opioids

Addiction Resources make Top 10 local stories of 2019

January 8, 2020 By Dee Leave a Comment

2. Culpeper’s heroin plague persists, but hope is on the horizon

Abuse of heroin and other pain-numbing opioids continued to plague the area – and country – in 2019, with Culpeper County remaining in the upper tier statewide for associated overdoses and deaths.

But even amid the hopelessness and suffering that come with drug addiction, hope is emerging as community groups collaborate on solutions.

At its first meeting of 2019, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a permit to open the area’s first long-term drug treatment center. Mountain View Community Church is leading the push for the facility, called Christ-Centered Addiction Restoration Services, or CARS, on a 39-acre horse farm off U.S. 15 south of town.

The church, which holds weekly RESTORE support groups, is working to raise $900,000 to open the place while CRUSH – Community Resources United to Stop Heroin – remains active in that mission. A collaboration of various community agencies, CRUSH held various events in 2019 including an Opioid Epidemic Town Hall in January at which Warrenton Town Councilman Sean Polster dubbed our region “the epicenter” of the deadly problem.

Opioid Ripples: Part 3

October 9, 2019 By Dee Leave a Comment

Tactics evolve in battle against opioid abuse

Read more of journalist Randy Rieland’s research into the local response and how it is helping break the cycle . . .

Law enforcement agencies in the region are taking on a larger role in teaching their communities about a crisis that few saw coming, and with a focus more nuanced than it would have been 10 years ago.

“We try to teach it’s a brain chemistry issue,” Fauquier sheriff’s Capt. Ray Acors said. “It’s not that someone’s a bad person. Their bad behavior comes out of their addiction. It’s a Jekyll and Hyde drug.”

Chief Chris Jenkins of Culpeper thinks addiction prevention doesn’t get the attention it merits. He has both professional and deeply personal reasons for feeling that way. Five years ago, his 26-year-old son, Jordan, who had become addicted to prescription medications, committed suicide. “I actually think prevention is as important as law enforcement now,” he said. “And it’s the part people kinda forget about.”

Mr. Jenkins said a complicating factor is that it’s usually up to local communities to develop their own prevention programs.

“Look, we already have our hands full for the next 10 to 15 years dealing with what’s happened. If we don’t focus on addiction prevention now, we’re going to get another whole segment of our community dealing with it.”
Read the FULL ARTICLE at FAUQUIER NOW or download a PDF at the Piedmont Journalism Foundation

Opioid Ripples: Part 2

October 2, 2019 By Dee Leave a Comment

Opioid addiction recovery a slow and painful journey

Journalist Randy Rieland highlights just how challenging overcoming an addiction can be.

Caroline Folker with her beautiful daughter Katherine

Brian and Caroline Folker had always thought Fauquier County was a safe place to raise their two daughters. After much research, they had picked it as the place to live after his transfer from London to a job in Vienna.

But, it seemed like unnecessary cruelty to have Kathrine die not long after a stint in an addiction recovery center, after being buoyed by so much relief and hope. Through their terrible ordeal, the couple learned one of the awful realities of addiction. Most addicts relapse. Multiple times. Even after they receive treatment.

Kathrine had been in the Edgehill Recovery Retreat in Winchester for only two weeks when she left. She told her parents she was afraid she would lose her job if she stayed any longer. She also told them she would be fine.

“It turned out to be a perfect storm,” Ms. Folker said. “My anxiety-ridden, naïve, follower of a daughter, very easily influenced and living in a time and place when this epidemic hit. She might as well have had a bull’s-eye on her back.”

Read the FULL ARTICLE at FAUQUIER NOW or download a PDF at the Piedmont Journalism Foundation

Opioid Ripples: Part 1

August 28, 2019 By Dee Leave a Comment

Piedmont’s opioid crisis ‘has touched everyone’

This is the first of a four part series by Journalist Randy Rieland, produced jointly by two independent, nonprofit civic news organizations, the Piedmont Journalism Foundation and Foothills Forum.

The opioid crisis has not just claimed more than 700 lives in Virginia’s Piedmont region during the past decade, but has also shattered families, taxed law enforcement and social services, stressed first responders and health care professionals and shredded the fabric of communities that never saw it coming.

And, for the generation of children being born to addicts, or into families with opioid abuse, some true ramifications may not be known for years.

Read the FULL ARTICLE at FAUQUIER NOW or download a PDF at the Piedmont Journalism Foundation

March 13, 2019 By Dee Leave a Comment

Culpeper County, like others nationwide, launches investigation into
financial burden of opioid epidemic

Culpeper is joining a nationwide trend in launching an investigation into the financial burden of the opioid epidemic upon the county, its budgets and its departments, which could lead to county government filing suit against major drug manufacturers.

Read more of this article by Allison Brophy Champion at the Culpeper Star Exponent

https://www.culpeperoverdoseawareness.org/2138-2/

EPiC continues efforts to educate, understand addiction issues

April 6, 2018 By Dee Leave a Comment

I was privileged to share Joe’s story with the Epidemic Intelligence Council (EpIC) . . .

EPiC was developed by Orange County Department of Social Services Director Crystal Hale in an attempt to bring together people from a cross-section of different disciplines and professions within the community to discuss the opioid epidemic.

“We know there is a problem and things are being done, but I think capturing what exactly is being done and identifying what’s not being done might be a good start,” Hale said.

The average age of patients for all overdose calls in Orange County is 40 years old, and the average age range of deaths due to opioids in the county is 35 to 44.

According to a map produced by the Virginia Department of Health, Orange, Culpeper and Fauquier counties have the highest fentanyl and/or heroin overdose mortality rates in the state.

Read the full article from the Orange County Review HERE

Heroin Heartbreak Article

November 4, 2017 By Dee Leave a Comment

Heroin heartbreak: Culpeper mom speaking out after son died from overdose

RAISING AWARENESS – BREAKING DOWN STIGMA – STARTING A CONVERSATION
That’s why I share about Joe, about his (unknown to me) addiction, about his death.
It’s not easy to say “my son used drugs”, but its necessary. And losing two young men I loved within days of each other made it all the more necessary . . . .

Dee Fleming holding a picture of her son Joe.

REVA—A pair of boyhood friends in their 20s recently died from heroin overdoses within days of each other in Culpeper—a county that officials describe as being at the epicenter of the region’s persistent opioid scourge.

One young man, age 24, worked and had his own business, but had struggled with addiction before it took his life. He left behind a family struggling with the loss.

The other young man—23-year-old Joe Fleming, his friend since they went to youth group together—worked two jobs and had a family and friends who loved him, including his mother, who now wants to break the stigma of opioid addiction impacting families here and everywhere. Dee Fleming intends to cast a light in a dark place.

“I feel a deep burden to talk about these kids,” said the 47-year-old mother, wife and local librarian. “I feel like the more we talk about it and are open about it, the more somebody will say, ‘Yeah, I’m struggling,’ because I think there is such a shame attached to it. We just have to break that down and be willing to let this be a normal part of our conversations because it is a normal part of so many lives.”

Read the full article by Allison Brophy Champion at the Free Lance Star