addiction and recovery

Genesee County will join the trend of local governments suing pharmaceutical companies over the opioid epidemic in an attempt to recover costs related to treating and dealing with addiction.

County Attorney Kevin Earl has recommended the Legislature sign a contract with the law firm of Napoli Shkolnik, which is based in New York City.

Earl interviewed two law firms and following negotiations selected Napoli as the best option, primarily because the financial terms were more favorable to the county.

Napoli agreed to cap their costs at 25 percent of any settlement (instead of a sliding scale that went up to 40 percent) for both the initial lawsuit and any appeals.

"Both of them would advance all of the costs of litigation," Earl said. "Also both of them we would say if they don't win, the county doesn't have to reimburse them for any of the cost and expenses. So, the county doesn't have to upfront anything or reimburse them. The only cost to the county would be some time obviously. The law firms are going to have to have information about our different costs and expenditures."

Many of the costs to the county are on the social services side, Earl said, especially dealing with parents who have become addicted.

"They're (social service workers) finding a great deal of their time and effort on trying to, first of all, rehabilitate parents because of the drug problem and then terminating parental rights when it becomes necessary. So that's that's a big cost."

In these lawsuits, being filed by municipal governments around the nation, pharmaceutical companies are being accused of flooding the market with prescription pain pills, using deceptive means to promote pain medication to doctors, and misrepresenting the addictive power of the medications, spurring an opioid epidemic that has led to the spread of heroin in local communities.

A total of 19 pharmaceutical companies have been targeted by these lawsuits.

Earl was also able to negotiate away a term in the contract that could have stuck the county with expenses related to the law firm borrowing money to proceed with the suit.

"They had something in there that if they had to borrow money we have got to pay the interest on the borrowed money," Earl said. "I said well the whole reason we got you was we thought you were a big firm and you have the money. I couldn't handle the lawsuit when I was a sole practitioner of a case like this because I couldn't advance that type of money, so they took that out completely."

While the suit on behalf of Genesee County should be filed within months, if not weeks, Earl expects the suit, on a motion by the pharmaceutical companies, will be consolidated with other similar lawsuits. In a way, at that point, Genesee County will benefit from the expertise and experience of both the big law firms handling these cases.

Even so, it will be a long time before the county sees any money from a settlement (assuming victory).

"It's going to probably be a long process," Earl said. "I look at this as similar to the tobacco cases. You know these pharmaceutical companies are going to fight tooth and nail, and they know if they settle in New York that opens the floodgates and then another state and another state and another state, so I would imagine this will take a number of years."

Press release:

Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) today reacted to President Trump’s announcement that he will declare a national emergency on opioid abuse:

“I stand with President Trump in recognizing the extreme severity of the opioid crisis in America and applaud the steps being taken to find solutions to this devastating problem. Far too many lives have been lost and we have seen firsthand the tragedy that so many families in Western New York and across America face.”

Congressman Collins is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee that crafted the 21st Century Cures Act, which provided $1 billion in grants to address the crisis. Of those funds, $25.3 million were awarded to New York state. In May 2016, Collins voted in favor of 18 bills that address addiction among our veterans, to babies infected with this disease, to current pain management best practices.

“I applaud Governor Christie and his team for their diligent work in finding solutions for treatment and prevention. Opioid addiction can impact anyone, and we will continue to combat this crisis as a team because more needs to be done."

As a member of the Health and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittees, Collins has participated in six subcommittee hearings discussing the government and states responses to the crisis, fentanyl, and professional and academic perspectives.

For more information on the work of the Energy and Commerce Committee on opioids, click here.

There have been multiple lawsuits filed by state and local governments around the nation against major drug manufacturers over their marketing and distribution of opioids, and Genesee County officials are thinking about becoming one of the plaintiffs.

Several counties in New York are part of the effort to pin at least some of the financial burden for the opiate epidemic on pharmaceutical companies.

County Attorney Kevin Earl is researching the feasibility of the county filing suit, either individually as a member of a multi-plaintiff action, against major drug manufacturers to recover current and future damages to the county taxpayers from abuse of opioid pharmaceuticals.

“If you want, [I can] investigate whether it would be better for us to join an existing lawsuit or (file) on our own,” Earl said at the Ways and Means Committee meeting on Wednesday.

Finding out the costs and expenses needed is something Earl will be researching as well.

Earl said most counties are doing research, then bringing a recommendation back to the legislative body.

Committee Member Raymond Cianfrini said every state is beginning to go after pharmaceutical companies in that regard.

“I don’t see a problem with us piggybacking on somebody else in a class-action lawsuit,” Cianfrini said. “But, we need to know who is going to do it, what it’s going to cost us, [and] what are the time frames.”

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) issues comments on the closing of the 2016 Legislative Session:

“The legislature’s bipartisan compromise on an exhaustive package to combat our state’s heroin crisis is promising and will provide more access to recovery services and ease insurance requirements so those who truly need help will be included.

"Pension forfeiture for corrupt lawmakers is a great first step toward cleaning up Albany’s pool of corruption, but more is needed. I will continue fighting for term limits for legislative leaders and increased transparency to root out public officials from abusing the power entrusted in their office.

“While we had some major victories statewide, Upstate was once again left high and dry for the most part. We saw no small business relief to counteract the detrimental minimum wage hike passed in April and little infrastructure funding to repair our roads, bridges and highways that are ravaged annually by harsh winters.

"Creating jobs and improving our business climate will remain a top priority of mine, and I will continue to oppose political gimmicks and irresponsible investments made with tax dollars instead of commonsense tax and regulatory cuts for local businesses.”

Press release: 

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) joined legislators and public activists at a press conference in Albany held by Assembly Minority Leader Brian M. Kolb (R,C-Canandaigua) on Wednesday calling for legislation to address the state’s growing heroin and opioid addiction problem. The Senate recently passed a package of 41 bills and recommendations to combat the issue.

“Our children are dying due to this deadly epidemic and the Assembly hasn’t passed a single bill this year to address it,” Hawley said. “Our conference held a series of statewide forums to gather input from people affected by addiction only to have our comprehensive solutions sit dormant in the Assembly. How many more families need to be torn apart before Assembly leadership steps up and brings solutions to the table?

"Addiction is a disease that knows no bounds, but we can defeat it by empowering recovery at the local level and providing resources to those on the frontlines. My hope is that legislative solutions will come to fruition before session adjourns for the summer in two weeks.”

Press release:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Chris Collins (NY-27) today released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed 18 pieces of legislation this week to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic.

“The opioid epidemic continues to devastate communities here in Western New York,” Congressman Collins said. “There is no silver bullet to fix this issue, but the bipartisan legislative items passed this week will help communities across America educate individuals about the dangers of opioid abuse and work to eradicate this severe epidemic. What is clear is that all levels of government need to be doing everything they can to help tackle this issue before more lives are lost.”

Here is a complete list of the bills that passed the House of Representatives this week. Among the bills are pieces of legislation that establish new grant programs to help local communities, increase opportunities for veterans to become emergency medical technicians, and expand efforts to reduce the overprescribing of opioids. 

Eleven of these bills were passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which Congressman Collins is a member.

(Two doses of Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdose, with a nosepiece applicator are kept in every road bag at the Batavia Police Department.)

Jenna Brown was an honor student and captain of the cheerleading squad at Elba High School. Like any typical teenage girl, Brown wanted to fit in so she drank and experimented with drugs to get her peers to like her. She found partying to be empowering and never thought addiction would happen to her. Although she had a lot of friends, she felt alone.

In 2012, she graduated from high school and went off to Alfred State College to get an associate degree in Nursing. Everything seemed to be fine until she went through a bad breakup during her first year. She was shattered inside and didn’t know how to cope.

Brown’s mom, Kathy Miller, noticed some changes in her daughter’s behavior but just thought she was trying to find her way.

“She would call at all different times, sometimes crying, sometimes homesick, sometimes sounding lost and sometimes happy,” Miller said. “That first semester was chaotic.”

In an attempt to make new friends, Brown started partying again and met a guy. After hanging out with him several times and watching him make frequent trips to the bathroom, she discovered he was using heroin. By then her drinking was out of control and she was curious about using. The guy helped her inject her first hit of heroin.

“I loved it and hated it at the same time,” Brown said. “I hated it for the way it physically made me feel but mentally it was the solution for me. It helped take away the loneliness. When I did heroin, I didn’t care about being alone.”

Heroin use has more than doubled among young adults ages 18 to 25 in the past decade according to the Centers for Disease Control. The 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health stated 2.4 million people abused or were dependent on opioids including heroin and prescription painkillers. Opiates are drugs derived from the opium poppy. Opioids are synthetic or semi-synthetic drugs that are manufactured to work in a similar way to opiates. The term opioid is used to describe the entire class of opiates including natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic.

Over the last few years, Genesee County has seen the opioid epidemic on the rise. Genesee Orleans County on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse has about 100 patients on Suboxone, a medication used to treat opioid addiction. Approximately one-third of individuals in Genesee County Drug Treatment Court are opiate dependent.

(Nicole Desmond, drug court treatment coordinator, Judge Robert Balbick and Jeffrey Smith, project director for the 8^thJudicial District.)

“We have been doing treatment court for 15 years,” said Judge Robert Balbick, who runs Genesee County Drug Treatment Court. “Opiate addiction has changed the way we look at treatment because we’re dealing with a deadly situation.”

Due to the high risk of overdose, quick access to treatment is crucial. Throughout the program, Nicole Desmond, drug court treatment coordinator, strictly monitors participants’ progress by getting weekly updates from them and issuing random drug testing. The program lasts an average of 18 months. If participants relapse, the team takes immediate measures to get them into inpatient treatment to prevent overdose.

In 2015, 15 deaths were caused by drug-induced overdoses in the county according to the Genesee County Health Department. Prescription opiates were used in combination with other prescription drugs and/or illicit drugs that contributed to at least six deaths. An illicit opiate was used in combination with prescription drugs that contributed to at least two additional deaths.

“Heroin is increasing steadily to the point where now we are dealing with overdoses,” said Det. Sgt. Todd Crossett at the Batavia Police Department. “It’s all over and it’s become a lot more dangerous than cocaine was because it’s being laced with synthetic fentanyl which you don’t know what you’re having until you inject it and it’s too late.”

Drug dealers cut the heroin with fentanyl, the strongest opioid used for medical purposes, to increase the potency. This deadly trend has led to a recent surge of overdose deaths. Batavia police officers carry Narcan, a drug used to reverse opioid overdose, in their cars. When they respond to a potential overdose call, the needle is often times nearby in the presence of fentanyl.

“If they have gotten fentanyl in the drug the needle may still be in them because fentanyl is so fast acting they might not have been able to put the stuff away,” Crossett said.

(Todd Crossett of the Batavia Police Department with the supplies bag that every road officer carries in their car.)

Andrew London, a 24-year-old recovering alcoholic and opioid addict, recently lost a close friend to a heroin overdose. She passed away a month before he could give her a tree of life necklace he bought her for Christmas.

“As soon as you see someone close to you use and die, it hits you,” London said. “It was one of the saddest things I have ever experienced.”

London has been convicted of two DWIs and has been receiving treatment on and off for alcohol addiction since he was 18 years old. He became addicted to opioids after being prescribed hydrocodone for back pain in August 2011. As a result, he started misusing the painkiller and violated his probation.

“Drugs don’t discriminate,” London said. “Overdoses can happen to anyone.”

In particular, however, women, the privately insured and people with higher incomes are those with the highest increase in heroin use according to the CDC.

“This is truly a white middle-class problem,” said John Bennett, executive director at GCASA. “We are not talking about street junkies anymore. Many addicts function like normal people.”

For a while, Brown, the 21-year-old recovering heroin addict, was able to maintain her addiction and continued getting good grades. She was playing two different people and no one had any idea that she was a heroin addict. However, on the inside she hated herself.

"Advances in Psychiatric Treatment," a medical journal, report 48 percent of opioid users have experienced depression at some point in their lives.

“One of the biggest things with addiction that people don’t understand is that 99 percent of the people that walk through our doors are in some kind of emotional or physical pain,” said Shannon Murphy, director of treatment at GCASA. “To ask them to stop taking it, is like having a raw open nerve.”

Brown’s next high was always in the back of her mind. Her addiction spun out of control after she graduated college in December 2014. She moved back home in Elba and her parents found out she was using. She overdosed several times. Her mom took her to Erie County Medical Center but the doctors sent her back home because she wasn’t using enough bags in a day for inpatient treatment. She attempted to stop using on her own but the withdrawal symptoms were too severe.

“She would try to go through withdrawal but it was awful for her and for me,” Miller said. “She was so thin, so frail and so sickly. Her beautiful blue eyes sunken in and gone, replaced by lifeless empty sockets. She had such pale, bluish-gray skin.”

Brown was ashamed for putting her parents and siblings through everything. However, she was afraid to get sober because she never thought she would feel good.

“People always tried to scare me into getting sober,” Brown said. “I wasn’t afraid to die. I was afraid of suffering. It got to a point where I either continued to kill myself or get help.”

She was tired of feeling sick and determined to try for something better. She started going to outpatient treatment at GCASA and was put on a waiting list for detox treatment at the Horizon Village Terrace House in Buffalo.

“I woke up at three in the afternoon and I was going to get high at four when my mom told me there was a bed available,” Brown said. “It was heaven to my ears but nails on a chalkboard. There is something taunting about knowing you could get high in an hour or be saved in an hour.”

In October, she completed the detox and started a 28-day inpatient rehab program at the Terrace House. During inpatient, she started taking Vivitrol, an injectable medication to prevent relapse for opioid dependence after detox.

Vivitrol is a trade name for naltrexone, one of the medications approved by the Federal Drug Administration to treat opioid addiction. The medication attaches to opioid receptors in the brain and blocks pleasurable feelings associated with opioids and reduces cravings. The blocking effect decreases over time so addicts must receive the shot each month by a healthcare professional. While receiving the medication, the addicted individuals cannot be using opioids or severe sickness and death may occur.

A more common medication is buprenorphine, an opioid partial agonist. The medication can produce opioid effects but the effects are less than a full opioid agonist such as heroin. Buprenorphine binds to opioid receptors in the brain and blocks the effects of other opioids that may be present in the bloodstream. Low doses allow addicts to stop misusing opioids without having withdrawal symptoms. If dosing is not heavily monitored, it can be easily abused.

Suboxone is one of the prescription formulas with buprenorphine and naloxone, medication used in Narcan. The daily medication is a digestible film that is dissolved under the tongue.

“We have patients who have been on it for years that say they don’t expect to ever get off this,” said Cheryle McCann, RN at GCASA. “As long as they have a prescriber who can take over for us, we don’t have a problem with that. It’s like someone who is on blood pressure medicine.”

However, finding a doctor who is willing to take a patient with a history of opioid dependence is difficult. There are currently three prescribers in the county.

“The biggest problem I see in our county right now is there are not many doctors in our community that will prescribe buprenorphine,” McCann said. “The DEA regulate buprenorphine more stringently than they regulate the prescribing of opioids. An opioid can be prescribed by a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant and dentist. But buprenorphine can only be prescribed by a physician.”

According to Bennett, about 35 percent of their patients struggle with Suboxone so they offer Vivitrol as another option. In the future, he would like to get the treatment facility licensed to be a methadone clinic.

“Medicated assisted treatments are misunderstood by communities,” Bennett said. “Law enforcement and judges don’t always believe patients are clean while on the treatments. We need to look at opiate patients like heart or diabetic patients and support their treatment. Patients with addiction have better compliance with medication than patients with other diseases.”

(Cheryle McCann and John Bennett of GCASA sit on the bench where patients receive their monthly Vivitrol shots.)

In addition to the medicated assisted treatment, countless meetings, counseling, advice from other recovering addicts and faith in God taught Brown how to live day to day and helped her set a good foundation.

“At the end of the day I’m still a recovering addict and one drug away from being high,” Brown said. “Any day clean is a miracle.”

Once Brown completed the 28-day rehab program, she went to Horizon Village, a long-term residential rehab center, for three months. From there she moved into Casa De Vita, a halfway house, and made friends who she could call on all hours of the day and night. This was the first time she realized her friends genuinely cared about her wellbeing. Her mom also started attending Nar-Anon, a support group for families struggling with addiction in Batavia, to learn how she could support her daughter’s recovery.

Miller and Donna Rose, a mother whose son is addicted to heroin, will be hosting a heroin town hall meeting for parents of addicts at 6:30 p.m. May 17 at  Genesee Community College. The meeting will focus on treatment costs and denial of insurance for recovering addicts.

“I learned nothing I do will cure her disease but I can choose for myself to stay healthy, supportive and loving,” Miller said. “Everyday I’m thankful that Jenna is alive and I try to learn something that will prevent someone else from using. We need more heroin awareness. People need to start understanding the disease instead of judging it.”

Support from family and friends has also been important for London’s recovery.

After completing a 28-day inpatient treatment program at Hope Haven and several months at Atwater, GCASA’s halfway house, London has been clean for seven months. He currently goes to meetings at Horizon Health Services once a week. His pregnant wife and circle of friends he met while in recovery have been significant motivators for him to not relapse.

“I want to be there for my daughter and not have to see her on a visiting floor in jail,” London said. “I don’t want her to see me under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

​(Andrew London, a recovering alcoholic and opioid addict, has been clean for seven months.)

Brown is looking to the future, too. She recently moved in with her sponsor and is applying for full-time jobs – and looking for an apartment.

“I’m able to look people in the eyes today and be at peace with things that happened in my life,” Brown said. “The greatest thing today is I don’t want to get high and that gives me a feeling of gratitude because I thought that was how to make friends. Now I can love myself and take my flaws as they come.”

This information was provided by Sue Gagne, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Genesee and Orleans Counties:

National Crime Victims' Rights Week is April 10-16. Communities nationwide, aided by the Office for Victims of Crime, will hold observances. This year's theme is "Serving Victims. Building Trust. Restoring Hope" and the aim is to underscore the importance of early intervention and using victim services in establishing trust with victims in order to begin to restore their hope for healing and recovery.

In Genesee County, starting at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 15, there will be a Ceremoninal Walk and Reception at the Old County Courthouse (Downtown Batavia at the corner of routes 5 and 63). For more information, call Theresa at 344-2550, ext. 3920.

Prior to that date is Criminal Justice Day, Tuesday, April 12, and there will be a half-day event at Genesee Community College titled "The Opiate Epidemic: The Unintended Victims." It runs from 8:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Conable Technology Center, 1 College Road, Batavia.

Cost to attend is $10 per person; $5 for students. Seating is limited; first come, first served. Registration forms are due by April 4. Checks should be made payable to the Mental Health Association of Genesee and Orleans Counties. For more information, call 344-2611.

According to the event brochure, heroin use has increased across the United States among men and women, most age groups, and all income levels. Some of the greatest increases occured in deomgraphic groups with historically low rates of heroin use -- women, the privately insured, and people with higher incomes.

Nor only are people using heroin more than ever, they are also abusing multiple other substances, especially cocaine and prescription opioid painkillers.

Law enforcement officials say history teaches that American society can't arrest its way out of the drug problems it faces. While effective enforcement is esstantial to protecting cities and neighborhoods, reducing drug use requires a broader, multidimensional approach.

Scientists say that it is clear that addiction is a progressive disease of the brain that can be prevented and treated and recovery is possible.

In addition to the college, the event on opioid addiction and its unintended victims is presented by these 2016 Criminal Justice Day partners:

• Batavia Police Department
• Genesee/Orleans Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (GCASA)
• GC District Attorney's Office
• GC Sheriff's Office
• GC Youth Bureau
• Genesee Justice
• Mental Health Association of Genesee and Orleans Counties
• RESTORE Sexual Assault Services
• YWCA of Genesee County 

Keynote speakers are Mike Covert, police chief of Cooperstown, and Alexis Pleus, a structural engineer and mother of three sons who lost her oldest son to a heroin overdose in 2014.

Under Covert's leadership, the police department made a "revolutionary change" in the way it responds to the opiate crisis. He implemented an initiative last Thanskgiving called PAARI -- Police Assisting Addicts Toward Recovery Initiative. It allows addicts to walk into the Cooperstown Police Station with drug paraphernalia or drugs to ask for help and not be charged with a crime. Instead, they are walked through the system toward detox and recovery with the assistance of an assigned "ANGEL" who guides them through the process -- not in hours or days but on the spot. Since its implementation, 45 people have enrolled in the program.

Pleus has used her experience with addiction and the stigma she faced to start an organization called Truth Pharm, which works to raise awareness, reduce the stigma, implement programs, and advocate for policies that have a profound impact on the opioid epidemic.

The day's agenda is as follows:

8:15 to 8:45  -- Registration

8:45 to 9  -- Flag Raising

9 to 9:15 -- Welcome and Introductions

9:15 to 10:15 -- Keynote Speakers

10:15 to 10:30 -- Break

10:30 to 11:45 -- Panel Discussion: Impact on the Community

11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. -- Pharmacology of Opiates 

Closing

Photo by Steve Ognibene of resident DEA agent-in-charge John Flickinger. 

Morgan Brittany Axe came from a good family with friends and relatives who loved her. She played volleyball and became a cheerleader. She had relatives here who attended Batavia High School. She traveled the same streets we travel.

"She looked like you," her mother, Deanna Axe, told the crowd gathered Monday afternoon in the BHS auditorium. "She is you."

But Morgan died in December at age 24 from an overdose after losing a four-year battle to overcome heroin addiction. She was pregnant with Deanna Axe's grandson, Isaiah Douglas Lee Mathis, at the time of her death and the unborn baby died, too.

The heart-wrenching story was shared with students and about 100 community members at a forum called "Pay Attention: Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Addiction in Our Community."

Morgan's downward spiral was triggered when a young man she loved committed suicide while talking on the phone with her. She was devastated by the loss and a doctor prescribed Xanax. Later someone suggested "Try this, you'll feel better. And she did."

But in that one moment, everything changed. The pain was gone but only fleetingly. Then came the numbness, sadness, isolation, truancy, poor grades, joylessness, more drugs.

"The first time you choose, the second time the disease chooses you," Deanna said. "And the disease takes over. You can't get back no matter how hard you try."

Jail. Institutions. Death.

"Deal with life on life's terms. ... There's no situation in your life that can be overcome by taking drugs," Deanna said. "When you wake up tomorrow after the drugs have worn off, you have the same problems."

The Rachel Platten song "Stand By You" provided the soundtrack to a brief video showing highlights from Morgan's life. The cute little girl. The young adolescent cuddling the chocolate-colored puppy. The happy-go-lucky teen taking candid selfies with friends. The beautiful young woman with long dark hair and a winning smile. 

"(Addiction) will knock you to your knees. ... Please don't take this path," Deanna said. "It will lead to disaster."

In addition to the first-hand account about the Axe family, the forum featured an overview by William J. Hochul Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York (spanning 17 counties), and input from law enforcement personnel from Batavia PD, Le Roy PD, and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. It was sponsored by a coalition of community volunteers known as Act Genesee, which promotes "healthy and safe choices through education and action." Representatives from the county, the Prevention Resource Center, State Police, GCASA, Batavia Urgent Care and others on the front lines of the opioid-addiction epidemic were also there.

Hochul said the United States has 4 percent of the world's population, but consumes 99.9 percent of the planet's hydrocodone. (A semi-synthetic opioid synthesized from codeine.)

"Either we have more people in pain here than the rest of the nations put together," Hochul said, "or something went wrong..."

Whether addiction starts with prescribed pain meds that become indispensable, pilfering pills a family member or friend's medicine cabinet, smoking marijuana laced with heroin, experimenting with synthetic opioids, or snorting or shooting heroin outright, the ultimate effect on the body and brain chemistry is the same, Hochul said. The road to addiction is typically sure and swift. It's also multifaceted and complex so a conversation about addiction to prescription painkillers needs to include the once-taboo topic of heroin.

The tragic irony is that once someone experiences that first high, they spend the rest of their days trying in vain to recapture the euphoria. If they can't get the prescription they want for pain meds or can't afford to pay $50 for a pill on the black market, they go for the cheaper stuff, and that's how heroin and synthetic opioids have come to grip so many.

(A PBS Frontline documentary which premiered Friday called "Chasing Heroin" artfully delves into the gritty reality of the national crisis. (Search Google and view online free.) Not to be confused with the 2010 documentary about an addict's world called "Chasing the Dragon," which was highly recommended by yesterday's panel.)

"This isn't the usual anti-drug message," resident DEA agent-in-charge John Flickinger said. "We're here because people are dying. This is different. It's mentally and physically addicting. After one hit, you are 'chasing the dragon.' People feel addicted for life. ... This truly is a drug that if you try it once, it may be the only thing you ever do. ... This is not something you want to experiment with -- it's too addictive."

Drug traffickers know this and they'll do anything to make a buck and get a customer for life, Flickinger said.

They often cut their product with "China white," a synthetic heroin called fentanyl, which comes from China and is very inexpensive but is 20 to 30 times more powerful than plant-based heroin. By cutting this into their product, they can stretch their resources and make more money. It just takes three or four grains (think as in grains of salt) in a dose or "fix" of heroin to amp up the high. But the traffickers plop it all in a household blender and mix it up, get the stuff packaged and out the door. They don't really know, or care, if there are three grains of fentanyl per dose or 23. It's all about the money, Flickinger said. 

This is NOT a just a teen problem. It's way too big. The number of people killed every year from heroin and prescription drug overdoses exceeds those killed from violent crime, including gang-related deaths, and car wrecks combined.

In Erie County in 2015, more than 250 deaths are attributed to opioid overdose, Hochul said, noting that during the same year there were 40 homicides.

In addition, 650 people in Buffalo were categorized as "Narcan saves," said Act Genesee President Anita Strollo, meaning they would likely have died if not for law enforcement or medical technicians dosing them with the anti-opioid nasal spray Narcan, thereby reversing the effect of drugs in the users' system and keeping them alive.

In other words, the grim statistics would be greatly multiplied. But even the use of Narcan has become problematic, according to Le Roy Det. John Condidorio, who said the dope out there is so powerful nowadays instead of the one or two doses of Narcan that used to work, now three or four doses are required to pull someone back from the brink of death. 

Sometimes the same people get a second chance more than once.

Condidorio said he's sick of being at the scene of a 14-year-old who overdosed, or a 16-year-old.

A women in the audience said during a Q&A session afterward that her child is struggling with heroin addiction. Her family is hurting, fearful, ashamed.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," she said about parenting an addict. 

But she praised the addiction-treatment drug Vivitrol (naltrexone), which costs $1,800 for a month's supply, for bringing hope their way. For the past two years, it has been working.

It was also working for Morgan Axe. She was doing great taking Vivitrol and getting a handle on her life. But after she became pregnant at some point she decided to stop taking her medication out of concern for her unborn child. Then came the second most fateful decision she would ever make: to use once more; to get high just one more time.

She found her connection on Facebook and didn't have to drive to some dark alley in a big city; the goods were delivered right to her door. She used again, and died.

"Don't let this be your story," Deanna said. "Choose life. Choose reality. Okay?"

Panelists urged parents to keep tabs on their children's use of technology.

"If you aren't on your kids' social media and monitoring their cell phone calls every day, you're missing out on where they spend 90 percent of their time," Hochul told the audience.

He gave an example of a teenage girl who, along with friends, found ways online to "reverse engineer" so-called tamper-proof pills so they could get high. Hochul said if they had scanned the teens' browser history, they would've seen what they were up to.

Parents were also encouraged to read:

• "The Secret Life of Teens: Young People Speak Out About Their Lives" [Gayatri Patnaik, Michelle T. Shinseki]
• "The Secret Lives of Teen Girls: What Your Mother Wouldn't Talk About But Your Daughter Needs to Know" [Evelyn Resh, MPH CNM]

For family members or friends struggling with an addict, a new adult Nar-Anon group meets on Monday nights at 6:30 at Horizon Health Care -- Batavia Recovery Center, 314 Ellicott St., Batavia. March 7 will be the third meeting.

Addicts are welcome to attend the Narcotics Anonymous meetings three times a week at The Salvation Army, 529 E. Main St., Batavia. They are at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays; 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays; and 7 p.m. on Fridays.

"You are not alone," Deanna told the audience. "If you want help, there is help for you."

Press release:

A panel featuring William J. Hochul Jr., United States Attorney for the Western District of New York, who oversees the prosecution of federal criminal cases in our region, and Deanna Axe, the mother of a heroin overdose victim who founded Addicted to Hope, will be held from 1:30 to approximately 3 p.m. at Batavia High School on Monday, Feb. 29.

They will be joined by representatives from local law enforcement, the medical profession, and treatment/prevention education to address the significant and dire consequences of prescription drug abuse and heroin addiction that is impacting our community.

Sponsored by Act Genesee, a growing coalition  of community volunteers whose mission is to promote healthy and safe choices through education and action, the forum is titled, “Pay Attention: Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Addiction in our Community.”

In addition to presentations by Hochul and Axe, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panel members, fill out a brief survey to help the Coalition determine the best course of action for following up on this presentation, and meet other like-minded individuals who share a concern about promoting a healthy and substance-free lifestyle for individuals and families in our community.

Coalition President Anita Strollo urges all to attend and says, “We really want to raise awareness. This is a problem that is happening. It’s here. And it is serious and devastating.” She encourages involvement from all ages, noting that, with abuse and addiction crossing all age and socio-economic groupings, so should be the awareness of and attack on these growing problems.

Daniel Placek seemed to have everything going for him. After graduating from Niagara Falls High School, he joined the Navy, served in Japan and came home, taking a job as a plumber five days after his discharge. By age 23, he owned his own home.

As the only child of Dan and Cheryl Placek, he was given every middle-class advantage in life. He was involved in sports, made lots of friends, worked hard, and he could always count on his parents when he needed help.

What they couldn't help him with, though, despite their best efforts, was drug addiction.

Five years into his career as a plumber, Daniel hurt his back. His doctor prescribed opiate-based pain medication.

"We could see a change in him over the last year of his life," Cheryl said. "We didn't know what it was. He was anxious. We couldn't figure it out. His friends were concerned. His employer called me a few months before he died and said what's up with Dan and we didn't know either."

Finally, Daniel confessed to his parents. He couldn't stop taking the pain medication he was prescribed.

Cheryl went with him to see his doctor. The doctor's solution: prescribe suboxone.

Suboxone is an opiate-based narcotic. It's often used to treat heroin addicts and others addicted to opiate-based pain medications, but suboxone is itself habit forming.

"Within days of withdrawing, Daniel became paranoid," Cheryl said. "He was talking about not wanting to live. We took him to ECMC, but we couldn't get a bed. We were there for 17 hours on Christmas Day in 2011."

Finally, they were referred to Lakeshore Hospital and Lakeshore agreed to admit him for seven days. On the fifth day, he was released to an outpatient clinic.

"They said he wasn't talking about taking his life so he was OK," Cheryl said. "It's like they were only listening to what he was saying and not what we were telling them, and here's my son who wasn't thinking straight."

They family tried getting Daniel into another program and hit roadblock after roadblock.

"He said, 'mom, don't you see, people don't want to help me anyway.' " 

Against their original doctor's advice, Cheryl finally called the VA and begged the VA to take Daniel as a drug-treatment patient. It took two weeks, but the VA finally admitted Daniel to an inpatient program.

"He went in with full family support," Cheryl said. "We were there, his best friend was there, his girlfriend was there. That night at 1:15, the nurse called me and said, 'your son's passed away.' I asked her what happened. She was reluctant to tell me, but finally she told me. He took is own life."

The story of Daniel Placek is not very different from a half-dozen other stories that came out this morning during a two-hour State Senate Hearing at Batavia City Hall on the state's growing opiate-based drug problems.

When Cheryl Placek spoke, she held the picture of her son, pointed to him, and said, "This is the face of addiction."

She wasn't the first mother Friday to use that phrase during the hearing, and the faces being pointed to weren't burned-out crank heads living in the squalor of urban blight, but healthy, well-scrubbed faces of young men and women who grew up in rural communities, went to good schools, got good grades, came from strong nuclear families.

"In 2001, the Sisters Hospital wanted to open a methadone clinic here so we took a look at our opiate addictions and we had three active patients," said John Bennett, director of GCASA. "Roll the clock ahead, we now have 175 active admissions at any given time. We've treated 483 people since 2008 for opiate addiction. None of them look like, for lack of a better term, the traditional junkie.

"It used to be nobody wanted to be a junkie, that was leper of the addicts," Bennett added. "You roll the clock ahead and it's young kids using opiates and heroin."

The hearing was led by State Senator Phil Boyle, chairman of the Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and State Senator Michael Ranzenhofer, who arranged for the hearing in Batavia. On the panel where members of the local criminal justice community as well as leaders in drug-treatment programs. In the audience were those who deal with drug addicts, their parents and a few recovering addicts themselves.

The themes heard in Placek's story were repeated by both the professionals, those who have been through treatment, and the parents of addicts.

• It's too hard to get into treatment;
• Treatment is often over too soon;
• There's little or no follow up, and if you're off drugs, you can't get treatment even if you still feel you need it;
• Opiate-based drugs are easier than ever to get and more widespread in the community than ever before.

It was the same story for Mary Flippi, a mother of five. Two of her sons are addicts.

For one son, his first experience with drugs was at age 11. A friend introduced him to marijuana. She said by the time he was 15, he was addicted to heroin. By the time he was 22, he had overdosed three times.

To get him into rehab one time, she called every facility in Western New York she could find. Then she drove around Pennsylvania trying to find a facility to admit him. Finally, he found treatment for her boy in Louisiana.

"He was there for seven months, but within the first hour of him leaving, he relapsed," Flippi said. "He was at the airport waiting for his plane and the anxiety got to him. He went to the bar and spent the $10 they had given him for the trip home."

Flippi observed, "drugs are not the problem for the addict. Reality is the problem for the addict."

As he continued down the path of renewed drug use, Flippi again tried to find a treatment facility that would take him.

Eventually, she became so desperate that after he stole a dirt bike from his own family, she had him arrested just so he could go to jail while she continued to work on getting him into treatment.

Later, Boyle would recall this statement and remark, "It's a story we've heard repeatedly around the state. A parent is put in a position where she must have her child arrested to get him into treatment. That is a system that truly needs reform and that's what we're doing here."

After jail, Flippi's son was placed in a 28-day treatment program, but within a week of his release, he was drinking again. Four days ago, he tested positive for heroin and cocaine.

"I'm at my wit's end," Flippi said. "I don't know where to go from here, because there is no place. There are placed to go, but they are no help. Twenty-eight days doesn't work, and just to get to 28 days, you have to fail in outpatient first before you even get 28 days."

Sheriff Gary Maha said heroin and opiate use is a significant and growing problem in Genesee County.

Most of the drugs sold here come out of Rochester.

Heroin is a growing problem because it's cheaper than pain pills. He said he's heard of people selling their pills for $25 and more per pill so they could buy heroin at $10 to $20 a bag.

"A few years ago, heroin was unheard of in Genesee County," Maha said. "Now it's very prevalent and very available. Half the buys by our Local Drug Task Force now involve heroin."

After the meeting, Maha said he thought it was an important discussion.

"What I heard today was very enlightening, even for me as somebody who has been in the business a long time," Maha said. "When you hear from the families of the addicted persons, even the recovering addicts, it kind of opens your eyes. We look sometimes strictly from a law enforcement perspective, not even thinking about the treatment and the education parts, but it's going to take a concerted effort by everybody to fight this thing. It's a difficult and complex issue."

Where heroin used to the drug of last resort for the most addicted junkies, said Bennett, it's now part of the potential mix for first time and novice drug users.

Teens use heroin, but more commonly, they raid grandma's medicine cabinet and swipe her pain pills.

"They're getting together on Friday nights and they think they're just having fun, but what we know about opiates is, if you use them for two or three weeks -- and some of these kids are popping them every day thinking that's just what grandma is taking -- that when they try to stop, they find they are getting sick, so they start taking pills before going to school just so they don't get sick."

Augusta Welsh, director of community services, Genesee County Mental Health Services, said she's a big fan of drug take-back days hosted by local police agencies.

"One thing we see kids doing is they will take anything and everything just to try it," Welsh said. "They call it fishing They will put all of the pills they got from their grandmothers' and put them in a bowl and say, 'look at all the pretty colors,' then they'll pull something out. If they take it with alcohol, then it delivers the effect much quicker."

With the rise of heroin and opiate-based drugs in Genesee County, UMMC's emergency room has been much busier, said Mary Beth Bowen, chief nursing officer.

She said in 2013, ER admitted 62 overdose patients. There have been 130 so far this year. Now that number includes all brands of ODs, including alcohol, but the underlying root cause is heroin and pain medications, she said.

What UMMC is also starting to see is more use of e-cigarettes as a drug delivery method, and several panelists and audience members expressed concern about e-cigs as a kind of gateway into drug use or tobacco cigarettes.

Audience member Nicholas Burk, a resource officer at Batavia High School, said he one time he witnessed a BHS student beg her mother for an e-cigarette. This was a girl, he said, who was a athlete-scholar, a straight-A student who never received a referral in her life.

All of her friends had e-cigs, she said, so she wanted to be part of the crowd.

"She thinks it's OK," he said.

There was a lot of back and forth about whether marijuana is a gateway drug. Some in the audience are convinced it is.

Rose Mary Christian expressed shock and dismay that the Legislature would even consider medical marijuana. Ranzenhofer said it's a complex issue. It's hard to turn down a parent who says marijuana is the only drug that will stop her child's seizures and prevent almost certain death.

Boyle said there's a lot of discussion in Albany about medical marijuana, but he promised that recreational marijuana will never be legal in New York.

Dr. Bruce Baker, medical director for GCASA, said the data doesn't support the notion of marijuana as a gateway drug, but it does lower inhibitions and many young people have been introduced to harder drugs just because marijuana brought them into closer contact with people already using harder drugs.

Two recovering addicts also spoke. One was a woman currently living in Batavia who said she got into prostitution to support her drug habit and has seen other young women fall into the same trap. She wants to warn young women away from drugs for that reason. She was among the speakers who complained about how difficult it is to get into drug treatment.

One speaker challenged the panel to look at the people in the room talking about addiction and how it affected their lives personally. It was largely a white, rural and middle-class audience.

"This is the face of addiction," She said. "We are very typical people and I hope we can give it a voice and get more help in our community because it's here and it's big."

Boyle said the message was heard loud and clear, and with modern technology being what it is today, changes are already in the works.

"As we've been talking, I've been texting with my staff in Albany about what some of you have been saying," Boyle said. "They've already done the research and sent back some draft legislation that we could introduce as soon as next week to address some of the concerns raised here."

Lynette Gawron, clinical supervisor and licensed creative arts therapist at Genesee/Orleans Council on Alcoholism & Substance Abuse (GCASA), proudly presented clients' artwork at the "Fall Recovery Art Show" on Saturday.

Organized in groups of eight people or less, art therapy sessions focus less on the finished product and more on the creative process. For this reason, Gawron likes to meet with people individually before they start. She says people sometimes come into it with the misconception that it is "arts and crafts" or training in how to be a better artist.

In reality, the process is quite different.

"It's about getting in touch with your true self," Gawron said, adding that the "true self" tends to be suppressed by addiction.

Gawron said art therapy helps to bring the unaddressed problems and issues that fuel or are suppressed by addiction to light.

"The emotional bubbling-up can be overwhelming," Gawron said. "(Art therapy) can be a way to channel that."

Samples:

The artist made this to show how her faith in God is helping her to "pick up the pieces" of her life and move forward.

Another made and showcased three masks:

One representing lovableness and happiness, but with memories of his/her deceased father, uncles and grandmother on the inside...

...another with various colors symbolizing the artist's hopes, fears and mistakes throughout the years...

...and a third depicting a calm exterior with "chaotic" emotions inside that come out "a little at a time."

This poster reflects the unidentified artist's anger at what addiction has done to his/her life.

Here is the bottom half:

Here is the artist's own description of this work: "This is about Light on the face and a path like the 'yellow brick road.' I look through the windows on my path at new things as I make choices in my life."

The artist who made this was present at the event. She said this represents, at the same time, the oppression of her addiction and the freedom (symbolized by the butterfly) of her recovery.

Other projects in which the clients are involved include:

1. Altered books...

...such as this one containing tiny drawers, pockets, pictures and other items. Gawron described it as a kind of journaling. Each page might have a separate theme relevant to the artist.

2. Writing about all the negativity in one's life, painting over the writing and overlaying it with positive words and/or imagery.

For more information, call Gawron at 815-1850 or e-mail llex@gcasa.org.