By Greg Horner, Senior Editor.
There’s an epidemic that’s destroying communities throughout the country — heroin. Bay County is a microcosm of the struggle playing out in communities across the United States as addicts, families and community leaders try to deal with the rising abuse of opiates and the increasing number of deaths.
“There’s so many, it’s unbelievable how many,” says Patricia Starr of Bay City. “Almost every family you talk to has someone they know with a drug problem. It’s very sad.”
Starr is looking for solutions to the problem. Her son is in recovery for opiates — he’s been in and out of rehab for eight years — but she isn’t convinced this will be the last time.
“We want people to get information about what to look for if they’re concerned their loved ones are involved in heroin,” says Barry Schmidt, the coordinator of the Bay County Prevention Network. “We want to tell families, ‘here’s the resources available in the community to get their child, their family member or themselves help.’ ”
To accomplish that, Schmidt, along with fellow recovery specialists, local law enforcement and public health officials, have begun to host heroin summits throughout the area to build community support in fighting the epidemic. The most recent of these summits was held in Essexville’s Garber High School, an area that, like much of Bay County, has seen an increase in heroin abuse and overdoses.
According to the DEA, since 2008, drug overdose has surpassed gun and auto fatalities as the biggest cause of accidental death in the United States.
“These summits are an opportunity for people to get some information on the issue, see the severity, and understand why it’s important to get involved,” says Schmidt. “It’s also a way to get everybody on the same page — so everyone understands what we’re doing [and] why we’re doing it.”
The Bay County Prevention Network has provided information, skills and strategy on how the community can deal with marijuana, underage drinking and the threat of opiate addiction since 1989. The organization is just one of many in the area that is working to spread awareness on the ongoing crisis.
A COMMUNITY AT RISK
Janine Kravetz has worked at Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center at their downtown Bay City location for 20 years. She has personally witnessed the rise of opiate and heroin addictions that are impacting the area. “When I first started working I saw a lot of cocaine, but lately there’s been a lot more marijuana — there’s always alcohol — and, of course, we’ve been dealing with opiate addiction.”
An opiate is a compound that naturally develops within the opium poppy flower. When synthesized, it can create a powerful group of drugs called opioids. Common opioids include: Morphine, Oxycodone and Hydrocodone (the active opioid in Vicodin). For years, doctors have used opioids for their ability to treat patients suffering from pain, but opioids are highly addictive. When people suffer from severe dependency, they often turn to the most common illicit opiate available — heroin.
“This didn’t start with heroin; it started with opiates. A few years ago, opiates became the first line of defense for a lot of people, and the result was, a lot of people used opiates and ended up getting addicted, because [they’re] very addictive,” says Schmidt. “They end up turning to heroin because, after changes in the pharmaceutical industry and doctors prescribing less, opiates are now harder to get.”
According to a survey conducted by the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 2014, 94 percent of respondents started using heroin because prescription opioids were more expensive and too difficult to obtain. Additionally, the National Institute of Drug Abuse reported that in 2010 the U.S. accounted for 80 percent of the world’s opioid prescriptions.
“This heroin problem didn’t creep up on us. It’s been here. We just haven’t noticed it because we haven’t seen the deaths,” says Schmidt.
People are starting to see the deaths. In 2009, fewer than five people died from overdoses in Bay County. In 2015, 25 people died from drug overdoses. According to Schmidt, 90 percent of those deaths are caused by opioids.
There are other health concerns besides overdose. According to Bay County Public Health Director Joel Strasz, 57 cases of Hepatitis C were reported in 2015, most likely due to addicts sharing needles. Strasz fears that unless something is done, that number is going to rise, and he has a more dire warning as well.
“Addicts like to hang around together. They use drugs, they share drugs and if you get a person who’s infected with HIV, or Hepatitis C, and they share needles…the probability increases pretty substantially that you’re going to have a public health issue like HIV,” says Strasz.
Schmidt added these sobering words: “We saw this coming years ago. Law enforcement warned us about it, public health officials warned us about it, but people didn’t listen because they thought, ‘no it can’t happen here.’ Never did I think I would have to go to a sixth grade class and speak about heroin, but there are sixth and seventh grade kids who are addicted to heroin.”
According to Kravetz, heroin has been a problem in minority communities for years, but now that the drug is affecting the suburbs, people who never considered heroin are now confronted with it.
“It seemed like when it was more common with minorities, it got buried under, and there was a feeling that ‘we have no say,’ ” says Kravetz. “So when it started creeping into the white population, that’s where you saw the attitude of ‘we have to do something about this.’ ”
OUT OF THE BASEMENT
As a recovering addict who now works as a counselor, Ricardo Bowden, an independent contractor who works with LIST Psychological, has struggled with heroin and counsels those in recovery on how to move forward.
“I am a person in long-term recovery. My chosen pathway is an abstinence-based pathway, I’ve been totally abstinent now for 18 years,” says Bowden. “But for 30 some odd years I’ve been engaged in recovery…but for the last 18 years I’ve been successful in having no substances in my body.”
Bowden also acts as the program coordinator for the PEER 360 Recovery Alliance, which works with addicts of all types regardless of their addiction or chosen recovery path. “We’re rooted in the reality that people find better living in a variety of different ways. Our goal is to create an overarching network that’s inclusive of all those different pathways to recovery.”
PEER 360 is working to promote addiction awareness by hosting social events at various parks and coffee shops throughout the area. Bowden encourages those in recovery to share their message and change attitudes.
“The recovery community has never been a community that is visible or vocal,” says Bowden. “…having individuals in recovery embrace more visibility is a challenge — but it hasn’t been done before and it’s a part of the change process.”
Bowden has spoken with leaders in the community and hopes to promote activities, without the use of substances. “We hope, with the work that we do, that we can make a society where it’s easier for those recovering to participate, and live in, without fearing substances.”
Bowden never imagined that he would use heroin, and says that most addicts are good people who’ve made some bad decisions. “No one ever thinks they’ll get addicted, but before you know it, you are.”
A FAMILY DISEASE
Kravetz, who also works with PEER 360, says that when a first time patient makes an appointment at Sacred Heart, they undergo an evaluation with a therapist. “We’re looking not only in terms of, do they have an addiction? But also [at] the severity of the addiction.”
There’s a variety of rehab programs available to patients including medicated assistance with Suboxone and Methadone, twelve step programs and in-house detox.
Suboxone and Methadone are opioid antagonists. They’re used in treatment clinics, such as Recovery Pathways LLC in Bay City, to wean addicts off opioids and help patients deal with withdrawal.
Kravetz says that addiction can affect anyone and sees patients of all ages, but she says, “When it comes to things like marijuana and opiates, it’s usually probably in the age of early twenties, late teens and mid-thirties.”
Many of Kravetz’s patients, however, do not “seek” treatment.
“Most of the people who come here are here because of the legal system — by far,” says Kravetz. “Whether they got caught breaking and entering or with a possession, and then the legal system says they have to be evaluated and that’s when we come in.”
Kravetz doesn’t think criminalizing addicts will solve the problem, “My own personal take on it is, if I had the choice to spend $30,000 a year or spend $3,000 to give someone treatment and keep them in the community, in their jobs and in their families — I’d pick the treatment.”
In regard to long term recovery, Kravetz says family support is crucial. “It used to be in the past. Confront. Confront. Confront. I guess you would say, be a hard ass — that’s beginning to change.”
She says it’s better to approach the situation with kindness and care, rather than being cruel and confrontational. “Say you were a son and you came home, instead of saying, ‘Look at you, you’re drunk again. How can you stand this, you’re stupid and you’re going to get killed.’ Instead say ‘did you have a nice evening? How was your day?’ ”
But Kravetz says that families are often divided in how to approach an addict. “I’ve seen sometimes within families, where some siblings are saying, ‘You’ve got to stop bailing them out,’ and the parents are saying, ‘oh but he’s our baby.’ ”
Kravetz says there is a line. “When I get approached by families, they ask me ‘How can I help my child quit?’ — the bottom line is — you can’t make them quit… you just have to work on the communication.”
Kravetz sees addiction as a family disease, but not in the way you might think, “It affects everybody and recovery is the same way — and so bring everybody into it, and help the family recover.”
A THIN BLUE LINE
Pinconning Police Sergeant Terry Spencer, like many officers, has seen the consequences of the epidemic firsthand. He serves on a community task force alongside therapists, members from McLaren Bay Region and others.
“We as a group, with the Bay County Prevention Network, have been organizing summits where we can go out to spread education, give people information for prevention and provide options for opiate and heroin use,” says Spencer.
“The worst thing for me as an officer, our jobs are very simple, when somebody breaks the law, we arrest them and take them to jail. We get people who call us all the time: grandmas, moms, dads, brothers and sisters who want to help people, but we don’t have the options to give them. That’s frustrating because our job is also to help.”
Spencer sees progress in law enforcement, but wants to see action taken at a higher level, “It is absolutely changing its approach, but we need a broader change. We can only do so much, because we don’t have many options. But people in law enforcement are recognizing that just taking people to jail does not solve the problem.”
Hampton Township Police Chief Gerald Runde lost his 30-year-old son to a drug overdose — it’s not known if heroin was involved.
“I can remember six cases in Hampton Township last year… that we know involved heroin,” Runde says. “There was only one case where they arrested them with the heroin — all the others involved overdoses, and in four of the cases, the people died.”
Runde says there’s a system in place. “Law enforcement has a part, and their job is to arrest. The judge has to decide what he has to do, because judges have guidelines that you have to follow too, and then you have the user, or abuser, who views the medical and justice systems as an impediment… But when they want help, they’ll seek help, and that help is there.”
Runde also served as the jail administrator for the Bay County Jail for seven years. “We saw some heroin use back then, but we didn’t see the amount we see now. Specifically, we don’t see the deaths we see now…”
Runde’s experience has led him to believe that many addicts are safer in jail. “I knew when my son was in jail, he was safe. He wasn’t going to hurt anybody else and nobody was going to hurt him. Can he get into trouble in jail? Yes it happens, but it’s a lot less likely “
A MOTHER’S FIGHT
Stacey Foerster, a mother from Bay County, is angry. Her son has suffered from addiction for years, and she doesn’t think the community has grasped the severity of the problem.
Foerster has faced roadblocks in finding help for her son, and is frustrated with the phone calls, “We’ve called, and you get a phone number, and you get another phone number and you get another phone number…”
Foerster says that many addicts suffer from mental illness, and that her son’s own insurance plan restricts access to rehab programs. “You can send somebody to prison, but then what? There’s no after care programs set up, there’s no program to help with their mental illness. It’s just a never-ending circle.”
Foerster wants to see more mothers speak out, but understands the difficulty.
“Do you know how hard it is for a woman to say, my son has a heroin problem?” says Foerster. “It’s easy for somebody to say, ‘Yup, my kid, he just graduated from college this year and he’s going off to be an astronaut or a project manager or a lawyer or something’ — no — my kid is 25 years old and he’s in prison… he’s a heroin addict.”
Foerster’s son started using drugs in the ninth grade, “I did get him treatment, and he was very successful for some time, but then he just relapses…He’s literally laid in my lap crying, because it has such a hold on him and he can’t win the fight.”
Foerster’s friend, Lesley Lebrun, thinks the pharmaceutical industry has treated their children like guinea pigs, “You put your child on these medications, because you’re told that’s what they need! Then this starts happening.”
Lebrun is devastated by what she’s seen, “They say there’s nothing stronger than a bond between mother and child. I think there is — heroin.”
SHOOTING UP AND SHUTTING DOWN
Tom (real name withheld) is a 22-year-old heroin addict — he shoots up everyday. He doesn’t remember when he first started taking drugs, but he started using heroin five years ago. His family doesn’t know the extent of his addiction. “They think I’m clean, because I say I’m clean. But I know they don’t think I’m clean because they ask me everyday.”
Addicts will do anything to get heroin, says Tom. He’s sold drugs, he’s robbed people and even traded guns for heroin. “The entire process is addicting. Getting the dope, getting the money to get the dope, bringing it back here, sucking it up, shooting it up — it’s all addicting.”
Tom overdosed four times. Sometimes he wakes up in the hospital, sometimes on the floor. He’s never gotten in trouble because he’s never been caught carrying. When the police do get involved, “I walk out or they drag me out. They take me to the hospital for 30 minutes, I walk out and get high again.”
For Tom, hearing that a friend has overdosed is a regular part of life. “I know college kids with straight A’s who’ve started shooting up and lost everything.”
When an addict falls deep into addiction they don’t even feel high anymore, says Tom. He’s just trying to feel normal. “I’m either sick or I’m high… I function better high, to be honest I don’t function if I’m not high.”
Tom says that people would be amazed by how easy it is to find heroin. “I can get dope any day, any time of the hour, it doesn’t matter. There are so many dope boys out here.”
Tom says he doesn’t need drugs, but isn’t planning on recovery any time soon. “Getting high is the best thing ever. I love and hate it. But I love it more, that’s why I do it every day.”
“I GOT CLEAN”
Kristy Kopec, a member of PEER 360, is in recovery. She started smoking marijuana at the age of 16, and says that she suffered a downward spiral that lead to opioid addiction. She dropped out of school and lost her job.
“I kept getting into trouble. I was in and out of jail, for probably six or seven years, in and out. A lot of it was for retail fraud, stealing stuff to support my habit… my parents kicked me out, they never tried to help me. I don’t think they knew what to do,” says Kopec.
Kopec never used heroin, but still ended up in bad situations on the street and in dope houses. At the age of 23 she admitted to having a problem and struggled with her addiction for six months before relapsing.
It wasn’t until Kopec got pregnant that she understood the true price of addiction. She used drugs during the pregnancy, the doctors don’t know if it impacted the pregnancy, but her child was born with only one functioning kidney.
Still, it wasn’t until her second pregnancy that Kopec made the full effort to embrace recovery. She started working with a Methadone clinic and has been sober from heroin for six years. “I got clean, I’ve been clean since I started [the Methadone clinic]. I have a job now as a recovery coach, and both my kids are awesome.”
Bowden says that most people on the path of recovery do not experience a sudden epiphany. Instead it takes a long process of subliminal, subconscious, awareness.
“The restoration process is very difficult. People come out of addiction having utilized substances as the primary way of dealing with life — whether they know it or not,” says Bowden. “Then you have to deal with overcoming the biochemical aspects… it’s very difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced what it’s like to have your whole body shouting at you to use and have your mind tell you ‘don’t do it.’ ”
Bowden stresses the need for family support, both for the addicts and themselves. “I know that I can never know the extent of the pain my addiction caused my mother, but my mother talking to another mother could probably relate better and come close to true understanding.”
The Bay County Prevention Network is continuing to inform the community and provide support at local summits. The next meeting will be held at John Glenn High School on April 28 at 6 p.m. If you’re concerned someone you know is suffering, or if you are addicted contact: The Bay County Prevention Network at 989-895-3510, Sacred Heart at 888-802-7472, LIST Psychological at 1-800-968-5701 or PEER 360 at 989-415-2049.
Schmidt says the community is beginning to understand the problem.
“Just because they’re addicted, doesn’t mean they can’t recover. We have a saying ‘Prevention works, treatment is effective and recovery is possible.’ This isn’t something that has to define them.”
