Sen. Hwang Joins Westport Opioid Roundtable (WestportNow)

April 9, 2019

Excepts from the Article as it appears in WestportNow

Town Hall Roundtable on Opioid Use Draws Crowd

By Jarret Liotta

A packed Westport Town Hall meeting today on opioid use heard experts say drug addiction must be addressed from the perspective of a disease — as opposed to merely criminal behavior.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal makes a point about holding drug corporations, such as Purdue Pharma, responsible for their role in the opioid crisis. The is part of a more progressive philosophy officials hope will help curb and ideally conquer the opioid epidemic.

Politicians, healthcare workers and other interested parties assembled for a roundtable discussion centering on a multipronged approach to addressing the problem.

Dita Bhargava, an ambassador from the addiction-awareness nonprofit Shatterproof, which hosted the event, shared about the death of her son, Alec, following a seven-year struggle with opioid addiction.

Like many users and abusers today, he unknowingly used the synthetic drug called fentanyl, which is almost 100 times more potent than morphine and is often cut into heroin.

“We are in the top ten in terms of per capita death,” Bhargava said of Connecticut, with over 1,000 deaths last year from opioid overdose, and more than 70,000 nationwide.

“We can’t do enough to help out in this crisis,” she said, noting a multipronged approach is needed to combine legislation, law enforcement efforts, treatment options and after-treatment plans, as well as education and family counseling.

“Our kids are faced with anxiety that we never saw as kids and they need to have coping skills,” she said.

She noted that her son’s use begin with marijuana, which many maintain is a “gateway” drug that leads to opioid use.

“He didn’t have the tools necessary to cope with real life,” she said of her son.

“This is truly a national emergency,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, who described efforts to make China — which is responsible for 80 percent of the fentanyl in the country — “a little less complicit in what’s been happening.”

“Believe it or not, a lot of this stuff gets mailed in,” he said.

Lt. Eric Woods said Westport’s police department is working with the U.S. Postal Service, as well as private companies like UPS, to stop the drug’s entry into town.

“We have seen an influx in narcotics being shipped to places in this town,” he said, describing how people can make purchases through the internet, or “dark web.”

“The ease of finding it is pretty scary,” he said, noting that social media was playing a big role in the trade.

But Woods said the approach at the department has changed.

“We do not try to arrest our way out of this problem that we have in Westport,” he said, but instead strive to recognize it as an illness and do their part to help instigate counseling help through the Department of Human Services.

“I think the message has gotten out that we’re not going to arrest someone for an overdose situation,” he said.

“I’m stuck on the fact that there’s tremendous social stigma,” said Westport’s state Sen. Tony Hwang. “I find there’s just so much struggle internally within family structures to address this as an illness.”

 

 

Sen. Hwang Joins Westport Opioid Roundtable (WestportNow)

April 9, 2019

Excepts from the Article as it appears in WestportNow

Town Hall Roundtable on Opioid Use Draws Crowd

By Jarret Liotta

A packed Westport Town Hall meeting today on opioid use heard experts say drug addiction must be addressed from the perspective of a disease — as opposed to merely criminal behavior.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal makes a point about holding drug corporations, such as Purdue Pharma, responsible for their role in the opioid crisis. The is part of a more progressive philosophy officials hope will help curb and ideally conquer the opioid epidemic.

Politicians, healthcare workers and other interested parties assembled for a roundtable discussion centering on a multipronged approach to addressing the problem.

Dita Bhargava, an ambassador from the addiction-awareness nonprofit Shatterproof, which hosted the event, shared about the death of her son, Alec, following a seven-year struggle with opioid addiction.

Like many users and abusers today, he unknowingly used the synthetic drug called fentanyl, which is almost 100 times more potent than morphine and is often cut into heroin.

“We are in the top ten in terms of per capita death,” Bhargava said of Connecticut, with over 1,000 deaths last year from opioid overdose, and more than 70,000 nationwide.

“We can’t do enough to help out in this crisis,” she said, noting a multipronged approach is needed to combine legislation, law enforcement efforts, treatment options and after-treatment plans, as well as education and family counseling.

“Our kids are faced with anxiety that we never saw as kids and they need to have coping skills,” she said.

She noted that her son’s use begin with marijuana, which many maintain is a “gateway” drug that leads to opioid use.

“He didn’t have the tools necessary to cope with real life,” she said of her son.

“This is truly a national emergency,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, who described efforts to make China — which is responsible for 80 percent of the fentanyl in the country — “a little less complicit in what’s been happening.”

“Believe it or not, a lot of this stuff gets mailed in,” he said.

Lt. Eric Woods said Westport’s police department is working with the U.S. Postal Service, as well as private companies like UPS, to stop the drug’s entry into town.

“We have seen an influx in narcotics being shipped to places in this town,” he said, describing how people can make purchases through the internet, or “dark web.”

“The ease of finding it is pretty scary,” he said, noting that social media was playing a big role in the trade.

But Woods said the approach at the department has changed.

“We do not try to arrest our way out of this problem that we have in Westport,” he said, but instead strive to recognize it as an illness and do their part to help instigate counseling help through the Department of Human Services.

“I think the message has gotten out that we’re not going to arrest someone for an overdose situation,” he said.

“I’m stuck on the fact that there’s tremendous social stigma,” said Westport’s state Sen. Tony Hwang. “I find there’s just so much struggle internally within family structures to address this as an illness.”