“Public Safety and Public Health in the midst of an Epidemic” We need to save MASAC!

You hear many different opinions on this subject but this morning I feel I need to offer mine and also fill the public in on information that is crucially important and from where I stand and what I see as the founder of Learn to Cope. Frankly folks it affects every one of us in the state of Massachusetts in one way or another. Let me separate the Myths from the Facts.
My name is Joanne Peterson. I am the founder of Learn to Cope a support network for families whose loved ones have suffered at the hands of addiction, mainly to OxyContin and Heroin, yes Heroin! We are not a state funded group, we fund ourselves through private donations mainly from families so your tax dollars DO NOT support us, that is one MYTH I want to remove. You may know me as a neighbor or a friend or you may have read about Learn to Cope in various articles over the last eight years or by the misfortune and heartache you may have attended one of the Learn to Cope support chapters in Brockton or Salem or had the need to call our crisis phone.

No matter your opinion of Learn to Cope, or what I have faced in my own situation or anyone else that has lived or is living with addiction in their home it’s crucial for you now as a citizen of this state and a taxpayer to stand up and speak out about a very dangerous situation which is about to affect YOU TOO.

MASAC (Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center) in Bridgewater is projected to close in October of 2009. The fact is MASAC is housed across the street from the Bridgewater State Prison so the men young and old who are sent there by a civil commitment otherwise known as Section 35. These individuals are not housed with rapists and the criminally insane or in the general population of the jail as others would have you believe. MASAC is a locked down Detox Facility and it has saved countless lives and offered people a chance at getting their lives back with great counselors, AA meetings and offers the motivation to go on to further treatment after they have been away from the drug for thirty days. The facility offers families the HOPE and support they so desperately need during an extremely difficult time in their lives. A time when they hit brick wall after brick wall with Insurance companies refusing to pay for detoxification beds. MASAC offers hope when loved ones realize they are powerless to cure their loved ones addiction and have exhausted all other options to get help for their child or relative and they know the potential result of the addiction especially to Opiates is death.

When families grapple with watching their young sons or brothers or husbands or Fathers suffer and come close to death due to an addiction they can not stop on their own their last ditch effort to try to loar them back to “themselves” is MASAC. Those addicted to Opiates are already wearing handcuffs only we can’t see them. The Opiate user is a prisoner to the addiction. OxyContin enters in to peoples lives with out warning. Many young kids in school or fresh out tried OxyContin and had no idea what this drug was and the life threatening potential it has. The addicted child’s parents never had the chance to warn their child about the addictive potential. OxyContins expensive street value quickly leads our youth to the next step in this process, Heroin addiction!

You may or may not know but the Opiate addiction is truly in epidemic proportions and has been for years. This is not new news and it’s happening across the east coast and around the country with prescription drugs being the “new” experiment for teens as young as 13. Senator Steve Tolman says that between 2002 and 2007 we have lost 74 soldiers to the Iraq war from our state, in that same time period we have lost 3,265 people to fatal Opiate overdose. In Massachusetts the Department of Public Health says Opiate overdose is the number one cause of death claiming we lose an average of two people per day. Your once every day all American boy or girl coming from good families who loved them has the potential to access OxyContin at almost any beer party.

How can a center such as MASAC be closing in the midst of an Epidemic?
Whether you believe this is a disease or not it isn’t going away. Addiction to prescription drugs and Heroin are at an all time high in our region and across the state. Just some of the reasons it is going to affect you are that there will be more robberies and more homes will be broken in to, more convenient stores will be robbed, more drug dealers will surface which puts your kids in danger, and ultimately there will be more death with in our most precious commodity, our youth!

Dianne Wiffin, spokesperson for the State Department of Correction believes this is a “Public Health Function” and that those committed should go to a Department of Public Heath Facility. Wouldn’t that be wonderful, if first we had a facility to go to that had enough beds and enough time to recover or even begin to think about recovery. If our Insurance companies would pay for more that three to four days before you get “the boot” or if the child or person seeking recovery can in fact find a bed at all.

MASAC has been the one place that saved countless lives and a place so many over the years owe their lives to and give back to society because of it, I know many young people who are now productive tax paying citizens with long term sobriety who went there and now live productive lives This includes my very own son who began his road to recovery there some years ago and is alive and well today.

Does Dianne Wiffin know the cost of incarceration? Because she will find out once MASAC closes and it will cost the corrections department and WE the taxpayers far more money.

Another Myth is that people are not sent there to get out of jail, many of them have not ever stepped foot in a court house or even been arrested. Their families petition the court to get help for their loved ones before they end up committing crimes of desperation which saves the citizens in the end and prevents parents from burying their children if they are lucky which many have not been if you look at the Opiate Overdose death statistics on the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s website. As of today there have been 15 funerals since January this year on the south shore that I have either attended or heard about all young people whose families will never be the same. I have known of young people requesting a Section 35 on themselves when there is not a bed to be found.

We know that there is not a magic cure for addiction, but please help us save MASAC and at least have the chance to reach our young sons and loved ones before crime or tragedy strikes our families. As a citizen you should feel safer knowing there is a place that can treat people suffering from this epidemic. Should MASAC close and not be an option the addicted, many very young will be out doing very desperate and dangerous acts including driving under the influence.

Yes, the citizens have High Point in Brockton which is a great program and already overwhelmed causing people to be let out early often due to the fact they only have 104 beds and they are always full. What is going to happen with out the beds at MASAC? How is one facility going to handle civil commitments for the entire state of Massachusetts? The Tax payers will pay more later there will be more death and suffering families and public safety will be of more concern.Joanne Peterson

Learn to Cope
www.learn2cope.org