Andy's Angels helps families and addicts cope with opioid addiction by creating awareness, providing assistance for rehabilitation, and offering continued support. Opiates are highly addictive painkillers and depressants that were once commonly prescribed but now cause thousands of overdose deaths each year. As prescription opiates became regulated, many addicts turned to cheaper heroin, fueling a rise in heroin use and deaths. Breaking the cycle of addiction requires securing medications, disposing of unused pills, educating youth, and encouraging treatment options over continued prescriptions.

1. Andy’s Angels

2. Who is Andy’s Angels and how we are
helping others?
 Creating Awareness
 Working with families on how to cope
 Working with addicts to make positive changes
in life and to seek out treatment
 Providing assistance to those who cannot
afford rehabilitation
 Continue to work with families and addicts
during and after the recovery process

3. What are Opiates?
 Opiates are narcotics derived from Opium
 Can be produced naturally or synthetically
 Act as depressants in the Central Nervous
System
 Alleviate pain and produce feelings of
euphoria
 Highly Addictive
 Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, Fentanyl,
Demerol, Morphine, Hydrocodone, Heroin

4. History of Opiates
 1810 Morphine is developed as a Painkiller
 1850s Morphine is used to treat pain and is
available over the counter
 1860s Thousands of soldiers returning home
from Civil War are morphine addicts
 1874 Heroin is developed in place of morphine
to cure people of their morphine addiction. It
was considered safe and non addictive
 1870s-1900s Heroin is packaged and given to
adults and children as freely as aspirin today

5. History of Opiates Cont’d
 1911 Bristish Pharmaceutical Codex publishes
Heroin as addictive
 1913 Bayer ceases producing Heroin
 1920 Congress implements Dangerous Drug
Act which no longer allows Heroin to be sold
over the counter
 1924 Heroin Epidemic leads Congress to pass
the Heroin Act making possession and sale
illegal
 1995 Oxycontin is introduced for terminal
cancer patients only

6. How Opiates Manipulate the
Brain
 We depend on our brain’s ability to release
dopamin, and endorphin, in order to
experience pleasure and motivate our
responses to everyday life
 Opiates produce very large and rapid
dopamine surges and the brain responds by
reducing normal dopamine activity and over
time ceases production altogether
 The ability to experience any pleasure is
reduced and causes depression and lifelessness.

8. Oxycontin is Introduced
 1995 Purdue Pharma introduces Oxycontin for
terminally ill cancer patients
 2001 Congress declares a “Decade of Pain
Control” and encourages doctors to treat all
patients for pain
 300 million prescriptions for opiates are written
which is enough for every adult American to be
medicated around the clock for one month
 US consumes 80% of all of the worlds supply of
opiates

9. Purdue Pharma
 2007 plead guilty for “intent to defraud public”
 They advertised Oxycontin as “addiction
proof” and promoted the drug for off label uses
 Forced to pay $635 million in fines

10. How Big is the Problem
 In 2010 12 million people in the US (over 12)
reported using prescription painkillers for
nonmedical reasons
 The misuse and abuse was responsible for more
than 475,000 emergency room visits
 Accidental overdoses claims more lives each year
than firearms, homicides, AIDS, and vehicle
accidents
 22 million Americans have a dependency problem
 1 Baby born every hour with an opiate dependency
 One death every 19 minutes

11. Rates of prescription
painkiller sales, deaths and
substance abuse treatment
admissions (1999-2010)

14. Why kids are using
prescription opiates?
 If a doctor prescribed it then it must be safe
 See parents and grandparents taking them
 Found in most medicine cabinets

15. 2010 Purdue Pharma produces a
time release form of Oxycotin and
Heroin use escalates
 Time release doesn’t produce immediate
“high”
 Oxy =$80 per pill
 Heroin = $10 per hit
 Easy access to cheap Heroin which has same
molecular structure as Oxycontin

16. Molecular Structure of Oxycontin
Molecular Structure of Heroin

17. Heroin Use on the Rise 2011
 Ohio has more heroin deaths than on the highway
 Charlotte, NC sees five-fold increase
 Cincinnati has 900% increase in heroin confiscated
 Heroin addicts seeking treatment rises in Michigan
from 7,857 to 10,924
 680 people die from heroin overdoses in Michigan
 In Jackson County, there are 9 deaths in 2011, 12
deaths in 2012, and 3 deaths this year already

18. Path of an Opiate User
1. Fun: Escape from reality. Rush of euphoria
2. Dependency: Can happen after just 3 days of
use. Body has a physical dependence for the
drug and without it the user can withdrawal
3. Addiction: Chemical change has occurred in
the brain. Drug is needed above all else
including food an water
4. Illegal Activity: Usually theft to support the
drug habit. Also, driving under the influence
5. Death

19. Know the Signs
 Withdrawal from activities, work, friends
 Hanging out with a new group of people
 Excessive absence from work or school
 Excessive Sleeping
 Lack on interest in food
 Weight loss
 Headaches
 No money
 Missing spoons
 Empty lighters
 Qtips

20. SEEK HELP
IMMEDIATELY
Your Loved One is Dying

21. What you can do in your
home
 Secure prescription drugs
 Dispose of any unused prescriptions
 Educate yourself on the signs
 Educate your kids on the dangers of opiates

22. Conversations you can
have with your doctor
 Look for alternatives when being prescribed an
opiate
 Ask your doctor about the drug prescribed and
its side effects
 Ask about dosage and make sure the amount
prescribed is limited to a short period of time

23. What you can do in your
community
 Form your own neighborhood watch group
 Exchange information with other parents about
drug use
 Work with local law enforcement
 Talk with your schools regarding educating
children on drug use
 Talk to your local elected officials regarding
unused prescription drop off centers

24. To look the other way is to
give permission.
– Mike Hirst