Letter to the Editor – August 26

On August 26, 2016, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

To the Editor:

The fight against the addiction epidemic in Somerville is a true community effort. We all have a role to play in ending the overdoses, reversing the stigma, and supporting those who are struggling with addiction or who are in recovery. Our elected leaders must be a part of these efforts, and in this election season it’s important to support the people who have shown that they are personally invested in this fight. I know that Tim Toomey is one of those people.

In 2014, I helped organize Somerville Overcoming Addiction (SOA) as a response to the spike in overdoses that we were seeing in our community. I had witnessed how the stigma associated with addiction was keeping people from seeking the help that they so desperately needed, and I began working alongside other SOA members to change that. Through our many community events, vigils, and celebrations, SOA has worked to put a human face on the problem of addiction in Somerville, and has helped people find the strength that exists within themselves to acknowledge and address this disease. Addiction is a deeply personal and often very painful issue for many, and while others may find it easier to do something else with their time, Tim has always been there for us. As a mother of a son who has lived this struggle, I can’t stress enough how important it is for us to know that community leaders like Tim are with us in this fight.

It’s also important to acknowledge that Tim is not just with us in the community, but he’s also with us in the work that he does on Beacon Hill. He is fighting for more resources, more treatment beds, and laws that will help prevent opiate addiction before it starts. He’s helped pass a law that is holding the people who traffic fentanyl accountable. And although we know that fentanyl has been responsible for two thirds of Massachusetts overdose deaths in 2016 so far, Tim has been criticized for that vote in this election. He needs our support, and I’m proud to stand with him, just as he stands with us. I hope that all of my friends and neighbors will get out the vote for Tim on Thursday, September 8th.

Judi Walker
Somerville Overcoming Addiction

 

7 Responses to “Letter to the Editor – August 26”

  1. Rick C says:

    If I ramble, please forgive me.

    I don’t live in Somerville any longer, but I grew up there and graduated SHS, Class of 2004.

    In the 16 years since I was first teenaged, not one year it seems has gone by without multiple former friends or classmates dying from the Opioid epidemic.

    I used to think, wow, that’s incredibly sad. A lot of times, you’d hear tales of addicts stealing and robbing family and friends for whatever petty and precious valuables they had, all to trade in for that next fix, that quick high. But, I was removed from it personally, thank the stars.

    Fast forward to 2016, and my sister is one of those next to die. Now, it is personal. Now, the time I would’ve spent wondering why this person picked up the needle or choked down the pills is spent wondering why my sister can’t get help. And why Somerville has routinely done as little as possible to push this issue to the forefront and get these people the help they deserve.

    I use the term people, because those afflicted with the disease of opioid and heroin addiction are people. They all begin as regular people. The guy who pumps your gas. The girl bagging your groceries. Your mailman. Your sister.

    We can throw up high rises and outlet shopping and a new Partners Healthcare building in Assembly Square (Row will never sound correct), but as long as we neglect to pay the same attention to those kids whose generation laid the foundation for the love and tolerance that lifted “Slummerville” to “All American City,” all the money you bring in is stained with the tears of every parent begging their son or daughter to get help.

    Of every sibling trying to relate, trying to find the words that will flick that switch of sobriety they know does not exist.

    Of every orphan left alone because mommy and daddy were rendered helpless and hopeless, but at least the new AMC Theater is sick!

    I don’t wish this crisis on anyone, but in a way, I wish it on everyone. If everyone in power with the ability to change things had a loved one who’s life was a downward spiral live and in living color, you could bet there’d be no more doctors taking money from companies to over-prescribe killer pills to people they know can’t handle the high.

    SOMERVILLE CAN FIND IT IN THEIR HEARTS TO BAN MARKET BASKET FROM GIVING PLASTIC BAGS BUT CAN’T FIGURE OUT THE ALMOST TWO-DECADE-OLD OPIOID EPIDEMIC.

    And while it might seem I’m dumping on Somerville, well, I am. These drug overdoses were national news in 2000. We were one of the earliest cities hit seriously by this problem. I’ve lived in Montana, and I now live in Maine, and let me tell you, every state is fighting this problem.

    I don’t know the first thing about Tim Toomey. If he’s serious about fighting this problem, then good on him. Honestly, though, I say to Hell with the lot of you in local government in Somerville. I want to swear and scream at you useless bunch of suits. I hope you’re very proud of building the city up on the skeletons of the kids you let die. I get it, it’s not pretty. Somerville, MA- what a place! Super tolerant, good mayor, nice location. Just, you know, don’t mention the third- and fourth-generation kids dying every month from preventable reasons. That could drive down property prices. Price them out of their homes and let them be Woburn’s problem.

    I hate you all.

  2. Genie Geronimo says:

    Sorry to hear abut your sister, Rick.

    Be careful with the hate. While it can give you short term comfort, it can also be hard to get rid of once the dust settles (sort of like an opiate).

    I’m not (yet) personally affected by this, but might be someday. Other than pressuring local government to dedicate $$$ and attention to it, do you have any suggestions on what your generic person can do to help out? What do you wish you’d done differently way back when you thought it was someone else’s problem?

  3. ritepride says:

    The politicians need to get $$$ that will provide REAL long term treatment.
    Months..instead of 2 weeks. Those who refuse to take part in long term programs should not be offered additional future help.
    The program on Ch-5, EMS, showed where the same guy would shoot up, Police/Fire/EMS showed, gave him the Narcan shot and he refused to go to the hospital and walked away. He has done this numerous times, meanwhile why he’s getting this another victim may be in need & all the equipment was tied up for this repeat guy. How many bites of the apple should these repeat abusers get?

  4. Anderson B. says:

    I want to share something that I was considering sending in longer form to this paper, perhaps as a letter to the editor, I don’t know, something, anything, to move this very issue we are discussing forward and to address the city systems that will be necessary to do so.

    I have lived in Somerville for the last four years; this is my fifth summer here. I came here never having been here before and not knowing anyone, and by now I’ve cobbled together groups of friends, found my favorite local businesses and hang out spots, and gotten to know a large number of my neighbors in Winter Hill during dog walks and visits to the nearby parks. All the tenants in my small apartment building hang out regularly with tenants from the neighboring buildings, grilling, talking, sharing some beers.

    Recently, crime has been on the rise, and it’s the kind of crime where if you know your neighbors, you know who’s responsible. You wait it out, and you’re OK with that, because you are a member of a community so things aren’t anonymous, which has its benefits as well as drawbacks, and you can see things from multiple perspectives if you have any capacity for empathy. This applies when the overdoses start happening — three in one week.

    I did end up calling the cops after the first one to let them know that I had seen some stuff, especially since I had heard that the individual had died. I didn’t know if the cops might have wanted any information about what had gone down and I was sitting on it. After all, a park near me just had a celebrated bust that was attributed (in this newspaper) to the neighbors coming together to raise awareness amongst law enforcement about what was going on around their block. When I dialed them, the cop answering the phone was not helpful or sympathetic or even really interested. He asked me, “And what exactly do you want? What do you think is going to come of this call?” He then told me that he had nothing on record for my street, much less my building, which is simply not true.

    The stories of each OD are long and I won’t get into. Suffice it to say, the first two cases survived because ambulances and NARCAN had arrived, I don’t know how. But I also know that the family suffering through this was not happy about having the cops associated with their tenancy. They’re worried about how this will affect their living situation. Understandable. They also have a problem with snitching. Having been here for generations, they also know tons of people in Somerville, especially people with ties to the cops, the fire fighters, and the EMTs.

    The third time, after seeing what looked like a dead girl being carted off by two boys, after deliberating in my head as quickly as I could, and actual conversation with several people that bore witness to or were directly involved with the young person’s public collapse, I called 9-1-1. I didn’t want to go against the family’s wishes, but I also didn’t want to stand by, a third time, while someone might die. I was scared to call because I don’t want retaliation from the family. I called from someone else’s cell phone.

    This is all leading up to what I wanted to share: the 9-1-1 dispatcher was the most callous individual and the call was the most ineffective response to an emergency I could have possibly imagined. The dispatcher demanded my personal information, repeatedly. I told her I didn’t feel safe giving it. She didn’t care and continued to press me for it, sounding disgusted with me. I continued trying to say everything I could think of to get them to come: explaining that this was the third OD from the same location in a week; that there were plenty of people hanging out around the building that could speak with any first responders that came and would want to ask questions; that I know the law might protect us as good samaritans, but I live here and the law doesn’t and won’t be here if my apartment gets robbed or my car gets vandalized or maybe even something worse. The dispatcher said things like, how did I expect them to enter the building without an apartment number. I said, I don’t know, you’re the police; ring some doorbells, I told you the floor they live on, the back door is even usually propped open, do you even have to enter the building if this all has been happening outside? Just send someone for Christ’s sake and bring NARCAN. She continued to demand my information, saying they already knew my cell phone number, and I told her it wasn’t my phone, that’s how nervous I was about just calling. After several minutes, she wasn’t budging. I asked them to please just come, send even just a cop car to check out the scene, and hung up. No one ever came.

    I think my neighbor survived but I don’t know, and I’m leaving a lot of details out that led up to me making the call.

    What the hell, Somerville?

  5. Matt C says:

    Sounds like a pretty horrible experience with both 911 and SPD. If you have the time and the date of the call where you were questioned on your motivation I would write to the chief and your alderman. Those calls are recorded. We get that our officers never signed up to be paramedics and that the sheer volume of medical work they are doing is both distracting them from their primary role in the community and exhausting them, but that behavior is not excusable.

    The epidemic of Opioid addiction we see both at home and in the surrounding area continues to be a huge issues, we have seen an overall decline in deaths because we have made Narcan widely available. Anyone can now goto a pharmacy and get it to be able to help loved ones who suffer from an overdose. This is awesome progress, but just because people are living through overdoses does not help with the root cause, addiction.

    Rightpride and Gennie hit the nail on the head, the system needs money to take care of people though I don’t think this is something local governments can do. This has to happen at the state and federal level.

    Local governments can enact policy that treats addiction as a behavioral health issue and not a criminal offence. They can provide the lifesaving tools and training to our first responders so that an overdoes does not end in a death. But our local government is not a provider of physical or behavioral health services. Unfortunately the state is not in a good position to provide desperately needed services after systematically gutting behavioral health services over the last 50 years.

    We need change at the top to be able to make a dent in addiction treatment. Somerville Overcoming Addiction is a valuable partner in this effort providing both support and information to our community but we need to let our state and federal representatives that addiction is a huge and out of control issue that is affecting our friends and families and we want them to support and fund additional resources to first get it under control and then reduce it.

  6. Anderson B says:

    Thanks Matt C, good advice on writing the chief and alderman. And you are right about the plight faced by officers; one of these nights I watched as one officer checked his tires to make sure they hadn’t been tampered with, which was incredibly depressing. I agree with what you’re saying about how it would be hard for local governments to raise the cash necessary to deal with these issues, but there are benefits to pulling together as communities of people with faces and relationships to do so. I think that the funding for programs from the federal and state governments should go to national causes like education and job training/creation and public health — so I do agree with what you’re saying: this is what we get when we slash funding for these services year after year! But I still feel like more local issues like opioid addiction should be dealt with locally, maybe that could be the state level — as long as we avoid money getting lost as it trickles through bureaucratic levels, and also this would hopefully lead to the creation of more locally-legitimate programming (rather than standardized approaches which, as much of the federal education legislation from the last several decades shows, are too one-size-fits-all to work across cities).

  7. Rick C says:

    There were over 25,000 deaths caused by prescription drugs in 2014, of which almost 20,000 being opioid related. It’s estimated one-in-five Americans have been prescribed opiates in office-based settings. That means for people looking to get high, it’s likely they know more than a few people who have access to deadly pills. Our doctors are incentivized to give these out, hand over fist, to the point where the CDC had to step in and tell them to knock it off. IT IS NOT ENOUGH to provide Narcan and recovery programs (though the shoddy and insufficient support provided those in need can be classified as less than embarrassing). This does not solve the problem; it simply passes the burden from one hand to another. This monster must be killed at the head, or the 40 people who die daily from opioid overdoses will continue to rise. Was it really a priority to ban plastic bags? Is it better to have streets devoid of litter but littered with bodies of teenagers and young people who never stood a chance, who were prescribed three months of oxys or vicadin because they slept on their necks wrong or hit their thumbs with a hammer? I mean really, Somerville? How long are you going to dance around this? Every new restaurant, every new million-dollar listing is a poker in the eye to someone suffering directly or indirectly from this horrible addiction. I’ve been on the front lines for over fifteen years; there are literally thousands of other “Villens” in my age group who can share even more horrifying tales. But instead of political help against big pharma, Assembly Row was hatched, the flag on Prospect Hill was raised in an annual act of dramatic defiance, and another twenty-something died in the bathroom of a restaurant in Davis Square. This is your legacy, Somerville: you took the generational shift in thinking and perverted it, ostracizing the kids who welcomed the blacks and Muslims and gays- unlike their parents generation. It is so frustrating, even from afar. These kids are going to keep dying in ever-record numbers, and all we see is political infighting and whining over new beds at the treatment center.

    Why can’t Somerville and other cities in America get together to ban opioids? In March, a New Jersey hospital banned opioids as emergency treatment. Some states are now banning synthetic opiods. It is possible, with the right support. Maybe even someday, Somerville will offer that support.