The day after President Donald Trump offered little more than words to battle the nation’s opioid epidemic, poignant testimony about its impact was given during a candlelight vigil in Easthampton.
Kaisa Clark was one of about 50 people who gathered at the edge of Nashawannuck Pond to share stories about lives lost to addiction. Clark described how her sister struggled with addiction and was in recovery before dying in May at age 32 from endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of the heart and valves.
Clark said her sister didn’t get the proper care and was regarded by doctors as just another “junkie.” She added, “Time and again my sister was made to feel like her life didn’t matter, by the very people who were supposed to be saving her.”
Wendy Werbiskis of Easthampton emphasized the need to end the stigma around opioid addiction. “No family should live in secrecy or shame because a loved one suffers from an addiction.”
She and her husband Thomas have made it their mission to put a face on the national tragedy by talking publicly about how their 26-year-old son Daniel came to die July 31 in an intensive care unit of a Florida hospital after an addiction to opioids — including OxyContin, Suboxone and heroin — his parents suspect started six years ago.
The front page of the Weekend Gazette reported about the Friday night vigil next to a heart-wrenching story about yet another victim of addiction. His name was Mitchell Ouimette. He was 19 years old when his father James found him dead Sept. 22 at their Easthampton home. Mitch graduated in 2016 from Hampshire Regional High School and was a star football and basketball player who dreamed of joining the military.
That dream was derailed when Mitch became addicted to opioids that he started using at parties during high school. His father said Mitch also admitted abusing Adderall that he was prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder.
“I don’t know the timeline. I don’t know when the addiction started,” Ouimette told Gazette reporter Kyle Grabowski.
Mitch’s father and mother, Evelyn, who lives in Springfield, noticed changes in his behavior during the summer and confronted him. Mitch agreed to go into rehab and spent 45 days at the Oxford Treatment Center in Mississippi. At first, his life appeared to be back on track when he returned to Easthampton in early August.
Still, his father remained vigilant. “It’s such a balance between isolating and trust. What level of trust do you give?” He questioned his son after he looked lethargic, and Mitch said he’d taken Xanax, a sedative to ease anxiety. “Maybe it was, maybe it wans’t,” Jim said. “The thing about an addict is, addicts lie.”
By the night of Sept. 21 Jim said he had concluded that his son had relapsed and he prepared to confront him again the next day. But it was too late.
“I think part of the problem with some of us parents is we put a blinder on and you don’t think it’s going to happen to your kid,” Ouimette said. “I think we’ve got to start young with our kids and talk to them and talk about opiates. They are out there.”
The president was correct Thursday when he declared opioid abuse a national public health emergency and described it as the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. It is killing nearly 100 Americans a day, and last year there were 1,990 opioid-related deaths in Massachusetts.
Trump, though, fell short by failing to provide the money needed for a multi-pronged attack against the epidemic — the nation’s Public Health Emergency Fund stands at just $57,000. Instead, the president suggested that effective remedies include a massive advertising campaign, stepped-up inspection of packages by the Postal Service and Department of Homeland Security, and a Justice Department crackdown on opioid dealers.
Trump and his advisers should look to regional organizations such as Hampshire HOPE and the Franklin County Regional Drug Task Force as models in innovative approaches for comprehensive treatment programs, and provide money so they and others like them can be reproduced nationwide.
Without that commitment, friends and relatives from our communities will continue to be added to the toll that already contains far too many names like those of Danny Werbiskis and Mitch Ouimette.