Pittsfield — As addiction to opioids reaches epidemic levels across Massachusetts and the United States, in Berkshire County the problem and related consequences appear to be a growing scourge that is challenging the criminal justice and social services systems.
Roughly 150 people Tuesday (July 19) attended a screening of HBO documentary Heroin, Cape Cod USA at Berkshire Community College, which was followed by a panel discussion with Heroin co-producer Lise Balk King, city leaders and addiction specialists.
While Heroin aims its lens on a group of addicts on Cape Cod, following them through their wretched days managing their lives and addiction, King said the film “is not just a Cape Cod story,” but one that resonates nationally as over-prescription of painkillers and low heroin prices drive up addiction rates. King said she recently learned that the film “is playing on every continent in the world.”
“Heroin is everywhere,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Springfield), who with Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer organized the screening here as one way to gain traction on the increasingly steep slope of opioid abuse.
And King says one obstacle to helping addicts and prevent addiction is that “we want to ‘other’,” to not accept that this is happening “in my family or community.”
The film she added, is meant to “get you into the space of ‘relating’.”
She said while HBO financed it, it wasn’t easy to film. “I never did something so difficult as filming someone shooting up with their parents downstairs,” she said.
Berkshire County statistics are alarming. Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless, who also saw the film at its Boston premiere, said in the last 2 ½ years the county had 86 suspected opioid overdose deaths, with 71 confirmed as an overdose. Two-thirds of those, he said, were heroin overdoses.
Pittsfield has already been hit hard this year. Police Chief Michael Winn said 64 overdose responses and seven likely overdose deaths had already been recorded since January.
Winn says his department is struggling to contain a problem, shown in the film, of the addict who also sells drugs to support his habit. He says this type of behavior makes it harder to stop the trade.
According to the film, the national overdose rate has quadrupled since 2001. In 2014 Massachusetts had 1,256 overdose deaths. Berkshire County Jail and House of Corrections Sheriff Thomas Bowler said the county had 158 overdoses total in 2015, and 105 so far this year. He said he expects the rate to “exceed 300” by the end of the year.
And Bowler said 90 percent of his inmates have addiction problems. His job, he says, is to “re-integrate them back into the community.” He says detox and recovery takes time. “This is not a short-term fix. This is a 6-month or longer fix…an expensive fix.”
North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright says a variety of solutions should be considered. “You can’t turn your backs on anything…it’s not a one size fits all.”
Alcombright further said the “war on drugs” wasn’t cutting it. Instead he wants to see a “war on addiction.”
Local attorneys Richard Dohoney and Senate Candidate Andrea Harrington have previously said they support the creation of a Drug Court that would keep addicts out of the main criminal justice machine in order to treat them. Capeless later told The Edge he thought the “concept is good and would be very effective,” but questioned whether the county had the population numbers and demographics to support “people intensive” services. He said in instances where “a very serious crime” is committed, however, the crime still “has to be dealt with.” He said he wished there were “more community services for probation to tap into.”
Ananda Timpane, Executive Director of Railroad Street Youth Project in Great Barrington, noted one of many rampant distortions about heroin use: that the drug hasn’t sunk its teeth into South Berkshire County. The area is perceived as “idyllic…the roads are paved with gold.” She said this was a “myth,” that in 2015 17 percent of local high school seniors had “tried an opiate.”
Add to that a challenging rural economy in a vacation area — much like Cape Cod — and young people are sometimes tempted, because “there’s nothing to do,” as one of the film’s subjects said.
Timpane said there is a deficiency of access to treatment services in South County. For one young man trying to get help, the only treatment services were in Pittsfield, and he didn’t have a driver’s license, she said. “This stacks the odds against him.”
Emergency services around Berkshire County are now armed with Narcan, or naloxone, a life-saving overdose antidote that must be administered as quickly as possible in order to work.
A small bag of heroin is now cheaper than a six-pack of beer, and easier for young people to buy. Since pain medication oxycodone, for example, can range from $30 to $60 per pill, addicts turn to heroin at around $5 per bag.
Brien Center for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Director Christine MacBeth said that, until the last few years, alcohol dependence was the primary problem for clients, but opioids have jumped ahead. Timpane said there are still heavy rates of alcohol and use of other drugs in South County.
As states legalize marijuana, Mexican cartels are turning to heroin and other opioids for profits, according to the film.
Because around 80 percent of heroin users begin their habit with prescription painkillers, everyone agrees on new interventions to try to limit prescriptions of popular painkillers such as oxycodone, oxycontin and vicodin.
“There’s a startling amount of narcotics prescribed in the county,” said John Rogers, Vice President and General Counsel of Berkshire Health Systems.
Timpane said a pilot program this fall at Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington will step into the prescription process by attempting to lower the number of pills perscribed to only the amount necessary, and to have physicians explain that the painkillers are addictive.
Congressman Neal said President Obama is getting ready to sign the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act, which will competitively direct money to places struggling with high addiction rates and working to correct the situation. He said “Berkshire County is well-positioned” to receive funds.
Berkshire Medical Center physician Alex Sabo said in addiction, “the self is fragmented,” and that serious mental health disorders often accompany it. “We’re dealing with more darkness than that,” he said.
He praised Sheriff Bowler’s approach with his inmates, to re-integrate them into the community. “How beautiful is that?” he said. “How do we foster respect for addicts to help them?”
Audience member Susan Rose said she had written a book, Madness Broke the Rose, about life with mental illness and her three children, who all had heroin addictions. “My house was like a police station and hospital,” she said of a time dating back 20 years in North Adams, which she said had been a “cesspool of drugs.”
King said Marissa, the film’s tragic, waif-like muse, died of an overdose while the crew was still working on the documentary. “She comes to me in dreams sometimes,” King said.
And there are happy stories. Edwin Sutton said he was “grateful” to the DA’s office for prosecuting him years ago, and to the Brien Center for treating him. He said he has earned a degree in psychology, and now works as a supervisor at the Center.
“I’ve been clean almost 10 years now,” he said.
