Even School Board Members Aren’t Immune to Opiate Overdoses
It’s a sad day in paradise when literally no one is immune to drug overdoses. This is our current society folks, and no one is safe. Not our sons or daughters, not mothers or fathers, not our beloved celebrities and not even our elected political officials. We live in a day and age when doing drugs is extraordinarily dangerous. Even weed isn’t safe with its super strong potency and the possibility of it being laced with fentanyl or other substances. I remember a time when people could take drugs with a little more ease; not having to worry about overdosing. But times have changed, my friend, along with the drugs themselves. Lately, the number of overdoses nationwide has been growing by leaps and bounds and as the years go on, the numbers seem to be infinitely increasing, rather than decreasing. These days, just about anyone can overdose. Recently, a local political official in Ohio was the latest victim of the smorgasbord of strong drugs our country has to offer.
In Akron, Ohio a school board member was recently found overdosed in their car. Found unconscious in the front seat of his car, 911 was called and dispatched to the scene where John Robert Otterman was administered four doses of Narcan to bring him out of an overdose and get him breathing again. He was then taken to Akron City Hospital and treated. Four doses is a massive dose of Narcan and it illustrates how strong heroin and fentanyl really are. You used to be able to pop someone out of an overdose with 2mg of Narcan and now it’s sometimes taking upwards of 6 to 8 mg to get someone responsive again. The School Board President Patrick Bravo said, “Our primary concern is Mr. Otterman's health and safety, and our thoughts are with him and his family. As a duly elected official, the board is limited as to what we can do. We can deal with everything else tomorrow, but right now our primary concern is him." Apparently, this wasn’t Otterman’s first run-in with the law. He had previously pled guilty to disorderly conduct charges in a similar situation a few months ago.
Even our elected officials can overdose on drugs. Just about anyone can. All it takes is one shot, one line, one fatal mistake and then it’s lights out. It’s a scary time to do drugs because you never know how strong something is until you push the plunger in or swallow it—and then it’s too late.
My question is—when is everything going to change? When are we going to shift the paradigm of how we deal with our problems? When are we going to learn how to handle our problems instead of running from them? That’s the key to all of this…learning how to handle and deal with our issues instead of drowning our insecurities, problems, and failures in drugs and alcohol. I wish, more than anything that things will change.
Drug rehab is the key—we need to learn how to live life again.
