School nurses warned of painkiller abuse

BANGOR – Former U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey told his audience even legal drugs can be dangerous.

Physicians might prescribe the medication, he said at a conference for school nurses Tuesday at Husson College, “but they don’t tell you to crush it up and snort it or cook it up and inject it.”

McCloskey’s lecture on the prevalence and effects of painkillers such as OxyContin and hydrocodone in Maine’s schools was part of a three-day school nurses conference that began Monday. The nurses are attending lectures dealing with topics varying from grant writing to depression and suicidal behavior.

Diane Dow, a school nurse at Erskine Academy in South China, said she came to the conference to learn about grant writing. Because of the conference, she said, she is going to go forward with the school’s “Shape Up/Shape Down” program, which deals with eating habits and general health.

Bonnie Hopper, president of the Maine Association of School Nurses and a school nurse at Lincoln Academy in Damariscotta, said the conference has been “done sporadically” for the last 10 years. Last year, the seminar was held at the University of New England in Biddeford. She said it usually attracts about 100 school nurses from throughout the state and features speakers from throughout the country.

McCloskey spoke in blunt terms to about 10 people in Peabody Hall about the damage and effects of a newer form of drug abuse becoming prevalent in Maine schools. He said his interest in the topic stems from prosecuting “model students” such as honor students and athletes caught with painkillers when he was a federal prosecutor.

“I think the only way to stop it is prevention, education and substance abuse treatment,” McCloskey said, adding that Penobscot and Hancock counties have experienced a spike in the use of the heroinlike drugs in recent years. Until 2001, McCloskey formed and participated in anti-drug presentations in high schools across the state.

Also speaking at the event Tuesday was Dr. Alan Agins of Brown University.

Agins, an adjunct professor of pharmacology at Brown’s School of Medicine, led an in-depth discussion of psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin and Dexedrine. He said that, because the drugs deal with the mental health of children, the effect of the drugs often is not noticed immediately. The drugs must be coupled with behavioral therapy to be effective, he said.

“It is not an exact science,” Agins said.

Hopper said she hopes to make the conference an annual event.