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ST. L OU IS PARK (21030)
sailor.mnsun.com
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 • Page 4
Opioids are killing
our neighbors
After her fourth major
back surgery and enough
chronic pain to fell an
elephant, it would have
been easy for my wife to
succumb to the preferred
route of treatment: pre-
scription painkillers.
As a nurse she had
seen and helped treat
numerous patients who
had been through simi-
lar back surgeries and
she also saw how easy it
was to slide into the trap
of masking pain with a
drug. Her solution was
to avoid the drugs, accept
a certain level of lifelong
distress and exercise her
way through the rest. It
has not been easy, but
the alternative is a pos-
sible freefall into a very
dark hole.
Still, it would be near-
ly impossible for anyone
coming out of a surgery
to not utilize some form
of a pharmaceutical so-
lution. The pain is simply
too severe. It’s the weeks
and months after surgery
that become critical for
many. Most can wean
themselves off. But the
addictive nature of some
drugs can be overwhelm-
ing.
For the past 20 years
our nation has been un-
der attack by opioids.
In Minnesota alone, 422
people died in 2017 as a
result of opioid overdose.
That is approximately
a 300 percent increase
from 2003 opioid deaths,
according to data from
the CDC.
Nationally, the num-
bers are staggering. In
2003, 12,940 people died
from opioid overdose. By
2017, that number had
skyrocketed to 47,600.
The illegally produced
drug heroin has also be-
come a big killer because
of its availability and
cost. It is often a next step
for addicts when they get
cut off from prescription
meds. It claimed more
than 15,482 lives in 2017.
In 2003, 2,080 people
died of heroin overdose.
Natural and semisyn-
thetic opioids, such as
oxycodone and hydro-
codone, have long been
a big problem as people
Guest
Columnist
Keith Anderson is the director
of news for APG of East Central
Minnesota. He can be reached at
[email protected] .
See Anderson , Page 5
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KEITH
ANDERSON
have struggled with those
prescription painkillers.
In 2003, 4,867 Ameri-
cans died from overdose
on those drugs. By 2017,
the number of Americans
killed by overdose from
those prescription drugs
had increased to 14,495.
The abuse is not re-
stricted to certain age
groups. In Minnesota,
people between the ages
of 25-34 represented 26
percent of the opioid
deaths in 2017. Those
between the ages of 45-
54 accounted for 23 per-
cent, while 35-44 was 20
percent, 55+ were 17 per-
cent and those under the
age of 24 stood at 13.5
percent. This is touching
every demographic of
our society.
Still not convinced this
is a serious issue? How
do you feel about mur-
der? There were 113 ho-
micides in Minnesota in
2017. Nationally there
were 17,284 reported ho-
micides. As startling as
those numbers may seem,
they represented about
one third the number of
deaths from opioid over-
dose in the same year.
If you’re like many
Minnesotans, you re-
member the day Prince
died: April 21, 2016. He
brought so much joy,
energy and life to the
world. Most people were
stunned when they heard
of his death. It seemed
like the whole nation
paused for a few days.
For months people trav-
eled to Paisley Park as if
on a religious pilgrimage,
tagging purple balloons,
ribbons and posters to a
fence, all hoping to ease
their personal agony. As
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Legislature
should pass gun
safety legislation
To the Editor:
While many of us spent
Valentine’s Day celebrat-
ing with loved ones, fami-
lies in Parkland, Florida,
spent the day remember-
ing their loved ones lost
to gun violence a year ago.
I was also mourning my
own anniversary, the loss
of a former student to a
self-infl icted gun injury
that happened while I was
on the phone with her
mother. I spent that Val-
entine’s Day in 2007, the
fi rst I would spend with
the man who became my
husband, not celebrating
love or romance but being
interviewed by homicide
detectives and having pan-
ic attacks. Twelve years
later, I’ve learned one
important fact about gun
violence: we don’t have to
live this way. While events
like this make many of us
feel helpless and hopeless,
there are practical steps
that can be taken in our
communities and in our
country to prevent such
horrifi c events from hap-
pening again.
The newly instated Min-
nesota House has identi-
fi ed gun violence as a top
priority this legislative
season. To that end, they
have taken the important
step of introducing a bill
supporting background
checks on all gun sales.
This measure would close
loopholes in our current
law. A recent investiga-
tion into online gun sales
by Everytown For Gun
Safety, the largest gun
violence prevention orga-
nization in the country,
discovered that in 2018,
nearly 1.2 million ads
were posted on Armslist.
com for fi rearm sales that
had no legal requirement
for a background check
– including 28,818 ads in
Minnesota. This is simply
unacceptable.
I am not anti-gun. I
am anti-gun violence and
pro-gun safety. I want
responsible, law-abiding
citizens to have access to
fi rearms while at the same
time keeping guns away
from those who would use
them to harm themselves
or others. I urge my neigh-
bors to please contact our
state legislators to encour-
age them to support back-
ground checks on all gun
sales – in honor of the vic-
tims and survivors of the
Parkland school shooting,
in honor of my student,
Daisy, and to ensure that
we all are able to celebrate
with our loved ones for
many years to come.
Bethany Penna
St. Louis Park
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