In a new multidisciplinary book from Methodist University researchers, Opioids 360 explains how the modern opioid crisis came to be and what needs to be done to address it.
The 360 series, started by Methodist University professors, examines pressing issues in America through interdisciplinary research. The first book, Guns 360 published in 2022 with Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, describes how firearms impact law enforcement, public health, politics and society.
Like Guns 360, Opioids 360 features a final chapter authored by undergraduate Methodist University students. The chapter, “Students Talking to Students,” was researched and written by six undergraduate students selected by the book’s editors. It describes the mental health disorders most common in undergraduate students and proposes ways universities can better serve students.
CityView sat down with the Opioid 360 editors Eric See, head of Methodist University’s Justice and Military Science Division and a professor of criminal justice, and Sarah See, assistant professor of justice studies at Methodist University, to discuss key takeaways from the book. The married couple also authored one of the book’s chapters.
Lead authors of the student chapter — Kaylee Williams, a senior double majoring in criminal justice and forensic science, and Rebecca McGaughnea, a senior triple majoring in criminal justice, forensic science and biology — also told CityView about their research.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Why focus on the opioid crisis for the second book in the 360 series?
Eric See: There are lots of general books on drugs on the market, and there’s more coming out every day. But there are very, very few that are opioid-centered and opioid-specific, and that’s the problem we’re dealing with now. That’s why we focused so intently on that issue.
Sarah See: The student chapter is not solely focusing on opioids, but it recognizes the struggles that segment of the population has with medications. Because of the overreach that we’re seeing with the government — shutting places down and minimizing the manufacturers for being able to ship medications and the production and all that — their mental health disorder prescriptions are being affected.
How does the book reframe the opioid crisis?
Eric See: We wanted to get people in 2025. We’re fighting the problem like it’s 2005; we still have OxyContin on our brain when we think of opioids, and we still think about the pain clinics that don’t exist anymore.
Sarah See: Society doesn’t really focus on fentanyl despite that being the cause of the vast majority of deaths today. We lump everything in together and say, “Opioids cause this many deaths across the United States in the world.”
Why was it important for you to focus on the negative consequences of regulating opioid prescriptions in the chapter, “The War on Patients,” that you two authored?
Eric See: We never take a reasoned approach to anything in this country. It’s extreme to the left or extreme to the right. It was utterly ridiculous in 2005 when doctors were giving 120 30-milligram opioid pills to strangers a month. They weren’t treating pain. They were supplying drugs. To go from that extreme to patients battling cancer or post-surgery patients not being able to get any medication is just as morally repulsive and disgusting as the other end of the equation.
I lived it as a chronic pain patient. Trying to get medication was horrible. It was a year-long battle that was nothing but frustration and embarrassment.
Watching them take my 70-year-old father off pain medication because they were afraid he was gonna get addicted. He was terminal. He was gonna die, but we’re taking him off his pain medication so he doesn’t get addicted. That’s ridiculous. It still upsets me now. The reason my dad spent the last two to three years of his life in pain and hardly able to move is because we got so carried away trying to correct what we thought the problems were with addiction to prescription opioids that we created a whole other set of problems for patients with chronic pain.
Sarah See: A close friend of ours has terminal cancer — it’s just a matter of when — and it took her six weeks to get into the VA to get an appointment with a cancer oncologist and get pain meds. She was literally in the fetal position, in serious pain, and they’re like, “Just take some Tylenol and ibuprofen, and you’ll make it until your appointment in six weeks.” It’s just cruel.
Why did you all select post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, ADHD, and nonmedical use of prescription drugs to discuss in your “Students Talking to Students” chapter?
Rebecca McGaughnea: College students, they don’t realize that you’re not allowed to give other people your prescription medications. I play sports, and I’ll tell one of my friends, “Oh my gosh, my back, my knees, my ankles are killing me.” And they’ll be like, “Oh, I have prescription-strength pain meds. Do you want one?”
Kaylee Williams: PTSD is often mistaken for all these other anxiety and depression disorders, so a lot of people think that those are the most prominent, but PTSD is just as prominent. It just goes under the radar a lot of times because they’re being diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
What do you want universities to take away from your research?
Rebecca McGaughnea: It’s not just those couple of kids. It’s not just the people who go to the Wellness Center. It’s more than that, and I think just the recognition of that would be huge for universities.
Eric See: They can’t solve the problems until they acknowledge it.
One solution your chapter suggests to universities is to train students as peer support specialists. Why was this a good solution?
Kaylee Williams: In my research, I found that the majority of people who are struggling and have mental health issues do not want to share that with administrators or professionals. It is a testament to the chapter, “Students Talking to Students.” They trust fellow students. They believe that they’re going through similar things.
Rebecca McGaughnea: I’m an RA [resident assistant] on campus. While we were writing this book, I had become the floor therapist. Everybody knew when I was on duty, and I would literally have appointments. People would come in and tell me their problems, and they would feel better. And they would leave, and the next person was waiting outside.
Kaylee Williams: There are a lot more students available than there are counselors.
Rebecca McGaughnea: And you can have students available at 2 a.m.
Harm reduction is a common thread in the broader solutions to the opioid crisis proposed in the book. Why is this the conclusion most authors reached?
Eric See: You can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We’re talking about medications that have dangerous side effects and can kill you, but they can also help millions of people. Bad things are going to happen if you take them and if you don’t take them. So the model of harm reduction — how do we make this as safe as we possibly can for as many people as we possibly can — is what we talk about all the time.
What do you want readers to take away from Opioids 360?
Sarah See: As a society, one of the things that we have to truly understand is that, for most things, we don’t solve the problem. We don’t just end opioids. We just don’t end a crisis. Most of the time, it’s reducing the harm that’s done, not eliminating it. We’re in criminal justice. You don’t eliminate crime; it just doesn’t happen. So you have to look at how to reduce it. How can I minimize the damage?
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the News Foundation of Greater Fayetteville.