Linda Dutil, emergency department nurse and national motivational speaker from Maine, spoke at an event hosted by the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce.DALTON, Ga. - Cheese. Foxy Methoxy. Bath salts.
The names sound innocuous -- even fun -- but are some of the latest trend of "designer" drugs used to appeal to both teenagers and adults, emergency room nurse Linda Dutil said Tuesday.
"I simply show what I see -- the senseless loss of life because of poor choices," said Dutil, speaking to business owners at an event hosted by the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce.
Dutil travels across the country, talking about the effects and impact of drug overdose.
Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in January. Drug overdoses more than tripled between 1990 and 2008, when more than 36,000 people died from overdoses. Most of those deaths were caused by prescription drugs, the CDC report said.
Nearly three out out of four prescription drug overdoses are caused by prescription painkillers, the report noted, calling it a "growing, deadly epidemic."
Tennessee ranks 13th in the nation for drug overdose deaths, while Alabama ranks 20th. Georgia sees far fewer deaths, ranking 36th in the nation.
Tennessee ties Nevada for being second in the nation in amount of prescription painkillers sold, while Alabama ranks seventh. Georgia ranks 33rd.
Dutil, who is from Maine, said she first began talking about her experiences as an emergency room nurse 15 years ago when a sheriff's deputy asked her to speak to some students.
On Tuesday, dressed in red scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck, Dutil demonstrated how to insert a tube down someone's throat to pump the stomach, showed photos of giving a patient charcoal to enduce vomiting and other photos that showed the effects of drug abuse.
Synthetic and prescription drugs have changed the face of drug world in the United States, Dutil said.
"We aren't talking about drug lords, these are chemists that are creating these drugs," she said.
Since many of the people attending the Dalton event were business owners, Dutil also described the signs and symptoms of addiction.
"The biggest indicator someone you know is doing drugs is that you have asked yourself that question," Dutil said.
She also spoke at Dalton's high school and middle school on Tuesday.
Dalton schools Superintendent Jim Hawkins said Dutil was invited to show students what drugs can do to them. Dalton has not seen an unusually high number of overdoses, but it is important to educate the students, he said.
"The gross factor [of the demonstration], that will probably get to the students," Hawkins said.