Doctor to talk about painkiller addictions and pain management

Partnership Carson City and Sierra Nevada Forums will host Dr. Mel Pohl on Thursday, June 18.

Pohl will discuss “Medications, Addiction and Pain Management” at 6 p.m. at the Brewery Arts Center Performance Hall, 449 W. King St.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for the forum. Admission is free but donations are accepted.

On Friday, June 19, Pohl will make a second presentation at noon for criminal justice professionals. For more information on either session, call Kathy Bartosz at 775-841-4730.

Pohl, a family practitioner, helped create the Las Vegas Recovery Center’s Pain Recovery Program. He’s medical director at LVRC and has been certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine.

Prescription drugs are the first drug teenagers are trying, Pohl said, adding they get them most often from parents’ medicine cabinets.

He has worked specifically with opioid dependence, especially since the rise of painkiller misuse during the last 10 years.

“Taking people off medications and teaching them to live a better life is the work of my clinical team,” Pohl said.

He has been an addiction specialist for more than 30 years.

“It has felt more like a calling than a profession,” he said.

Pohl also works in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Nevada School of Medicine as a clinical assistant professor.

Emily Ammerman is a junior at Carson High School. She is also a journalist for Partnership Carson City and plans to pursue a career in journalism.