BREWER, Maine — The use of synthetic bath salts by people in the Bangor region spread like wildfire last year and local police, emergency responders, hospital staffers and recovery providers were the first to see the flames.
“We had never seen anything like this before,” Acadia Hospital clinician Courtney Evans said Wednesday during a panel discussion at the 5th annual Summit on Addiction Recovery.
But soon, interagency partnerships between first responders, health care providers, school officials and recovery services groups were created to address the problem and educate the public about the dangerous drugs, said Bruce Campbell, clinical director at Wellspring Inc., a residential addiction treatment program in Bangor.
“Very quickly in the community we came together,” Shawn Yardley, director of the city of Bangor’s Department of Health and Community Services, said to summit attendees.
That effort helped to educate folks about what to do when dealing with the bizarre behaviors of users, and also led to groundbreaking treatments developed at Maine hospitals and used around the country.
Synthetic bath salts, commonly made from mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, known as MDPV, can be snorted, smoked, injected or mixed into a drink. It causes some users to become extremely paranoid, irrational and sometimes suicidal.
The drug users, often naked or partially naked because the drug causes the body’s temperature to rise, climbed into sewer pipes, ceilings and up fire escapes screaming that people were after them when no one was, and some gnawed at their own skin trying to kill invisible bugs.
In March 2011, the state had no bath salts overdoses or poisonings, but two months later the number had skyrocketed with more than 100 bath salts overdoses reported in June alone, said Campbell.
“There was a tremendous crisis and we were at a loss about how to respond to this,” he said.
State and federal legislation addressing the sale of such synthetic drugs, as well as education and enforcement efforts, have since helped to reduce the number of bath salts calls to police and hospitals, but they have not gone away.
“I’d like to tell you they’re not out there, but that’s not true,” Campbell said.
But more and more, efforts are turning to addiction recovery, said participants in Wednesday’s summit, held at the Brewer Auditorium.
“Our main goal is to make recovery visible,” said Joanna Russell, chairwoman of the Bangor Area Recovering Community Coalition, who is a 23-year recovering alcohol and drug addict who works for the tri-county workforce investment board. “Recovery can happen and does happen in this region.”
The summit was coordinated by the Bangor Area Recovering Community Coalition — a regional group of treatment providers, government agencies and other organizations, as well as individuals in recovery — with assistance from Bangor’s health department, local business, corporate sponsors and advocacy partners, said Campbell, who himself began on his road to recovery on Aug. 1, 1985.
Keynote speaker Jim Gillen, director of recovery services for the Anchor Recovery Community Center in Providence, R.I., said his facility offers a variety of programs for those seeking treatment and suggested that leaders of a new Brewer facility for the Bangor Area Recovering Network, or BARN, do the same.
Twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous work for some, but other options such as a telephone recovery support program or peer-to-peer recovery programs work for others, he said.
“The person who needs these recovery services needs to be the author of their recovery,” Gillen said.
BARN received funding this year to purchase 142 Center St. in Brewer, which they are in the process of turning into a community center.
Bangor police Officer Ed Mercier said he has seen more than his share of drug and alcohol addicts while patrolling the streets of the Queen City, but he has also seen addicts break free from their addictions.
“It’s a great feeling of accomplishment for them,” the officer said. “I’m amazed by it. I really applaud their efforts.”
Thru my job I work with many drug addicts and there are many, many faces to addiction.
There are so many people who are on the road to recovery, in my opinion many addicts many of whom have children and a family do not seek treatment for their addiction in fear of getting into trouble or having a report made on them to child protection services, and that is very sad. If less people were having a negative impact for seeking help, maybe more people would seek the help they want and need. Yes understand many addicts deserve the negative impact of seeking treatment, they reap the reward or consequence they deserve but if a mother of three seeks treatment on her own and is committed and successful why should CPS get involved with this family? I can see if the mother of three got in trouble for possessing drugs, using drugs, or neglecting their children due to her drug use yes CPS should be involved and assist her in recovery. But a person who sees they have a problem, has a family support system to help them, and seeks treatment on their own, what part of CPS is required to help the family? What would CPS’s role be? Families need to feel they can seek the help they need without worrying about losing their family over it, admitting you have a problem is the 1st step and only you can do that, no one can tell you that you have a problem and force you to be successful in treatment, if you don’t want it for you, then you will fail.
Society needs to start accepting recovering drug addicts instead of shunning them, yes I understand and believe the low life scum buckets who continue to rob pharmacy’s and old ladies deserve to be unaccepted by society, but what about the addicts who didn’t steal from people, the addicts that you would never know by looking at them on the street, those are the people that once they admit they have a problem are treated negatively by so many, instead of praising them for taking the huge step to embracing the treatment and the help that is available.
I have worked with addicts throughout the years, and I also worked in child protective services in Massachusetts. I think that the role of CPS should be to support the parents who seek help dealing with addiction, not to take away the children unless there is no other choice. I know that is not always the way the system works here. I also believe that many families could benefit from the support and accountability that drug court offers if they do have their children taken away. Families that successfully complete drug court are more likely to remain clean and sober and more likely to have their children returned to their care. However, families dealing with addiction are able to opt out of participating in drug court, which may not be in their own best interests. Quitting alcohol and other drugs is hard and addicts need all the support they can get to recover.
Boot camp for all…then 1 year hard labor.
The role of CPS is pretty simple, Protect the children.
Well said.
You’re speaking as though addiction happens in a void. Rare is the occasion that a mother’s addiction doesn’t affect the well being of the child. And as one person said.,CPS job is to protect the child. You are aware I hope that many people seek treatment to escape the judicial system.? There is no blanket answer but in my opinion, (one of my own addiction as well as working with the addicted for many years) I would rather see CPS involved. That doesn’t mean that the children are immediately taken away but this should be used by the parent as additional motivation to make changes in their lives.
Drumming?
Any discussion of “recovery” must be accompanied by what the recovery rate is and also what the recidivism rate is. Pretty soft meaningless story otherwise.
As with any good debate it comes down to how you define your terms -“Recovery” is a broad term. I’m a professional in addictions recovery and mental health. I’m more than happy to say publicly that there exists no more effective intervention in addiction recovery than 12 step programs. Recidivism rates and other statistics cannot be attained through self help programs, nor should they be. Self help is based in anonymity and confidentiality – we can’t research it – but then again we don’t need to. Self help costs tax payers absolutely nothing. Amazing, isn’t it? The single most effective intervention is free and self sustaining!
I’ll agree with you Cheesecake that professional interventions need to be researched and shown to be effective – just wanted to drive home the point that unless a person has had personal experience with “Recovery” they have no way of imagining all that it is. I
I see my work as simply a compliment to (a small piece in addition to) what 12 step programs provide. They are approximately 4 million times more effective than I am. Professional/outside help can bring something meaningful to recovery – but we’re not the vital part – AA, NA, FA, OA, Al-Anon, GA, and many others are.
Really? The numbers agree with you from a certain point of view. Studies show that self-help is effective in relapse prevention, but show no more or less effectiveness than any other treatment when that treatment is the only treatment. 12 steps as a treatment is no more or less effective than intensive inpatient or outpatient. Granted there are some huge flops out there, and all of them should have to stand up to empirical evidence of effectiveness, but 12 steps in and of itself is not the only answer or best answer. Specially for those who do not believe in a higher power of any sort. Insurance companies love them because they are free, and they are the ones behind the brief therapies simply for cost. Plus simply advocating 12 steps is harmful to the huge part of the population that have co-occuring disorders.
I agree with you, Dane. AA is not the answer for most people. What drives many people away is the the religiosity of it. As much as AA tries to portray itself as non-religious, it is very Christian-oriented in this country. Meetings are rife with the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer. And one of the problems with AA is that those who did find it helpful think that the way that worked for them should work for everybody. Just like any religion, it has its own blind dogma.
Formal substance abuse treatment is part of the answer to recovery. The other parts include increasing non-using, social supports and creating a new life with a purpose. You don’t need a higher power to do either of these.
Cheesecake – How about you stick a sock in it. It seems like your trolling at the bottom of an article talking about people trying to improve their lives. In AA what you’re doing is referred to as ‘taking someone’s inventory’. In other words, worry about yourself.
“POT, meet KETTLE”
You’ve just done the same thing.
By the way. recidivism for AA is over 90 percent. What is successful in treatment should be a focus. Faith based recovery by itself rarely works. You can point to the friends you’ may have made but for every one of them there are 20 that have come through those doors and have gone back out. Recovery from addiction comes on many levels. Abstinence is just scratching the surface. Deep seeded changes in a person’s values and priorities may also be needed and “Let go, let God” by itself will not get the job done for most. Whether they believe in God or not. People playing God themselves as untrained sponsors are not equip to tell a person how to live their lives.