Former addicts tell about their lives at forum

"I was 22. The girl I'd been with for seven years -- we were engaged -- died as a direct result of a drug overdose. I had two of my best friends die within a year. Then it got worse," Chris Wood says. "I had no respect in the community anymore. My parents and my brothers didn't want me around. But I didn't care. Drugs let me mask all the hard emotions, like sadness."
Wood was among the individuals who shared their personal stories with narcotics at a public drug forum held at Washington County Community College on Friday, February 26. Clean cut, athletic, and a graduate from Washington Academy with a B+ average, Wood does not fit the traditional profile of a drug addict. As the forum highlighted, however, drug addiction and abuse can take hold in any demographic.
Like many rural counties across the country, Washington County is struggling with an epidemic of drug abuse. "Twenty‑eight years ago, it was cocaine from Florida," Calais Police Chief David Randall said. "Ten to fifteen years ago, it was pills from Canada. Now we're dealing with heroin."
Heroin use has been on the rise recently as a result of an influx from out‑of‑state suppliers. Baileyville Police Chief Bob Fitzsimmons said that he was aware of at least three regular dealers who made the trip from Connecticut, Massachusetts or New York on a biweekly basis. Each time, they bring bags of heroin purchased for as little as $3 but that sell for as much as $60. As a result, each trip nets the dealers $10,000. "Between those three dealers, that's $780,000 leaving this area every year," he said. "That's the draw for this area. Addiction is fueling it, but the demand is here."
The cost of narcotic abuse goes well beyond financial strain, as Fitzsimmons readily acknowledged. "I've seen the toll addiction takes on a family, and if you're here tonight, I bet you've seen the same things." In addition to a panel representing the three elements of the solution proposed by Fitzsimmons -- treatment, law enforcement and prevention -- 75 members of the public attended the forum to share their input and their stories.

Options for treatment discussed
"If we don't treat people, we'll be having this problem over and over again," Fitzsimmons said. Randall agreed, adding, "There's going to be another drug until we deal with the addiction part." Randall said he used to be in favor of throwing addicts in jail, but he has since realized that "these people are sick. This is a disease. We need to help them, not just put them in jail."
Despite the sentiment expressed by both police chiefs, drug users do frequently wind up in jail -- either as a result of possessing illegal substances or committing theft. Once in jail, users have little access to counseling or treatment. "It's not that we don't want to have programs, but we have to cut somewhere. It's a disaster financially," Sheriff Barry Curtis said. Jails often rely on volunteers to hold support meetings or offer counseling to inmates.
Some inmates, like Chris Wood, have the opportunity to participate in drug court. In Wood's case, drug court has helped him to stabilize his life, and he now lives with his child and growing family. "It's been a hard road, but I'm doing it to the best of my ability with the help of drug court."
Drug court, however, is not available to everybody. "We only take the worst of the worst. Those with the highest risk," Darlene Donahue, case manager for Washington County's drug court, said. "They have to be a felon. They have to have a year or more of jail time hanging over their heads." She added that a lack of resources like transportation was sometimes an issue that prevented eligible people from attending. "There is no residential housing at the Washington County facility."
While drug court is one available avenue for treatment, another that was brought up is pharmaceutical assistance. Family nurse practitioner Anne Perry explained how prescriptions can be helpful. "It's about stability in your life. Some people gain that with faith‑based programs, others need help getting to the point where they can think about a better life."
As the only provider of Suboxone in eastern Washington County for the past 14 years, Dr. Tom McHugh agreed. "The biggest problem I have with Suboxone is getting them off Suboxone. They're scared to death of it." McHugh said that recent legislation had limited state coverage of treatments like Suboxone to just two years, and that no one was able to recover in that amount of time. "We have to treat it like it's a disease, but it's a chronic disease. We need funds." He added that not being able to send Suboxone to his patients in jail was another barrier.
A young woman spoke from the crowd, introducing herself as a recovering addict. "I'm on methadone. It saved my life. It let me keep my husband, my kids. If I don't have that blocker, I know I would throw all of it away." She said the negativity related to the Calais methadone clinic was uncalled for. "If you want people to get better, this is a treatment."
City Councillor Artie Mingo said he was frequently asked why the methadone clinic was allowed to remain open. Chief Randall replied, "Different people respond to different treatment. If we get rid of the methadone clinic, what's going to happen to all the people that don't have that blocker? With the youth that we have that are going down the drain right now, grabbing and screaming for help, every option we can use, we should."
Methadone and Suboxone are not effective for all addicts, as ARISE faith‑based addiction recovery representative Paul Trovarello said. In addition to its high success rate in reducing relapses, ARISE is substantially cheaper. Whereas traditional treatment centers can cost as much as $1,000 a day, ARISE offers a residential program in Machias for $23 a day. For those interested in exploring faith‑based recovery, ARISE is also now offering a free public meeting every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Calais at The Refuge, located below the First Congregational Church.
The importance of prevention was emphasized repeatedly throughout the discussion. Drug court participant and recovering addict Devon Newell shared his experience. "Through no fault of my own, certain life experiences really were the catalyst -- especially at a young, impressionable age -- that led me to being a drug addict and an alcoholic." Newell related how he had been bullied and wound up taking drugs to fit in. "Prevention should be the utmost concern in this whole debate."
Pastor Aaron Dudley of Machias Christian Fellowship echoed the importance of the public in reducing activity. "We need signs up in high use areas saying 'Report drug activity.' The community can't be silent."
"We get calls daily," Chief Randall said. "People need to realize that if we haven't acted yet, it's because all the pieces haven't quite lined up. We only need to be lucky once, though."
In closing, Chief Fitzsimmons shared his own experience with narcotics. Fitzsimmons and his girlfriend were recently in a motorcycle accident, and he suffered a broken leg. He was given morphine in the ambulance and more narcotics as he waited two days for surgery. While recovering, he continued taking prescribed painkillers for three months. The first night after finishing the prescription, "I was lying in bed, and the bugs were crawling all over me. I was itchy. I felt like crap. It dawned on me that I needed another pill. For two days, I went through it until I could finally go to sleep. If I'd been in a different job, or a different mindset, I'd have been out looking for more," he admitted. "There but for the grace of God go I. It can happen to anybody. There's no need to be ashamed of it."
Additional workshops are planned to continue to discuss the problem and how it can be met by all members of the community.