Hopewell Valley families want to know whether the opioid addiction problem has surfaced here and Hopewell Township Police Department Detective Joseph Maccaquano has a one-word answer: “Yes.”
Maccaquano was one of several speakers – parents, recovering addicts and those who work with them – who participated in a panel discussion about opioid addiction sponsored by the Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance on April 19.
“If you are asking me if (the opioid problem) is here, it is here. If you think (young people) are immune because they are being sent to some fancy college, that’s not true,” Maccaquano said.
Opioid overdose is the leading cause of death for people under 50 in New Jersey, said author and activist Alicia Cook, who helped set the stage for the event at Hopewell Valley Central High School. Nearly 800 residents of New Jersey have died from a drug overdose so far this year, she said.
“It hits families the hardest. Heroin sucks,” Cook said.
She said the drug sucks the happiness out of the home, and it literally sucks the life out of the addict and those who surround him or her – family members and other loved ones.
Panelist Scott Borden, whose son became addicted, agreed.
“Our story is terrible and shockingly commonplace. We never thought we would be here,” Borden said, as his wife Jane sat next to him.
Their son participated in the usual activities, attending church and joining the Boy Scouts, he said. The family led “a very idyllic life” until their son became a teenager, he said.
He became a risk-taker and abused drugs and alcohol, Borden said. They tried counseling for their son, which offered a momentary reprieve, but then he became hostile and aggressive, and when they searched the car and the house, they found opioid pills.
“[We knew] it was beyond our control. We were terrified. How did this happen to us?” Borden said.
The couple came to the realization their son could not live with them, which Borden described as “the worst realization you can come to as a parent.” They offered him a choice – enroll in a rehabilitation program or leave the house.
After several attempts at rehabilitation, the Bordens found a wilderness treatment program in Utah. Their son learned how to build a house, cook his own food and to survive. He turned the corner.
Borden said their son lives in New Hampshire, where he has a job and supports himself. He knows he cannot use or abuse drugs or alcohol. Noting that his grandfather was an alcoholic, Borden said some people can experiment with drugs and alcohol without becoming addicted, but others cannot.
Like the Bordens’ son and many other addicts, Eric Gallucci, who graduated from Hopewell Valley Central High School in 2013, never intended to become addicted. He said he tried drugs because he wanted to have fun and because he felt distant from his family.
“I never felt connected to my family. I felt different, so I found a connection with others,” Gallucci said.
He began experimenting with alcohol and marijuana when he was about 13 or 14 years old. It was fun, he said, adding that he never thought about the consequences.
Gallucci said that “the more I fell into it, the more I gave up. I gave it away. Addiction is evil. It is powerful.” He said he did not want to face up to the mess he was making of his life.
The Hopewell native was only able to turn his life around when he was arrested. He had to choose – continue to do what he was doing, or accept help. He chose to accept help for drug addiction, which he said is the best thing he ever did.
“[Recovery] had to be initiated by me. It’s not overnight, but recovery is possible,” Gallucci said, adding that abstinence from drugs and alcohol is “the only way.”
While Gallucci and the Bordens’ son became addicted by experimenting with drugs as teenagers, accidental addiction is not uncommon among adults such as Christina G., who also sat on the panel.
Christina said she became addicted to drugs following surgery. Her doctor offered a prescription for a patch that contained pain-killers, but her insurance company balked. Her doctor, who she does not blame at all, prescribed opioid pain-killers.
It took months to overcome the drug addiction and withdrawal symptoms, “but I am here,” she said, adding it was a difficult journey that has created a rift in the family that has not healed.
Drug addiction is a trap, Christina said, and addicts are “the biggest, most deceptive, most lying, conniving people on the face of the Earth.” She urged parents to be aware of what their children are doing.
And to any parent or young person who thinks they can party and take drugs, “[on] Monday, the party is over, but you still want it,” she said.
Christina said that if it happened to her, it can happen to anyone. Many people think they are invincible, but that is not true. Don’t think that coming from a middle class or upper class family means drug addiction won’t happen, she said.
“It will,” Christina said.
For Maccaquano, opioid addiction “comes down to the realization it is not a law enforcement problem. It is not just a school problem, it is not just a community problem. It is a state problem and it is a national problem.”
The Hopewell Township Police Department has taken a multi-pronged approach to opioid addiction, Maccaquano said. One prong is for police and first responders to carry Narcan in patrol cars and ambulances to reverse the effects of an overdose.
The second prong is to refer the addict, upon arrest, to the Hopewell Township Police Department’s Community Addiction Recovery Effort (CARE) program, which is a cooperative venture with Recovery Advocates of America. The program arranges for immediate substance abuse counseling during the arrest and booking process, Maccaquano said.
CARE is a “seismic shift” in law enforcement’s approach to drug addiction and arrests – from arresting and releasing an offender back into society, to being able to put the addict on the road to recovery and rehabilitation within 24 hours of having contact with the police, he said.
The third prong is the “Not Even Once” program in schools, in which children are taught “the real facts” about drug addiction and how easy it is to become addicted, Maccaquano said. Students are encouraged to come forward if they, or someone they know, has an addiction problem.
Wrapping up the panel discussion, John Mincarelli of Recovery Advocates of America told the attendees he knows what it is like to be an addict because he was one for many years. If there was a place on his body to stick a needle, he found it, he said.
The nonprofit Recovery Advocates of America works hand-in-hand with several police departments, including the Hopewell Township Police Department, to provide immediate help for addicts during the arrest process.
Recovery Advocates of America places the addict in a substance abuse treatment program and negotiates fees, if necessary. Overall, it has an 87 percent success rate, Mincarelli said.
“The one thing we really try to provide is after-care” for the recovering addict, Mincarelli said. It is easy for the addict, once he or she is released, to go back to their neighborhood and begin the addiction cycle all over again. Recovery Advocates of America provides a safe haven for addicts, including a 12-step program to stay clean.
“The only thing we can give the addict is hope. If I don’t have hope, I’ll never try” to beat addiction, Mincarelli said, adding that substance abusers are “good people with bad problems.”