Janine Underwood can vividly recall the moment she realized her son was addicted to drugs.
She rifled through his belongings, and in a box of childhood items, wrapped in a baby blanket, were hypodermic needles.
“From then on, it was in and out of jail and rehab,” she told about 100 people gathered Tuesday at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute.
In June of last year, Underwood found her son, Bobby Baylis, lying on his bedroom floor, cold and blue. He died at the age of 28 of an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl, a prescription opioid that is up to 100 times stronger than morphine.
His addiction started out like so many others, she said. A doctor prescribed him pain pills after he tore his ACL. When he couldn’t get his hands on pills, he sought other drugs.
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“Since October, I’ve been determined to learn about what’s going on here in Roanoke and raise awareness about this horrible epidemic,” she said.
A panel of speakers addressed the problem of heroin and prescription drug abuse as part of a continuing series of educational efforts across the Roanoke Valley. Salem Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Bowers, chairman of the Heroin Task Force, which is dedicated to providing education on the problem, said the solution lies in changing our culture.
Dr. John Burton, chairman of Carilion Clinic’s Department of Emergency Medicine, said people have come to develop a low expectation of pain, and that has been compounded by doctors prescribing more pills than a person should need.
“Over the last 30 years, we have evolved as a society that is very comfortable taking pills,” Burton said.
Bowers said it’s important for medical professionals, law enforcement, the federal government and the community as a whole to come together to curb addiction.
“We cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, touted the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which he said is intended to strengthen prevention, treatment and recovery efforts. The legislation, which President Barack Obama signed Friday, is intended to empower medical professionals and law enforcement officials with more tools to help drug addicts. The measure authorizes competitive grants to local substance abuse organizations.
“You are the front lines,” Goodlatte told the audience. “You know better than Congress or the Justice Department what your communities need.”
A report from the Virginia Department of Health estimates more than 1,000 Virginians died from legal and illegal drug overdoses last year. Heroin was linked to nearly 250 deaths in the state. Fentanyl claimed an estimated 221 lives, more than any opiate-based substance other than heroin.
Between July of last year and this month, drug overdoses claimed the lives of 12 people in Roanoke, Roanoke County and Vinton, according to police data. Another 76 people overdosed but survived.
Warren Bickel, director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute’s Addiction Recovery Research Center, stressed the importance of treatment for people whose brains have changed because of drug use.
“That’s why it’s so important that we move away from thinking about people who are drug dependent as some sort of miscreant, and start thinking of them as an individual who is suffering from a disorder or disease,” Bickel said.
A year before her son’s death, Underwood took over the reins of the Bradley Free Clinic in the Old Southwest neighborhood of Roanoke. Under a new program starting Aug. 8, the clinic will serve as one of the contact points for addicts seeking help.
The Roanoke Valley Hope Initiative signals a shift away from arresting those suffering from addiction, and instead helping them, said Cheri Hartman, with Carilion Clinic’s department of psychiatry.
Addicts can go the clinic or Roanoke Police Department on certain days and turn in their drugs and paraphernalia without fear of arrest, as long as there are no arrest warrants out on them. From there, they’ll be placed into treatment programs.
“It is our goal to work together to help people with substance abuse disorders before it’s too late,” Hartman said.