CLEVELAND – With recent news of record drug overdose deaths across the country and in our own backyards, News 5 investigators went in search of cutting-edge strategies. in this war on drugs.
Joe and Angie Denes are from Marengo, Ohio, a small town in Morrow County surrounded by country life. They thought their teenage son Jordan was just recovering from a farming accident and surgery, but then doctors prescribed Oxycontin 60-100 capsules each and refilled it.
‘THIS IS NOT A HEAVY EMPLOYEE?’
“I looked at (the doctor) and said, ‘Isn’t this heavy?’ And they say, ‘Don’t worry about it, they’re the least of your worries. We’ll deal with that…we’ll deal with that later,” Joe said.
That road has been a long twisting addiction nightmare for Jordan and his family, who tried to avoid it in the first place by warning their kids about drugs.
“You talked to them. You had those talks,” Angie said while tearing up. “And then the sheriff’s office called and said, ‘You guys need to come in.'”
No matter what they tried to do, there was emotional turmoil and a sense of hopelessness.
“We knew it was only a matter of time. Angie says you will die or go to jail for this. “And I wouldn’t bury him without a fight.”
NALTREXONE PELLETS COMPONENTS
Joe and Angie say they have one last chance to save their son – an implant of a pill called naltrexone. They are placed under the skin. Naltrexone must be taken quite often. Some injectable drugs last 30 days. However, naltrexone tablets will dissolve slowly over several months. That prevents users from stopping the harm reduction medication they need.
Studies show that naltrexone has few side effects that usually don’t last long. The drug blocks the brain’s receptors for the effects of heroin and even alcohol.
Tom Welch from BioCorRx. It’s a company that works with pharmacies that offer naltrexone implants. “But we need to make this public so that anyone who needs this and it fits it can get it,” Welch said.
The company said it has Investigative New Drugs (INDs) with the FDA to begin human trials on another, manufactured naltrexone tablet. It has received about 10 million federal dollars to help in the fight against addiction.
COMPANY TEAM TO GROUPS IN CLEVELAND
Over the past few weeks, BioCorRx has partnered with the medical center Care Alliance right in Cleveland.
“We are giving people these drugs with the mindset that they can still use them, but to give them the opportunity to move into the clinical arena, where they can benefit from it,” said Care Alliance CEO. advice to work on the decision-making part of the brain. Dr. Claude Jones.
BiorCorRx says patients need full-service services such as therapy, peer support and future continuum of care. It recently partnered with the Cleveland Department of Transitions to help deliver that part of the treatment.
CLEVELAND WORKS NATURALLY ON FENTANYL VACCINE
Speaking of ties to the Cleveland area, we caught up with Kim Janda, a native of Bay Village. He and Scripps Research Institute (not related to News 5’s parent company) has been developing a vaccine to counteract the effects of carfentanyl and fentanyl, the number one causes of human death today.
“The overall concept is to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies against the drug, like what is being done with COVID,” says Janda.
He told us that vaccines are designed to recognize drugs as foreign substances that need to be eliminated and “basically prevent drugs from entering the brain or acting like a vacuum cleaner. It pulls the drug out of the brain,” says Janda.
The next steps are to complete production, test again on animals, and move to humans.
“I hope by the second quarter of next year, we’ll see some of this finally get into individuals,” he told us.
For Joe and Angie, these addiction-fighting weapons aren’t likely to become widespread anytime soon.
“We are just your typical American family,” says Joe. He says BioCorRx and the compound naltrexone helped their son turn the tide.
“He’s married now,” Joe said.
“He was an effective member of society,” Angie told us.
They both know there are a lot of people out there just like what their son was struggling with, torn apart, and stuck in.
“You don’t think it can happen to you. It can happen to you,” Joe said. “And it’s a bit slow, sneaky kind of thing. But when it gets bad, it sucks.”
