As Heroin Use Rises, Forum Looks to Tackle Major Problem
By Janine Bowen
With heroin use rampant in Westchester and Putnam Counties over the past few years, Phoenix House, a rehabilitation center in Shrub Oak, partnered with Drug Crisis in Our Backyard to host a forum on how to tackle this difficult trend.
“The USA is facing the worst drug epidemic in its history. In the next twelve months…it is possible that there will be more deaths in the country from drug overdoses than deaths at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis,” said Phoenix House CEO, Howard Meitiner.
The current crisis encompasses the use of heroin as well as opioid pills, including Vicodin and Oxycodone. Abuse of opioids is currently the third worst killer in the country, behind heart disease and cancer, and is predominately affecting the white population, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny.
Heroin overdoses are most common amongst the younger white population, between the ages of 20 to 34, but older users actually have a higher overall death rate due to abuse of pain pills prescribed by doctors, Kolodny also said.
“We now have defacto legalization of heroin,” said Kolodny, who stated that pills such as Vicodin are essentially “heroin pills”.
Kolodny blames the current opioid epidemic on the overprescribing of pain pills by doctors in situations where they are not warranted. He wants to fight the epidemic by enacting more stringent restrictions for prescribing the pills, which over 60 percent of patients admit to using for purposes other than pain.
“My son is dead due to a local trusted doctor who prescribed oxy to my son for back pain. From January 2011 to his death on June 9 2012, this doctor continued to give my son 180 to 240 pills a month knowing that this amount is addictive. This has to stop,” said Carol Christiansen, who co-founded the Drug Crisis in Our Backyard, a foundation that aims to bring awareness to the opioid epidemic.
To restrict the prescribing of opioids would not only limit access to drug seekers, but would reduce the black market for the drugs, which can be sold for as much as $30 per pill.
Similarly to Christiansen’s son, filmmaker Greg Williams, who spoke at the forum, became addicted to pills after being prescribed oxycodone for back pain.
Williams’s new film, Anonymous People, focuses on the 23 million recovering addicts in this country who often live in silence. He, along with A Drug Crisis in Our Backyard and the other panelists at the event want to get the public talking about addiction issues, and urged people to give to addiction foundations the in same way they may give to cancer causes.
The goal is to remove the stigma and stereotyping surrounding addiction, so that those who suffer will not be embarrassed to seek help.
David Sheff, whose new book, “Clean,” attempts to understand the current drug crisis, reminded the audience that drug addiction can happen to anybody.
“We think about addicts. We have images of what they look like. We see them when we walk down the streets, in alleys…the isolated and the derelict, the homeless, in some cases, the psychotic; those are addicts, not our children. It could never happen to me, we think,” said Sheff, whose son, Nick Sheff, suffered with addiction.
A large portion of the forum focused on the idea that the public needs to place less emphasis on punishing addicts and more on helping to find treatment options for them. Instead of prosecuting those suffering from addiction, panelists stated that the underlying cause of the drug use must be addressed.
Almost 2/3 of patients treated at Phoenix House for drug addiction has a co-existing psychological disorder, and turned to drugs in place of therapy. In addition, other factors such as past trauma or even stress, which high school students stated as their number one reason for doing drugs, can lead to addiction.
Doctor Kolodny also stressed the fact that addiction is a disease, and that most people who become addicted to opioids are not simply taking the drugs for recreation.
“Most people, once addicted, do not take heroin or pain killers because they’re having a ball. They’re taking the pills and heroin, in many cases, just to try and feel normal,” he said.
Panelists at Thursday’s forum did not only want to encourage addicts to seek treatment, but to reform current treatment programs. Currently, 90% of drug rehabilitation programs do not rely on evidence based treatment. In addition, addiction treatment was not covered by most insurance companies, prior to the affordable care act.
One woman in the audience shared her story about how her son was denied inpatient detox by his insurance company four days before dying of an overdose in 2012. Denial of addiction treatment is a common occurrence, which is actually against the Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, enacted in 2008. Currently, groups are attempting to take insurance companies for the wrongful use of this law.
This woman was far from the only one in attendance whose life was touched by drug abuse. To end the forum, Williams asked all of those who knew someone who suffered from addiction to stand up. Almost half of the people in attendance rose to their feet.
