Two years ago, Salt Lake City resident Michael Doron lost his 17-year-old son, Joey, to an OxyContin overdose.
Joey became addicted after the mother of one of his friends distributed the drug, along with alcohol, to a group of teens, Doron told a crowd of about 100 in the Salt Lake City Library auditorium Wednesday night.
Doron tried to get help for his son. He went to school counselors and physicians from two different hospitals but was told Joey's strange behavior was within the realm of normalcy for teens.
"My son is dead," he said. "That's not normal."
Since Joey's death, Doron has founded Connecting The Dots, a parental drug awareness organization, and is now working with the Salt Lake City Mayor's Coalition on Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs.
His speech Wednesday was part of a town hall meeting presented by the mayor's coalition, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association and the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.
The meeting was one of 12 taking place nationwide as part of a recent congressional declaration of August as National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month.
Mayor Rocky Anderson, the keynote speaker for the meeting, told the crowd 6.5 percent of Utahns over the age of 12 used prescription painkillers without a prescription in 2006.
Prescription and over-the-counter drug abusers comprised 7.8 percent of teenagers and 13 percent of adults younger than 25, Anderson said.
In addition, 307 Utahns died from overdoses of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines last year. A smaller number of Utahns died in automobile accidents during the same time period, he said.
"All of us in business, government and throughout our community urgently need to seek solutions to this alarming problem in our city and to find out how to help those who need treatment," Anderson said. "That's why we're here tonight."
After Anderson spoke, a panel of five experts, including Doron, addressed the audience. They discussed their experiences with drug abusers, then proposed solutions to the problem.
LDS Hospital emergency room physician Shari Welch said she sees at least one major overdose each night and constantly tries to weed out drug-seekers from those who legitimately need help.
She proposed that information technology be used to help combat the problem and mentioned a statewide database that tracks medications prescribed to patients. The database, which has been used since the mid-1990s, can be accessed by all prescribing physicians as well as law enforcement officers.
George Van Komen, a doctor and activist against Internet prescription drug trafficking, recommended that physician-patient relationships be strengthened and that physicians be more willing to confront their patients about the possibility of drug abuse.
He also spoke strongly against what he called "rogue Web sites" that write and fill prescriptions without in-person visits, but he said the Internet also can be beneficial.
"I believe that a great increase in health will occur when people take control of their own health," he said after the meeting.
Other panelists discussed making mental health treatment less expensive and more readily available, and keeping drugs out of the reach of children and teens.
Following the panel discussion, audience members expressed frustration over the pervasiveness of prescription drug advertisements and the power of the pharmaceutical industry, which some said they feel is responsible for increasing prescription drug abuse and overdoses.
Others spoke about the loss of loved ones to overdoses, and concerns about toxicity arising from the simultaneous prescription of several drugs.
The panelists countered that prescription drugs are beneficial if used correctly.
For more information about drug abuse and how to combat it, visit the Web sites www.doseofprevention.org, www.justthinktwice.com or www.teendrugabuse.us.
Also, www.erowid.com is a site that gives free information about how to abuse drugs. Parents were advised Wednesday night to check out the site and others like it in order to better understand what their children might be reading.
E-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com