Caitlin Poytress sentenced 5 years: Chesterfield school clinic aide steals students Adderall pills replaces them w/other drugs to feed opium problem.
A Virginia elementary school clinic aide convicted of stealing students’ ADHD prescription medications and replacing them with other drugs was on Monday sentenced to five years in prison.
Caitlin Poytress, 39, was working for Clover Hill Elementary School in Chesterfield in May 2019 when the school’s registered nurse began to suspect she was tampering with student medications, WRIC reports.
The nurse noticed pill bottles were out when they shouldn’t have been, medications were missing from their normal locations and pill count logs showed unexplained changes and revisions, prosecutors alleged.
She also observed that Poytress appeared ‘drowsy’ and ‘giggly’ at work.
Nurse admits battling ‘opium problem’ for number of years:
Later that month, a parent reported that her child’s Adderall pills had been replaced with Benadryl, leaving the boy groggy, dehydrated and ‘out-of-it.’ A school investigation found two other children’s medications had been swapped out as well with over the counter medications.
‘I’m still stunned obviously. It makes me furious someone would steal someone’s prescription and drug [my son] with a dose of Benadryl that he would take only with an extreme allergy attack,’ one mother explained at the time.
Poytress later admitted to investigators that she had been battling an ‘opium problem’ for five years.
Poytress was convicted of felony child neglect, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, petty larceny and possession of a controlled substance.
A Chesterfield Circuit Judge on Monday sentenced her to 18 years in prison with 13 suspended.
But there’s more.
The cost of addiction to Adderall:
The Virginia Board of Nursing alleged that during her employment at Henrico Doctors Hospital in October 2017, Poytress ‘withdrew narcotic medication at a rate significantly higher than her co-workers, failed to administer or return this medication, and then documented its waste many hours after its initial withdrawal,’ reported WTVR.
The following month, she tested positive for morphine and hydromorphone, for which she had no prescriptions.
The Board officially suspended Poytress’ nursing license last August for violating multiple state laws.
Documents allege that when she applied for a job as a clinic aide at the Chesterfield elementary school in 2018, she failed to disclose her firing from the hospital.
Adderall an addictive prescription stimulant similar to meth:
Adderall is an addictive prescription stimulant with effects similar to meth. Although not everyone who uses Adderall will develop an addiction, people regularly taking Adderall at unprescribed doses are at a high risk of becoming addicted.
Over time, those habitually using Adderall develop a tolerance to the drug and are unable to function normally without it.
Adderall works by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the central nervous system. Norepinephrine affects how the brain responds to events, particularly how it pays attention and the speed at which it reacts to outside stimuli. Dopamine, the body’s ‘feel good’ chemical, creates a rewarding effect. Although dopamine occurs naturally, drugs like Adderall produce unnaturally high levels of it. This can cause users to come back for more.
The brain of an addicted person is dependent on Adderall to stimulate alertness and productivity. Without Adderall, addicted people often feel tired and mentally foggy. These are symptoms of Adderall withdrawal, a strong sign of an addiction.
