Brent Swanson saw firsthand how an addiction to prescription painkillers can destroy a family.
His daughter was prescribed opioids at age 16 after having her wisdom teeth pulled. Her problems started then, Swanson said, and after she was again prescribed painkillers to deal with pain from a car crash, “it was over.”
“My wife and I have been married for 32 years. We taught our children all the morals, how to respect themselves, how to respect others,” he said. “And when this destruction overtakes them, all of that goes out the window.”
Swanson was among those who spoke Thursday morning at the White River Conference Center, leading off a series of nine community meetings across Missouri. Federal, state and local authorities had an audience of about 400 as they discussed how the opioid epidemic affects Springfield.
The drugs made his daughter feel like she belonged in the world, Swanson said, adding that he’s spoken to “hundreds of addicts” with similar stories. The spending money he sent his daughter while she was in college went to drugs.
“We didn’t know about the pills, I’m sorry to say,” Swanson said. “… We look back now, and there’s so many signs we could have seen. But after she started taking heroin, we did notice.”
Eventually, Swanson said, he threw his daughter in his car and drove to a rehab clinic in Minnesota after three Missouri programs couldn’t help her. After going through withdrawal, and months of counseling treatment, she pulled through.
Now, she works in a recovery program, Swanson said, “and she’s one of the neatest people I’ve ever met.”
Swanson acknowledges that he was able to pay for the care his daughter needed. He counts himself among the lucky ones.
“The help is out there,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s incredibly expensive, and we were fortunate enough to be able to afford that. So what we’ve gotta do now is go back and get the rest of them.”
Source: Springfield News Leader