or selling extra pills and to encourage them to consult with a primary care provider.

UPMC Susquehanna Lock Haven no longer prescribes opioids for pain management.

We all need to learn more about opiate addiction, starting with our physicians.

We rely so much on our doctors to help us heal and to save our lives.

We want our physicians to be “experts” on opiate addiction so they know going into a treatment regiment for a patient what the full risks are … over time.

Opiate addiction — drug addiction in general — should be a key part of training and education for physicians.

As one paneliest said, society must try to reach a middle ground between giving chronic pain sufferers relief and finding alternative solutions to deal with temporary pain.

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