Heroin and opioid summit draws 300 to discuss epidemic

When her brother died last year at just 22 years old, Maegan Martin was beyond stunned.

What she found out from the autopsy report floored her even more: Rex Laymon died from an opioid overdose. Martin had no idea her brother was involved in such a situation, a realization that just deepened her pain.

That's why Martin spoke Tuesday at the Heroin and Opioid Training Summit, a gathering of more than 300 people from law enforcement, medicine and other specialties touched by the growing epidemic of such abuse. The group spent all day Tuesday in a meeting room at the Big Cypress Lodge at Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, hearing speakers discuss the issue.

"His experimentation was a real surprise to my family because we had no knowledge of any kind of prior prescription drug use or experimentation up to that point," said Martin, who suspects the fatal overdose was one of the first times her brother used opioids. "That loss, just out of nowhere, has really been the moment that we all collectively recognize as the moment that all our lives had changed, just the permanency of loss."

The summit, organized by the U.S. Attorney's Office for West Tennessee, was the first of its kind here, but U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton said more will be scheduled. The point of the summit was to share information among the disparate groups represented and discuss options to combat the problem, Stanton said.

"This is a serious epidemic. It cuts across so many different lines, socioeconomic, rural-urban, racial. It’s impacting families not only in Memphis and Shelby County but across the country," Stanton said. "We’re here today to get on the same page, make sure that law enforcement and first responders, health-care professionals, even family members of victims are here today to combat what I call a very serious epidemic."

In Tennessee, drug overdoses have increased of late. In 2014, 1,263 people statewide died from an overdose. That increased to 1,451 deaths in 2015, a jump of almost 15 percent and the largest number recorded in Tennessee in one year. That tally includes all overdoses, not just those from heroin or other opiates.

So far this year, Memphis police have investigated more than 220 heroin overdoses, with 77 of those resulting in deaths, officials have said.

Stanton also said he hopes that Tuesday's summit helps people understand just how widespread the problem is, how easy it can be for someone to fall into addiction.

"Awareness is key. Until people realize we have a problem, and how serious that problem is, it’s a tough cause to fight," he said. "People don’t realize it’s something as simple as keeping prescription drugs in the medicine cabinet We’re seeing oftentimes teenagers, young adults going in and getting that, and how addictive a lot of these painkillers and opioids are."

Dr. Stephen Loyd knows exactly what Stanton is talking about. Loyd is now the state's medical director for the Division of Substance Abuse Services. But in 2000, he was just an addict, albeit one with a medical license.

"I was driving home from work one day and I flipped open my glove box. I had some old pain pills in there left over from a dental procedure. Didn’t even know they were there. Reached over, got one of them, broke it in half and popped it in my mouth," said Loyd, who spoke at Tuesday's summit. "I was getting ready to come out of residency. I had two young kids. I felt like I had some pressures on me. My anxiety was up. By the time I got home, I felt like I’d found a cure for my anxiety and depression, and from there, I couldn’t stop."

Loyd swallowed various pills — sometimes Oxycodone, sometimes Percocet, sometimes whatever he could get his hands on — every day for more than three years, all while continuing to see patients. He didn't write his own prescriptions, but he got them from other physicians who had no idea he was an addict. He also stole pills from medicine cabinets when he would visit homes.

Finally, in 2004, his father intervened. Together, they called the Tennessee Medical Foundation to report the problem. Loyd spent five days in detox, and then 90 days in rehab. He hasn't taken a pill since, even when he had a catheter inserted into his leg for a heart procedure. He passed all the required drug screenings — 30 in the first year, 15 each of the next four years — and never lost his medical license. His family stood by him, too, making him one of the luckier addicts out there.

And while he still feels a pang of shame retelling his story, Loyd knows that by doing so, he's in a position to help others accomplish what he's done.

"The main thing I talk about every time is removing the stigma of addictive disease," Loyd said. "This can open their eyes that addiction is a disease, and that people can get better."