New England Public Radio

Heroin Related Deaths Down In Mass., But New Report Estimates Overall Increase In Opioid Deaths

Massachusetts Department of Public Health has released preliminary data estimating the number of deaths from opioid overdose could be 24 percent higher than last year. The report found deaths from heroin use declined, but those from the opioid, fentanyl increased.

Fentanyl is a prescription drug used to alleviate pain from cancer.  But the fentanyl that’s killing people is sold illegally and at times is mixed with heroin. According to Dr. Ruth Potee, an addiction specialist with the Franklin Recovery Center in Greenfield, in the past year the potency of the street drug has escalated, leading to an increase in the number of deaths. Potee says with only seven methadone clinics in western Mass., the area needs more.

“Every methadone clinic in western Massachusetts is chock a block full, said Potee.  “The wait lists are six to eight weeks. Six to eight weeks is a guaranteed death, or dozens of deaths. This is not a time for ‘not-in-my-backyard’ with methadone treatment.”

The state report also shows a 15-percent decrease  in the number of opioid prescriptions in Massachusetts last year, compared with 2015.

The Week Ahead On Beacon Hill

Eight days to go before Election Day — but already hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents have cast ballots during the state’s first-ever early voting period. And Monday marks a key deadline for political campaigns to file reports with the state about their contributions and expenses.

Click the audio player above to hear NEPR’s Carrie Healy speak with Matt Murphy of the State House News Service. Carrie asked Matt whether those campaign finance reports will be a good predictor of the results on November 8th.

Needle Exchange Director Opens Up About Own Heroin Use Fourteen Years Ago

Fourteen years ago, Liz Whynott was a heroin addict. She entered detox in Greenfield, Mass., and didn’t leave like she had other times.

Whynott went on to treatment and has stayed drug-free. She now runs two needle exchange programs for Tapestry Health, in Holyoke and Northampton. She also counsels addicts when they come in.

Until this spring, almost none of her co-workers or the heroin addicts she meets knew about her past drug use. Whynott says the uncertainty over Holyoke’s needle exchange program — it could close this summer, after a judge recently ruled it should never have opened without approval from the City Council — is why she speaking up about her own heroin use.

I always thought I lived a double life. One side of me was a really good student, well liked by teachers, professionals. Then the other side of me was reckless.

Right after high school, there’s a group of friends that had gotten in to it, and the appeal of [heroin] somehow all of a sudden became strong. Although that drug was — always — the one [that] growing up…was kind of the line you don’t cross. 

I was also just having a hard time in life. Just stuff I didn’t know how to deal with. I’m not using it as an excuse. But I decided to try it one day and I loved it. I obsessed over that drug every moment, every day for well over two years. Even months to years after I finally was able to stop using it. It really filled lot of the emptiness I was feeling inside at the time. The sense of euphoria was like nothing else I ever felt. There’s a reason why a lot of people are addicted to that drug.

I think any form of addiction, including heroin addiction, is personal. You know, and I think about myself, I was so lucky to stop using drugs. I don’t know why I was able to stop then, and everyone around me, especially the ones I was using with, weren’t. And other people haven’t. And why I was lucky that I’m still alive sitting here, and many other people have died.

I’ve been thinking about telling my story for a long time. And I didn’t talk about it and I didn’t incorporate it because — through my work — I also am very aware of how drug users are looked at. I think that people are quick to throw people off to the side and say that they did it to themselves and what they get is what they deserve. I’ve become so tired and frustrated with people’s judgment of others. I think it’s the judgement that has a lot to do with why people are dying and why people are contracting diseases. Because judgement creates stigma and shame. And judgement will put different drug users into the shadows and onto the fringes of society. And it will make people not access the help that they need.

I know how horrible addiction is. How scary it is, lonely, painful for everybody, including family members. I know that the guidance and the help that I received from the needle exchange made it so that I didn’t get HIV, or hepatitis C. And I’m not dead.

Whynott’s story first appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

New England Public Radio’s Jill Kaufman produced our story.

The Week Ahead On Beacon Hill

Members of the Massachusetts Senate return to Beacon Hill for the second and shortest of three stretches of formal sessions during the 2015-2016 General Court. The House doesn’t have a formal session planned next week but representatives will be back on the Hill for a slew of public hearings on issues such as regulation of ride-sharing services, access to early education, expungement of criminal records of juveniles, free community college, trafficking of fentanyl, and a mandate for police to file reports on use of force.

Governor Charlie Baker and legislative leaders focused nearly exclusively over the first seven months of formals on state budget issues, a perennial concern, and efforts to improve operations at the MBTA. The rest of the legislative agenda awaits, and the coming stretch of formal sessions – the branches have kept to a schedule of one per week – will run until November 18th before lawmakers take another breather that will run into January. Legislative leaders keep specific agenda items relatively secret, but action is expected soon on a budget bill to wrap up fiscal 2015, which could have an impact on how much UMass students pay in tuition.  Lawmakers are actively considering changes to energy policies, a title-clearing bill for foreclosed properties, public records access issues, and policies to address growing rates of addiction to opioids and heroin.  Senators this week outlined an opioid bill that they’ve been working on for months and which could emerge for a floor vote in the next few weeks.  It would also not be surprising to see movement soon on a transgender rights bill given growing levels of support and lobbying on behalf of that legislation.

To hear Henry Epp’s conversation with State House News Service reporter Matt Murphy, click on the audio player above.

Summer Fiction: Roland Merullo’s ‘The Return’

Our summer fiction series continues with “The Return,” a novel about a gambling addict, his family and the mafia – looking for payback. It’s based in Revere, Massachusetts – the hometown of author Roland Merullo, who now lives in the hills of Hampshire County. Merullo says he’s been writing seriously for thirty-seven years.

Listen to Merullo’s interview with New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy by clicking on the audio player above.

A Once Extremely Overweight Man, A Dubious Label, And What’s Next

Paul Mason has a solid list of the things that attract him to his fiancee Rebecca Mountain. Here’s a start.

“She’s very open. She drives me on. She never gives up.”

And Rebecca?

“He doesn’t mind talking about his feelings,” she says, “talking about his situation, his past.” When someone can be that open and honest with you, “it sets the stage for a level of trust,” she adds.

She’s 41. He’s 54. They share a love of animals and making things with their hands. In the past, Rebecca worked for the MSPCA. At a young age she says learned from her father how to swing a hammer. She ended up starting a successful business building custom made wood tree houses for cats.   (If you love a cat, you’ll understand this.)

Paul, from Ipswich, England, brought his dog over with him to the States. For the time being he makes jewelry.  He used to deliver mail for the Royal Post. Like Rebecca, he’s dated a fair amount.  He has one particular distinction from Rebecca.

Up until recently, he was known as “The Fattest Man in The World,” weighing almost 1000 pounds.

paul and rebecca

You may have seen Paul and Rebecca last year on ABC’s The View, with Barbara Walters.  By that time he had lost almost 600 pounds.

In England, he’d had gastric bypass surgery paid for by the country’s National Health System. Before the operation he was eating 20,000 calories a day, and dependent on caretakers. He says he knew he was going to die within a few years, given the burden he placed on his body. Around 2008 Paul got into therapy, and he says he finally spoke about the aunt who molested him as a child, and his abusive father.

“He learned a lot of her parenting skills from being in the British army,” Paul says. “His idea of discipline was just, a good sort of left hand. We weren’t allowed to express ourselves. I was burying everything that was going on.”

When Paul was close to a thousand pounds, the British tabloids had a field day with him. He became the subject of a couple of documentaries. That exposure lead to some good things. Around 2009 Rebecca happened to see one of those movies. She says she felt some kind of connection to Paul.

“Not like a personal connection,” she says, “just an empathetic connection.” Then a few years went by, ” and I just stumbled across and update online about Paul. ” She saw that he got the gastric bypass operation he had been waiting for, for years. In 2013 she wrote to him.

Paul says her email explained why she was in touch, “she wanted to help, to get the loose skin removed. [She inquired] how I was, and how my life has changed.”

Rebecca says talking to Paul was easy. He was the kind of person she could meet at a party and then talk to all night. Their first Skype conversation lasted four hours. And their lives connected from there.

The couple has many hurdles to overcome before, they say, they can get married.  When they leave their home in the rural town of Orange, Paul uses a wheel chair to get around.  The 100 pounds of skin left over from the weight loss are debilitating and cause frequent infections. In the past few months, Paul’s had to take heavy doses of antibiotics. It will take at least two operations to remove the skin.

They have managed a lot to this point, says Emily Nagoski, the director of the Wellness Center at Smith College, researches and writes about sexuality and relationships.

“There’s the physical distance to begin with. There’s having to address physical health issues before you’re ready to be in a relationship,” and she adds, “then there’s the sort of social judgement piece of people wondering why you’re in this relationship when there are so many barriers,” and wondering why these two are attracted to each other.

But Nagoski says those barriers that could have kept Rebecca and Paul apart could also be what brings them closer together.

“When you cross one hurdle and make more of a  connection, and are rewarded after you cross that hurdle, with a stronger connection that feels really rewarding and good, and then another barrier comes up,” and you want to cross that barrier too, she says.

Paul and Rebecca have some help with the next barrier. A top plastic surgeon in New York City has volunteered her time to perform the skin removal operations. Barbara Walters got The View to cover hospital fees. But related expenses like transportation and medication? Unclear how they’ll be paid for.

Surgery is scheduled for the end of April at Lenox Hill Hospital in new York. Paul has to be healthy or it’s delayed. The worst case scenario: his medical visa runs out before the operation and he says he’d have to return to England.

At the same time, this unexpected couple are  coming up with a playlist for their wedding. Both agree ont he Pet Shop Boys. Tenor Mario Lanza? Rebecca says, no way. But, it’s not a deal breaker just a hurdle of the most minute kind.