Methadone Mile, Dopesickness, Addiction, and Sesame Street

Hey all, its been a minute. Or two. Or more. Okay, yes I haven’t been diligent about my blogging, shame on me (cue GoT gif)!

That being said, I don’t write unless I am motivated to. It’s not always a happy subject, and this one may take the cake. Today I want to tackle the subject of opioid and drug abuse, and addiction. To anyone reading this that is affected by this, please know I’m always someone who you can reach out to and I will always do what I can to help.

So for my Socially Responsible Business in an Age of Inequality class (I know, right?!), we read a book titled Dopesick. It followed the story of several folks in Virginia, West Virginia, and New York, with the central theme of Purdue Pharma, Oxycontin, and the national tragedy that is our opioid crisis. Long story short (which I recommend reading, it is a fantastic and heartbreaking book), the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma is responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of addicts, all because of a greed for profits.

Left over from the War on Drugs, the idea of someone “doing drugs” still carries a significant stigma, and is used to belittle specific demographics of the US population. You may think (or not, each person has their own opinion) “Oh, a drug addict, they’re not clean, they’re irresponsible, why don’t they just stop doing drugs? Get their life together?” To be honest with all of you, I did look down on people who were addicted to drugs. I’ve never taken any drugs nor been prescribed opioids except a week’s supply of Codine when I had my tonsils out, but I was allergic to it so I didn’t really have all that much.

I was ignorant of what causes people to become addicted to drugs. It’s not a choice of, “Oh, I want to become a drug addict” and its very much not a, “I want to stop now.” I thought these people just don’t have it together, that they are weak, and that they just need to suck it up, buttercup, get clean, and get back in the game. Same with Veterans. Even this summer I was angry because there were two men claiming to be homeless Vets in front of the Vietnam memorial, asking for spare change. “How could they be homeless?” I said, “If they are drug-free, they can go to a VA.”

To those two vets, or not vets, or whoever you are, I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to not give you the same respect as any other person.

I’ve learned a lot about addiction since then. Doctors overprescribing pills. Addiction rates for Oxy being 56%, not what Purdue Pharma claimed, citing 1%. An average American thinks about their next 4.7% years on average when going about their daily life and how they make decisions. An addict’s brain is hotwired to think on average about the next 9 days. Its not a simple, “walk it off.” It’s as if your brain is taken over, like a hacker getting into your computer. People don’t want to focus solely on getting to their next injection, but that’s all their brain will let them due because of this horrible drug in their system. Some people take these drugs for real pain, especially Vets who come back with really severe injuries. The problem is, once you are hooked, whether you even wanted to or not, its less about getting high, its about the fear of being sober, of being uncontrollably weak from dopesickness. One statistic in the book showed that with incredibly expensive treatment, with drugs used to wean you off of the addictive substances, counseling, and training, you could “buy” yourself 1–2 years of recovery, with a 40–60% chance of staying clean, with 8 years of treatment. Its not a, “get clean and you’re good to go.” Scenario. Its a life-long fight to not relapse because of the damage done to your body and brain.

Someone might say, “Okay, well maybe that explains pill addiction, but Robey, what about Heroin?” Well, Heroin gives you a “better” high, and is cheaper. You can’t sustain an Oxy addiction on most salaries as an average American. The better the high, the less you feel like you’re going to die from dopesickness. When thinking of dopesickness, think of the worst night of your life with alcohol poisoning, or the flu, where you just feel like death. Now multiple that by 10, and then have that be days on end. That’s dopesickness. It’s not weakness that drives people to keep injecting, its strength to try to fight it.

Sesame Street now has characters on its show talking about addiction. I remember as a kid, learning about all kinds of things from Elmo, the Cookie Monster, and I remember how shows taught me lessons as a kid. The article that I am pulling from is titled, “We’re not alone.” and talks to kids about addiction like a sickness, just like the flu. It’s for a level of understanding. It’s to tell kids that they are not alone, and that there are other families going through the same problems.

If you go down by Boston Medical Center, there is a strip of highway that people call, “Methadone Mile.” There are usually dozens of folks hanging around, most of them homeless, many of whom are high on one drug or another, or in some stage of recovery. I was in an Lyft heading home on my birthday from the rock climbing gym I go to, and the driver muttered under his breath, “Ugh, look at that one.” There was a guy on one of the median strips who had fallen over, and was struggling to get back up. Here’s the thing, even when you are recovering from this drug, even when you are getting help, especially from medication, you’re still going through the ringer. Your body still craves what it used to have, and it takes a lot of strength for these folks to keep fighting, and not just letting themselves slide back into addiction.

So alright Robey, now that you’ve got me all depressed, what was the point of this? My point is, a lesson I am learning is to always have hope, for yourself, for those close to you, and to the people you don’t know. I know I can be better at making sure I treat everyone with the same level of respect, the same way that I would want to treat the best person that I know. I gotta practice what I preach. One of the most powerful things my Program Manager at MassChallenge HealthTech said to me was, “The golden rule is BS. You shouldn’t treat others how you want to be treated. That’s self-motivated and close-minded. Practice the Platinum Rule. Or whatever you want to call it. Treat others how they want to be treated, and always give them the respect that you can.” I try to live by those words and I know I can take bigger steps. I’m also considering my age old, “If I gave every homeless person that I see a dollar, I will become someone on the street asking for a dollar myself” to be BS as well. That’s ignorant of me and I want to take that to a better level. Rather than just say, “Hey buddy, sorry, I don’t have any cash on me” I believe a much better approach would be to ask, “What is the best thing I can do for you right now?” A lot of my friends and family are in positions where they could make a big positive change in someone’s life with comparatively less effort on our part if we just stop and talk to someone. If we donate a few dollars here and there. If we buy someone a sandwich or something.

On Tuesday, my friends and I were in the North End. Ashwin and Nicola were in Modern Pastry (Better than MIKES!!!!!) getting dessert, and a man asked us for change. Across the street there were three guys standing outside a restaurant, and I am 90% sure they were valets. The man who asked for change crossed the street, and one of the valets asked the guy if he wanted a bite to eat. He went inside and then came out with a pizza box with leftover pizza from this snazzy Italian place on Hanover street, and gave the guy as much as he wanted. Boom. Now that guy doesn’t have to ask anyone on the street for change so he can buy a meal. He doesn’t have to get chow from a shelter, or in an absolute worst-case scenario, try to scavenge for it. To be clear, I am not attempting to paint this guy in a bad light, and I don’t know the man’s situation, I’m merely pointing out potential scenarios that do exist.

Another thought the other day that I had was that I have a couch and a futon that are barely used. I have a shower that costs us barely anything to run, and heat and shelter. There are dozens if not hundreds of people around me that don’t have that. Now if I told my roommates, “Hey, let’s put up a couple people a night” they would tell me I am crazy, that we would be robbed, and yeah, thats a completely reasonable and responsible response. It could be a really bad idea. That said. How big of a difference would that be in someone’s life? I wonder. I don’t know. Maybe none. But on the other hand, what if someone just needed a few night’s rest, of good sleep, a shower, a hot meal, and a clean set of nice clothes, and an address to put down before going in for a job interview? Like that kid who stole a suit from Walmart in order to interview for a job. The kid got the job. Think about the difference that could make in someone’s life. At the end of the day, statistically speaking and assuming that the worst doesn’t happen, what does that really “cost” me? The suit might need to go to the dry cleaners more often, sure. And okay, the electric bill might go up a couple bucks. There’d be more foot traffic at the apartment and another person to potentially wait for in the line for the bathroom. You see what I am saying? If you go into an interview for a job with a printed resume, a fresh shave, you look well rested, you’re wearing a clean outfit, and you’ve had a full hot meal, how would that compare to say no resume, a haggard look because you barely slept the past three nights because it was raining and you couldn’t secure a bed at a homeless shelter, your clothes are dirty, you haven’t been able to access a shower in a few days because its not like there are community ones, and the last meal you had was a day ago at McDonalds because you can’t just buy food to cook in a kitchen, you don’t have access to one. If you’re sitting across the desk from someone in this scenario, what are you going to think?

I’m not saying take in everyone off the street. I think that would be wonderful if we could give back in that way, but there are some solid points to the contrary. I just ask that you think about it, and see what you can do for people’s lives. Rather than watch another show on Netflix, think about what you could do to make another person’s life better, because a small act of kindness and charity could make an absolute world of a difference for someone.

Upcoming is the Tom Hanks movie about Mr. Rogers. It comes out November 22nd (I think), and the trailer is a good one. I really want to go see it so if anyone wants to go with me, call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me. Alas, a quote. One of the quotes from the trailer is, “I think the best thing that we can do, is to let people know that each one of them is precious.” Goodnight folks, thanks for reading!