Charleston. Mike Stuart always carries a wallet with a pack of portrait photos. “These pictures haunt me at night,” says the former district attorney in Charleston, the capital of the US state West Virginia. The photos show young Americans. In these snapshots they seem to be bursting with joie de vivre.
They’re all dead, all of them died of a drug overdose. West Virginia is the epicenter of the opioid epidemic in the USA – Stuart speaks of “Ground Zero”. “There is no family, no street, no church, no school, no village, no city that is not massively affected,” he says.
In the United States, someone now dies of a drug overdose regarding every five minutes. Between April 2020 and April 2021 – during the corona pandemic – more than 100,000 fatalities were recorded for the first time in a year, as the US health authority CDC recently announced. Compared to the same period in the previous year, the number increased by more than 28 percent.
60 times as many drug deaths
For comparison: In Germany a total of 1581 “drug-related deaths” were registered in 2020 (plus 13 percent), whereby, unlike in the United States, the long-term effects of drug use are counted as a cause. With a population around four times as large, the USA recorded more than 60 times as many drug deaths as Germany.
Around three out of four of those deaths in the United States died from an opioid overdose. According to the CDC definition, this includes natural opiates such as heroin, but also synthetic substances such as oxycodone. In the 1990s, the now notorious company Purdue Pharma pushed onto the market with its oxycodone pain reliever, Oxycontin – it was the big bang for the current crisis. Purdue incorrectly rated Oxycontin as being low on addiction.
While oxycodone falls under the Narcotics Act in Germany, doctors in the USA freely prescribe the drugs even for moderate pain. Patients became addicted en masse. If they mightn’t get oxycodone on prescription following treatment, they often got it on the black market, where over time they switched to a cheaper alternative: heroin. Meanwhile, dealers often stretch heroin and other drugs with fentanyl.
West Virginia tops the statistics
“There isn’t a population that isn’t affected,” says Stuart, who is now a partner in a Charleston law firm. Black and white, rich and poor – in West Virginia, addiction did not stop at anyone. “The result was zombies running around everywhere.” The state, one of the poorest in the United States, has long been at the top of the overdose statistics. According to CDC data, there are more than 85 drug deaths for every 100,000 people in West Virginia.
Another statistic also suggests the misery opioids cause in the region: According to official figures, more than five out of 100 newborns in West Virginia were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome in 2017. They experienced withdrawal symptoms because the mother used drugs during pregnancy.
Joanna Tabit experiences daily how addiction destroys families in West Virginia. The Charleston judge estimates that 70 percent of her trials now revolve around child abuse or neglect. Substance abuse plays a role in the vast majority of these cases.
“Great grandparents raise toddlers”
Neglected children would be removed from their parents’ care and placed with relatives or in foster families. However, relatives often have drug or other problems themselves. The system of foster families in West Virginia is completely overwhelmed by the mass of cases. “We have great-grandparents who raise toddlers,” says Tabit. “It’s tragic.”
The corona pandemic has exacerbated the opioid crisis even further. In 2018, the number of fatal overdoses in the US fell for the first time in a long time, but the virus wiped out all successes. The network of help and care offers is much thinner in the USA than in Germany – because of the pandemic, many institutions had to close temporarily.
Recovery Point West Virginia, a nonprofit organization that operates several inpatient therapy facilities in the region, was unable to accept anyone for a few months. Addicts sat in isolation at home if they had one. Stuart says the region was able to tell when the government’s corona aid payments were received because then overdoses would have increased.
Therapy waiting lists
Recovery Point has had a facility in Charleston for women trying to get clean for the past five years. The program lasts nine to twelve months. The 100 beds are not enough, there is a waiting list. A tree is painted on the wall in one of the common rooms.
The women hung autumn leaves on it that they had collected outside. They wrote on the sheets of paper what they are grateful for. “Sober Laughter” is on one, “My Son” is on another.
A few corners further on there is a photo gallery with 35 pictures on another wall. These women failed to stay clean following their stay at the Charleston facility – and died. “I’ve probably had hundreds of friends who died from an overdose,” says Amy Lusk, 41. She is nearing the end of the program in Charleston. Her 20-year drug career was not mapped out, says Lusk.
From athlete to addict
In high school, she excelled as an athlete. At the end of the 1990s, she first tried one of the pills that were passed around at parties at the time. “Nobody thought anything regarding it. And before you knew it, you were addicted. ”Six months later, she was“ totally addicted ”. Then the crash came.
Eventually she ended up in prison. When she was released on parole, one condition was treatment at the recovery point. “I would never have come on my own. It helped that I was forced. ”After the end of her therapy, she wants to work in addiction support herself – following all, she knows what she is talking regarding, says Lusk. “I think I might really help people who want help.”(dpa)