Searching for solutions to the opioid epidemic
For those who have not had to break loose from the unyielding grip of addiction, it can be hard to fathom what can make a substance so alluring even when there has been so much documentation about its ruinous effects.
Josh Sabatini helped provide some answers in Sunday’s Observer-Reporter.
When he become addicted to heroin, Sabatini had, in his estimation, an idyllic life – a “great family” and a “great home.” “I had everything I ever wanted and more,” he explained. “There was nothing in my life that drove me to drugs other than the fact that I was just a punk who liked to party.”
However, the first dose was so overwhelming, so powerful, Sabatini knew he couldn’t stop with just one hit and would be back for more.
“This was the closest thing to euphoria that I’d ever felt in my life, and why not visit that again?” Sabatini said. “I was coming back here again and again and again.”
Sabatini’s path through addiction ran a predictable course, through stealing and sickness, but unlike too many others, it did not end in death. Sabatini was able to successfully recover and now has a wife, house, dog and a job. He wants to show addiction can be conquered and addicts should be treated with compassion – they are not shadowy, dissolute figures, like characters in some movie or novel.
They are our neighbors, children, parents, co-workers and friends.
More stories like Sabatini’s will be explored in the weeks ahead in a series on the opioid crisis the Observer-Reporter is undertaking. Called “Drugs, Overdoses and Addiction,” it will look at how this epidemic came into being, the people who are fighting it and how it’s affecting all of us.
It’s a story that needs to be told. As we and other outlets have reported, addiction and death as a result of the easy availability of opioids have skyrocketed in recent years. Listen to a police scanner, and you’ll hear calls about people passed out in vehicles because they were so eager for a fix. Scan the obituary pages and you see more twentysomethings dying “suddenly” or “unexpectedly.” It’s been estimated only 10 percent of those struggling with substance abuse of any variety are getting the help they need. That number needs to increase if we are going to get a handle on this crisis.
But despite the dispiriting landscape, the series will also look at hopeful developments when it comes to taming the opioid epidemic. Though Southwestern Pennsylvania is one of the parts of the country that has been particularly hard hit, Washington is earning the moniker “Recovery Town” thanks to the number of services it has available, its location and its size – it’s big enough to have a variety of services, though small enough that people who need them will not get lost in a morass of bureaucracy.
“There’s no simple solution,” according to Erich Curnow, director of clinical and case management services for Washington Drug & Alcohol Commission. But we hope this series will raise awareness and understanding and help us all come up with some solutions, elusive though they may be.