Four years ago, the son of Dr. Russell Schilling, a primary care physician in Easton, died of a drug overdose.
Within recent months, I noticed an unusually large number of cars parked near Fellows, Helfenbein and Newman Funeral Home in Easton. When I asked one of the employees about who died, thinking it would be someone I might know, I was told a 23-year-old young man had died of a drug overdose. The employee seemed particularly struck by the death of the young man.
A deputy sheriff in a nearby county told me about two heroin overdoses at a county high school.
A longtime state legislator and former educator in Wicomico County, told me this weekend about recent deaths of Salisbury University students from an overdose.
So many friends have a sad story about an untimely death due to drugs. It would be easy to ignore, since these “young people” typically are unknown to me. But I can’t. Our community is suffering. The crisis is overwhelming.
As it has been–and getting worse.
According to a Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) report, drug overdose deaths are rising. In Talbot County, overdose deaths have increased in the first three quarters of 2016 by 57 percent in the same time compared with the same time period in 2015. A synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has killed seven in the county, an increase of 83 percent.
The trend is terrifying. While drug and alcohol-related deaths in the state rose 39 percent in 2016 over the same period in 2015, the increase was 63 percent in the Mid-Shore counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties. Heroin-related overdose deaths rose 43 percent; the increase on the Mid-Shore was 62 percent.
Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble is resolute about addressing this headline-grabbing, heart-rending crisis. I watched him listen mostly and talk little when approached by recovering addicts after a community recovery service a few months ago at Christ Church, Easton. One man was expressing pride in his sobriety. Sheriff Gamble, who’s probably heard scores of stories from recovering addicts who fell back into the abyss of drug abuse, encouraged the young man, simply by listening in a non-judgmental way.
After Matt Schilling died, his father, a well-respected family doctor and my physician, talked compassionately about his son during one of my periodic exams. It was my turn to listen.
I heard a father, not a doctor, talk about his son Matt’s downward journey into drug abuse. He tried mightily to help his son combat this scourge. His love for his son never wavered during Matt’s self-destructive decline.
A recent New York Times article related several stories about addicts. The disease affects all socioeconomic levels. It spares no one.
One young lady from a well-to-do family in a Boston, Mass. suburb was an honors student who developed anorexia. She then embraced alcohol. By age 21, she was addicted to heroin. At age 24, alive despite overdosing five times, she checked herself into detox—on her own self-volition—to reclaim her wrecked life.
A 30-year-old man in central Utah raised in a Mormon family struggled with a heroin addiction in Salt Lake City. He returned to his High Desert community in 2013, only to discover that drugs were as available as they were in the city. After 11 years of addiction and rehab, jail and relapse, he has been sober for more than 300 days. He takes a naltrexone pill on a daily basis, brought to him every day by his mother.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), naloxone is another opioid-fighting drug.
Some think that over-prescription of pain pills is a principal cause of the opioid epidemic. It seems a common refrain. Sheriff Gamble believes that addiction begins with early drinking, progresses into daily marijuana use in high school, gradually moves into prescription opiates and graduates into heroin.
Addiction to alcohol and drugs is a common outlet for young and old alike. Humans self-medicate to cope with physical injury, mental distress and insecurity. Some folks eat to excess. Some work to extremes.
Use of opiates, be they prescriptions or heroin, is deadly, as noted earlier in this column. Parents, professionals, law enforcement, the clergy and the court system are on the front lines.
The battle is fought in every corner of our country. Success is hard to achieve.
I have no answers. It would be too easy to blame parents. Though I know that many family units are dysfunctional, unleashing demons in children, I believe, as do many, that the journey to a drug-free life begins with hard-earned self-motivation.
As it did with the young suburban Boston woman who was arrested in 2015 for prostitution. She needed the money to fuel her habit. After one more failed detoxification, she checked herself in on her own.
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.
David Hill says
I just read Howard Freelander’s excellent article concerning drug abuse. It was a well-thought out commentary. The disease definitely affects all socio-economic levels. Even though there seems to be a growing awareness of the crisis, drug over dose deaths continue to rise. I feel there is no single solution to the problem. As Sheriff Joe Gamble said, “All of us need to become spokes in the wheel.” In other words, healthcare professionals, rehabilitation facilities, families, schools, law enforcement all need to cooperate and work together to slow down and help reverse this horrible epidemic. Thank you, Howard, for this excellent commentary.