Last Thursday and Friday proved to be a tumultuous kickoff to the weekend in New Bedford, Mass. The South Coast city experienced an unfathomable 15 drug overdose cases in a span of just 24-hours, exemplifying exactly why the likes of Senator Ed Markey and gubernatorial candidates Joe Avellone and Martha Coakley are pushing hard for substance abuse research and reform.
Drug abuse, especially when it comes to opiates like heroin, has run rampant in Massachusetts as of late. According to South Coast Today, “in FY 2012, Southcoast hospitals treated a total of 219 heroin overdoses, officials said. With four months remaining in this fiscal year, Southcoast had already seen 116 overdoses as of Feb. 21.”
State Police contend that Massachusetts has seen 185 heroin-related overdoses, all fatal, since November 2013. Those numbers exclude Boston, Springfield and Worcester, which tally their own data.
We’ve seen many of these instances occur along the so-called South Coast, the stretch of Massachusetts shore that spans from Cape Cod to Rhode Island, in cities like New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton. Metropolitan areas such as these are relics of an antiquated socioeconomic epoch in recent Bay State history that gave rise to the shipping, whaling, textile and iron industries no longer relevant to the commonwealth’s affinity with technology and innovation.
The decline of these once-major industries have led to widespread poverty and economic disparity that is often prevalent where drug abuse is, too.
Dr. Randy Kaplan, assistant emergency room director at Charlton Memorial Hospital, Fall River told South Coast Today that there’s been a general uptick in overdose numbers but that it’s heroin ODs that are “the most critical.”
“It was a very bad 24-hour period,” added Fire Chief Michael Gomes on Friday. “For us to have 15 in a 24-hour period is far above our normal call volume.”
Senator Markey recently trekked to nearby Taunton with former professional basketball star and nationally-acclaimed speaker Chris Herren in hopes of combatting the same kind of tragic weekend just endured by Fall River.
This past weekend, Senator Markey was in the opposite corner of Massachusetts when Fall River saw its fateful 15 ODs. In Holyoke, Senator Markey teamed up with state Congressman Richard E. Neal and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse at the Holyoke Health Center to discuss the crisis of heroin and prescription drug overdoses in as it pertains to Western Massachusetts.
According to Senator Markey’s press office, the junior Massachusetts Senator is calling for “expansion of naloxone programs for first responders and bystanders, greater access to proven addiction treatments and modernizing America’s addiction treatment system.”
Naxalone, or Narcan as it’s colloquially referred to, is an immediate overdose treatment that helps to reduce the symptoms of certain drugs. Currently first responders in New Bedford do not administer Narcan but have completed their training and expect to begin administering it sometime in the next 60 days.
Campus police officers at neighboring Massasoit Community College, Bristol Community College and UMass Dartmouth are also being trained in the ways of Narcan.
Understanding full well that this is a statewide issue and not one that applies to or reflects a single region of Massachusetts, Democratic candidates for governor Joe Avellone and Martha Coakley have both vocalized their intention to reforming how substance abuse is treated, tying it in to mental health and stability.
Avellone has pledged to create a cabinet-level Office of Recovery to address the direct needs of drug use, but has also vowed to consolidate the collective political clout of each New England governor to further quell and eventually cease the opiate epidemic.
There’s been no word yet on the current health status of the 15 who overdosed between last Thursday and Friday. Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest substance and drug abuse news, as well as the methods of local politicos to try and curtail them.
