opioid epidemic – Opiate Nation

All Souls, All Saints, All of Us

(Translation into most languages at tab to the right.)

This year, the All-Souls’ Procession in Tucson, where I live, is today. The traditional date for celebrating All Souls’ Day (the Day of the Dead) is November 2nd. It was delayed this year because Halloween was on the same weekend. Tucson has one of the largest processions in the country with several hundred thousand people participating. Preceding this is All Saints Day on November 1^st.

All Saints Day had its beginnings in Roman Church tradition dating back to the early centuries when Christians were martyred for their faith or who had publicly confessed and somehow survived the Roman persecution. The belief was that they were saints and immediately taken up into heaven. By the mid 800’s, Pope Gregory IV assigned Nov. 1^st as the holy feast of All Saints.

All Souls’ Day evolved sometime around 1000 as a time to pray for the souls of all who had died. This is tied in directly with the Catholic Church belief in purgatory and those who are awaiting the joys of heaven. In pleading for them, we are reminded of our own offenses and so inspired to lead purer lives.

My husband, John, and I have walked many times in the procession here in Tucson although we are not Catholics and we believe that all those who have faith in and follow Jesus are saints, as the New Testament teaches.(1) Many Evangelical Christians think it is wrong to participate in All Souls’ events because it is not biblical to pray for the dead and they reject the concept of purgatory because nothing we do can alter ones destination in the afterlife. (2)

While we hold to basic New Testament beliefs, we do not find it contradictory to be part of the All-Souls’ procession in remembrance of our son, John Leif. The procession is a public ceremony to honor the dead and celebrate their lives, allowing participants to release and integrate their grief. Our son’s death from a heroin overdose – a reason many others are there – continues to be a source of sadness and regret. To remember and celebrate him as a person worthy of love is important for us. We do not want to shame him and do not want him to be forgotten.

What is sad to us is the way in which this holiday is treated with similar vitriol that partisan politics infiltrates so many areas of American life these days. There are “Christians” who stand along the procession route shouting out ugly and sinful – yes, sinful – rebukes to those walking in remembrance of their loved ones. Sadly, many people feel it necessary to take a side on almost every issue – and supposed Christians are some of the leading voices. The unholy mixture of politics and “faith” in our country is deeply disturbing to us and absolutely un-Biblical.

While we hold that our beliefs are true and worthy of sharing with others, we also feel it imperative that we respect others’ beliefs and faith traditions without mocking or denigrating them as all New Testament writing demonstrates. This is especially important when it comes to how people choose to remember and honor their loved ones who have died.

In the past several decades, opioid addiction has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of beautiful young people. We believe they are worthy of being remembered without shame and with love in whatever way their loved ones choose. And in so doing, we hope their lives stand as a warning for other young people tempted into experimenting with increasingly deadly drugs.

I Corinthians 1:2, Romans 1:7, Philippians 1:1, Ephesians 2:19
Hebrews 9:27
History behind All Saints and All Souls:

https://www.osvnews.com/the-history-behind-all-saints-and-all-souls-days/#:~:text=Remembering%20and%20praying%20for%20the%20faithful%20departed&text=He%20instituted%20this%20commemoration%20on,All%20Saints%20DayAll%20Souls

HEALTHCARE – Privilege or Basic Need?

(Translation into most languages at tab to right)

If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right?

I critique market-based medicine not because I haven’t seen its heights but because I’ve seen its depths.

~Paul Farmer, M.D., Ph.D. (1)

In sorting through bins of old notes and letters, I knew one bin in particular would bring up painful memories. It was our son, JL’s. It was difficult, as I had imagined. And one of the – no, THE – most painful reminder related to his death from an overdose. It was the fact that we played a role in his preventable death. And so does the American capitalistic healthcare debacle.

The previous New Year’s eve, he was with two of his friends who overdosed and one died. It shook him to his core and he came to us and asked for help. We went together to his addiction doctor and after separate sessions, we then talked together. His doctor said: “This young man cannot start using again because if he does, he will die.” This came from his years of experience working with young people who had been inadverntently caught up in the opioid epidemic of the 2000’s. He felt JL would need to be on Suboxone for a long period of time and maybe for the rest of his life.

JL was hesitant because he had been on Suboxone years ago when it was very expensive and being prescribed at 32 mg a day – a huge amount that left patients feeling like they were drugged. And the worse part was trying to get off it. Tapering off was extremely difficult and took forever – like extended withdrawals.

Aside from the physical hurdles was the cost. It was very expensive and, guess what? It was, of course, not covered by our private health insurance (which cost us almost $1000/mo as self-employed workers) because addiction was not considered a healthcare issue. As a matter of fact, if a person said they had an illegal drug addiction, they would likely be dropped from health insurance coverage and be reported to the police.

What is so painful for us now is that we made the decision that January to drop JL from our costly policy and to not cover his getting Suboxone due to the expenses (it would have been hundreds of dollars a month for the Rx). And in the mistaken belief that he just needed to try harder. We thought this would force him to stay clean – good old fashioned will power and hard work. He did go into a detox program for a month and then into a great sober living program where he did so well we thought we had turned the corner in his 10-year struggle with opioid addiction (which had started when he was 14 and experimenting with Oxy’s).

What we didn’t understand at that time was that opioid addiction is not overcome by willpower. The result was after 6 months, he finally had impacted wisdom teeth surgery and weeks of opioid pain meds – because we thought there was no other option and we thought he could handle it. Within 3 weeks he began using heroin again and after a few days, overdosed and died. August 2, 2014.

What our family did not have as an option was what was finally put into law in 2014: The Affordable Care Act (ACA). This law mandates that all new individual and small-group plans cover substance use disorder (SUD) treatment as one of the ten essential health benefits. It also prevents insurers from denying coverage or charging more because of a pre-existing condition, including addiction.

Sadly, there are politicians who want to revoke the ACA or limit much of its coverage. As the supposed leading nation in the developed world, we are the only one without universal health care for every person from cradle to grave. All of our peer nations have it. Some systems work better than others. Regardless, health care is not seen as an option or a privilege for those who can afford it. It is considered part of a healthy and egalitarian society.

But in order for our government to save money (since our elected officials don’t want to tax millionaires and billionaires equitably), there have been significant cuts to Medicaid and SNAP and changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), that are projected to increase costs and reduce coverage for millions. There are too many details to go into here, but the bottom line to me is this:

Why are we even debating how much coverage these programs and health insurance companies offer when we should be pressing for complete health care coverage for all Americans – especially for the least of us who can barely afford food?

If we consider ourselves a nation built on Judeo-Christian principles, how can we not believe that as a society it is our responsibility to care for the sick – as people of faith have always done?

If how we viewed health care changed – as a basic need instead of a privilege – then the necessary changes to our taxing structure and health insurance would change. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Dr. Paul Farmer. https://www.pih.org/paul

Making Use of Wastewater Surveillance

(Translation into most languages at tab to the right.)

Wastewater monitoring is an effective tool in detecting emerging opioid threats, predicting overdoses, and tailoring treatments, according to new research from Biobot Analytics, Mathematica, and the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (W/B HIDTA) program. (1)

My husband and I live in Melbourne, Australia part of the year so we can be close to our daughter and family. We love Australians and their friendly and balanced way of approaching life and politics. It is a federal parliamentary democracy similar to England.

One area where they are ahead of the USA is in their approach to illicit drugs. As a nation with comprehensive health care for all from cradle to grave, they have a more communal attitude than our American individualistic posture. They view caring for each other as part of being a healthy and functioning society.

This necessarily affects how they treat people who use illicit drugs. They aggressively pursue educational and preventative measures while also working to keep those who use drugs as safe as possible until they are ready to seek recovery. While they don’t have a fluid border with a drug-producing country like we do with Mexico, they still have a problem with illicit drugs arriving from China and Asia.

One area that they use as a public health strategy is wastewater surveillance such as was used during the Covid-19 pandemic. Samples are collected from wastewater treatment plants, sewer systems, or targeted populations such as college dorms or prisons. When pooled together, they provide a community view of drugs circulating in the population. The samples are analyzed and the data is calculated through very sophisticated methods. The data then give objective, community-wide information on drug use trends. This is of great benefit in tracking changes and identifying new drug use and outbreaks and as an early warning tool. In the US, Biobot Analytics and Mathematica are leading the way with the “Drug-Surge” algorithm. (1) In a study involving five counties across four states, the algorithm correctly flagged between 71% and 100% of drug overdoses.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) uses this wastewater testing to detect trends in illicit substances well in advance of reported overdoses. Xylazine was detectable a month before suspected overdoses from it were reported. Geographic and socioeconomic trends can be tracked also. If put to use, a national alert system would give early warning of at least a week in order to alert the public to a new or more potent drug threat.

In the US, the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) that is run by the CDC began in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The CDC coordinates a national system primarily for infectious disease monitoring. While drug consumption can also be targeted, a national program does not yet exist. (3,4) Meanwhile, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is working with Biobot and Mathematica and has regional programs focusing on illicit drug use as a response to the opioid crisis.

With the CDC in the midst of worrisome changes, let’s be vocal proponents for increased national coordinated surveillance of illicit drugs in our wastewater and the use of that information to help prevent overdoses and deaths.

Wastewater Data Offers Powerful Tool in Confronting Opioid Epidemic

https://www.mathematica.org/news/wastewater-data-offers-powerful-tool-in-confronting-opioid-epidemic#:~:text=Wastewater%20monitoring%20is%20an%20effective,early%20warning%20for%20new%20threats.

2. DEA Releases 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment

https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2025/05/15/dea-releases-2025-national-drug-threat-assessment

3. Correlation between wastewater-based substance use prevalence and syringe distribution in a harm reduction program in the United States

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969725018261#:~:text=In%20the%20U.S.%2C%20although%20the,2019;%20NFLIS%2C%202024).

4. Wastewater-based monitoring could help guide responses to the USA opioid epidemic

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-023-00082-9

Just Normal

(Translation into most languages at tab to the right.)

Eleven years ago today my husband John and I woke up thinking it would be just another normal, hot August Saturday morning. But when the sheriff knocked on the door, the day – and our lives – were no longer normal. It is surprising how quickly our lives can go from normal to abnormal.

I was sorting through some files and found a drawing that our son, John Leif (JL) had done when he was around nine. It was obviously of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” but it was also obviously done by a normal nine-year-old – not an artistic prodigy. And it made me think about how JL was just like any other normal kid growing up in middle-class America in the 1990’s-2000’s. He learned to ride a 2-wheel bike at around five, he played with Lego’s, he took swimming lessons, he loved monster trucks and lasagna and macaroni & cheese with ketchup. But something so abnormal for normal young teenagers ended up ruining some of what should have been the best years of his life and ultimately taking his life – and the lives of many of his friends and hundreds of thousand other normal kids.

What was abnormal was the criminal promotion and availability of highly addictive medicine to young kids by Purdue Pharmaceuticals and the Sackler family. Never before had American kids been exposed to legal drugs (that were promoted as “non-addictive”) that they experimented with as if they were simply trying a joint. And the results were the devastation of the Opioid Epidemic. Which is not over, especially for the once normal kids who are still alive and living with the cancer of addictions. We see many of them on the street corners and under bridges, living from hand to mouth, barely surviving, living anything but a normal life.

Sadly, seeing these shells of once normal kids has become a “new normal” as our society doesn’t seem to agree on how to best provide lasting recovery options with a continuum of care – or whether we even should. In my last Substack podcast and article with special guest Sam Quinones we discuss some ideas from his book “The Least of Us” for how to help get these once normal kids from normal families the help they need to try to return to something like a normal life. (1) Let’s not forget that those addicted people were once normal kids.

JudeDiMeglioTrang1.substack.com

An Entire Generation

Translation into most languages at tab to the right.

A generation is usually considered the years during which children are born, grow up, become adults, and begin to have children of their own. Approximately 20-30 years, averaging 25 years. Each generation becomes known by what characterizes the lives of those in it – what they do and how they impact society.

I’ve been thinking about my son, who would be 36 this year – if he had survived the opioid plague that began in the 1990’s with the prescribing of opioids for every ache and pain. What Purdue Pharma did is old news and well documented. But the effect of the immorality of the Sackler family set a course that destroyed the lives of an entire generation – the “Millennials” generation of my son and his contemporaries.

Far more than a million Americans have died due to a drug overdose in the past 25 years and the majority of those deaths are from opioids. (1) Initially it was prescription opioids, then heroin, then fentanyl. And now a daily variation of synthetic opioids mixed in with every variety of street drug. These are made from precursor chemicals from China and shipped around the globe where they are “formulated” into fake prescription pills or street drugs in jungle or backyard labs. Quality control is non-existent.

Beyond the deaths, there are millions of Americans who are suffering from life-threatening addiction. They will either be another statistic or live the life of an empty shell surviving from one fix to the next just to not feel “dope sick.” Many are homeless and jobless. All experience despair and hopelessness. It will take years to gain long-term recovery if they can access health care and programs.

There has been some good news. After the peak years of the Covid pandemic, when the rates of addiction and deaths from overdoses rose substantially, the statistics for 2024 finally show a decline in both. (2) It may be due to less anxiety and depression since the pandemic ended. It may also be due to more awareness of Medicated Assisted Treatment and better access to Harm Reduction tools such as pill testing and overdose reversal medication naloxone.

I think the best area for hope is the common knowledge the “Gen Z” kids are growing up with about the deadly dangers of drug addiction. That their parents are also more aware of the drug supply than parents of Millennials like me. The 2023 National Survey on Drug Use & Health found that the majority of adolescents (12-17 yrs. old) in the USA are not using substances, alcohol, tobacco products or vaping. (3) But ongoing effort is imperative. “Continued prevention programming, education, and public messaging focused on adolescents can delay or prevent substance use and avoid the negative impacts of substance use that have been widely documented.”

If we truly want to see future generations of children have the opportunity to grow up without the continual pull to use drugs, we need to keep our relationships with them open and healthy. Every year we can delay experimentation with addictive substances allows children’s brains to develop more fully in the area of judgment. We must all stay informed and aware and work in whatever arena we are able. As Barack Obama told Michelle when he was working for her as an intern, that he was in law school because grass roots organizing had shown him that meaningful societal change requires not just the work of the people on the ground, but stronger policies and governmental action as well. (4)

Fentanyl and the U.S. Opioid Epidemic

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/fentanyl-and-us-opioid-epidemic

2. The Opioid Crises and The Pandemic

Opioid overdoses soared during the pandemic, spreading to previously less-affected groups including teenagers and the elderly

3. NSDUH Data Show Most Adolescents in the US Are Not Using Substances

Click to access 2023-nsduh-spotlight-nonuse.pdf

4. Becoming, by Michelle Obama, Chapter 8

Frankenstein Opioids

(Translation into most languages at tab to right)

Just when we thought everyone was aware of the fatal danger of fentanyl and it being mixed into every drug of abuse available on the street, a new threat arises. Nitazene or Isotonitazene (ISO) or Protonitazene, new lab-made opioids, are showing up at hospitals and morgues around the world in the bodies of people thinking they were taking their drug-of-choice only to find it was laced with one more deadly drug. It is being mixed in with cocaine, or formulated into fake Oxy’s and other pills. In the US, it first showed up in 2019 in the Midwest and spread rapidly.

Nitazenes were developed in the 1950’s by pharmaceutical companies as an alternative to morphine but shelved due to the risks of overdose. There is still no approved medical use for nitazenes today. Another ‘Designer Drug’ being made in illicit labs around the world, Nitazenes are up to 40 times stronger than fentanyl. Fentanyl is already 50 times more powerful than heroin and up to 800 times more powerful than morphine.

No wonder these drugs are referred to as ‘Frankenstein Opioids’ – only an insane, evil intentioned scientist would work to create such a drug. But in reality, the motivation is greed more than insanity because synthetic drugs are cheap to make and easy to ship and deliver – and highly profitable. But evil is the correct description for the immoral heads of the drug syndicates and cartels around the world whose entire life and business is dealing death.

What can be done?

For parents with children still at home, community connection and education are the best preventative measures. As I have said before, my husband and I were totally unaware of what substances were readily available to our middle school son in the early 2000’s. Our concern was smoking and marijuana. Little did we know. General discussions about drug abuse were the extent of our educational conversations. But we would have been much better prepared and had much more information if we had been involved with our kids’ school community. Instead, we were insulated from vital resources because we spent so much time with our church community. But make no mistake. Many of the families at church with kids in youth group were just like us – unaware and ill prepared and sadly many of them suffered the same loss as we did.

There are other important aspects in raising self-reliant kids who are not subject to the lures of the “cool” kids or “in” crowd. Below is a link to a previous blog dedicated to the perils modern teens and their parents face with important resources. I hope it will be helpful to you and those you love.

Teenage Perils

https://www.dea.gov/stories/2022/2022-06/2022-06-01/new-dangerous-synthetic-opioid-dc-emerging-tri-state-area

10th Anniversary Tribute

(Translation in most languages at tab to the right)

August 2, 2024

It has been 10 years since we woke up on a hot Saturday morning in August not thinking about anything in particular – other than the house projects we wanted to focus on for the day. Little did we know what had happened in the wee hours of the morning or how a knock on the door at 11am would change our lives forever.

John Leif (J.L.) had many friends in high school and university, many whom we stay in touch with. We have asked them to write their thoughts in remembrance of him on this 10^th anniversary of his death. Three of the tributes are the people who wrote the “Stories of Hope” at the end of Opiate Nation. Some of the tributes below are from friends that JL started using alcohol and Oxy’s with in middle or high school – before there was any open discussion about opioids and before their brains were mature enough to understand the deadly consequences of this particular addiction. And many went through years of struggling to get free from how opioids changed the neurological pathways in their brains. We are proud of them and love and thank them for their openness in sharing their stories and for all these heartfelt tributes expressing love for our son and for us.

Here is the YouTube link (or you can watch a mini version on the sidebar) for the photo/video tribute of JL’s life that Johanna and her cousins made: https://youtu.be/70rg4dqfFxU

My Brother

I have so many fond memories of my childhood growing up with John Leif. Our parents created an idyllic environment for us to grow up in; our mornings were spent doing our homeschool work and our afternoons were free for playing. JL and I spent many hours creating imaginary worlds with characters in Lego and Playmobil, racing his Hot Wheels cars or digging in the dirt with his Tonka Trucks. When he was little, he would also happily play baby dolls or dress ups with me, and we would create puppet shows or build forts in the living room or back yard. JL shared my love of animals, and we spent a lot of time playing with and caring for our many pets: cats, rats, hermit crabs, frogs and fish. While we had plenty of sibling fights over the years, he was the playmate I had been waiting for and I cherish the carefree time we were so privileged to have together. I wish that we could have continued growing up together into adulthood, sharing even more adventures and exploring new places. I miss him very much.

Johanna

You Are Always With Me

J. L. – It’s been 10 years – a full decade since your passing. My memory of your face is slightly fading. Your voice and your laugh aren’t as crisp in my mind anymore. Your appearances in my dreams have become less and less over the years. While I’m scared of forgetting about you, I’m relieved that I’m finally moving on. Your death has affected me tremendously, and there has been a hole in my heart that has felt bottomless for so long. Fortunately that has changed and that hole has been filled. Although I lost you – my best friend – I found another. Man, I wish you could meet her. You’d laugh because she’s exactly who I used to describe as my “perfect woman” during our long rooftop conversations while watching the sun rise after a long, rowdy night.

I have a full life though I still can’t delete your number from my phone contacts or your gamertag on Xbox (which I haven’t played in years). Life still doesn’t quite feel complete without you around. Memories of you, however, are becoming more a feeling of pleasant remembrance rather than a haunting reminder of your absence in this world. I like to think that this comes from your soul telling mine of your acceptance of the afterlife. Whatever the reason, you’ll always be with me as I enter the next chapters of my life. While I wish we were experiencing them together, I know you’re looking out and guiding me from above. I love you, my brother.

Kyle Thornton

His Death Changed Me

J.L. had an infectious laugh and smile, and a sort of curiosity like a coyote – a twinkle in his eye always. He was really damn smart and twice as funny. Also, very loyal to friends and those close to him. His death changed me, has forever changed me. The seriousness of addiction was clear before – but him suddenly being gone shook me to my core.

He’s missed, and I speak of him often to not forget him – to newcomers and men I take through the twelve steps, and to my friends and family.

Benjamin W.

He Was a Gift

John & Jude – Everyone you meet in life is someone you have no idea what effect they will have on you until you get to know them. And sometimes, people show up and blow you away. That was JL for me.

In high school, a lot was happening, and a lot went wrong for me. When I went to Social Studies with JL though, he made my day better. I can still clearly see the high school hallway during our breaks, and how I wanted to be around JL because he always made us laugh.

On weekends, when everyone went to parties, if I saw JL I felt safe – plain and simple. We talked and joked – there was never a negative part to being around him. I really loved the friendship I had with your son. I also really, really appreciate the respect he showed me as a friend. Although I wasn’t a best friend to him, he did impact my life and I hope you know that, because that’s due to you. JL was my friend, and I still think about him all the time.

He is happy where he is though – I know you know that – but just remember it when things get hard. I can’t even imagine the pain you go through every day. He was a gift.

Brittney Kline

Grateful for the Perspective You’ve Given Me

John & Jude – I have thought about JL often over the course of these past 10 years. Honestly, I find myself thinking about him more now that he is gone. I think about how much I have grown and changed over the last decade and wonder what changes and season of life he would be in if he were still with us. It makes me smile to think of JL having a wife and a kid and observing him being in that role.

J.L. – I miss you and I am grateful for what you’ve given me. The perspective you’ve given me, the thoughts you’ve brought to the surface, the memories you are part of and the reminder of just how fortunate we all are to still be fighting the good fight.

Rich Jacome

I Wish He Was Here

Ten years ago, news of JL’s death was unreal. I knew he was getting help for his addiction and had been clean for many months. Everything seemed like life was getting better for him. It did not seem real that he passed away. There was no tragic car accident, but a single slip of willpower. A moment of weakness, and poof! Like a vapor in the wind, he was gone.

I have many regrets with my end of our relationship. The biggest one was that I did not take the time to really get to know him as a teen and as a young adult. He was my kid-cousin, and I always assumed he’d be fine, just like myself. We were young, after all. I assumed he would have a long life and we’d have plenty of time to connect. But life is short. For him, much shorter.

His death opened my eyes to the extreme danger of self-medication and opiate addiction. I used to think of drug use as “bad decisions.” Now I understand it’s a lethal death sentence, especially now with even minor drugs laced with fentanyl. No one knows if “their pill” is the one pill that will end their life.

I wish he was here. I wish he knew how much he is loved. I wish he was not missing out on this beautiful world. I miss you JL.

Love, Cousin Justine

My Best Friend

Not a single day goes by that I don’t think about my best friend and my brother JL he was easily the closest bond that I’ve ever had in life. I have so many fun stories of JL and I find myself telling stories of him and I on a weekly basis.

JL taught me how to embrace life – he really knew how to have fun and he knew how to express how he felt about things. I would argue that he lived more in his life than most people could ever dream to do.

His intelligent and mischievous thoughts resonate through all my life’s great decisions. When I find myself talking to my own subconscious I don’t see me. I see JL.

William Skylar Helfrich

No Other Friend Like You

Dear J.L. – I’ll start this by saying the obvious which is you are dearly missed. I can’t believe I haven’t talked to you in almost 10 years. Some days it feels so long ago. Other days it feels like it was yesterday I was in culinary school, and we would talk at night and text. No matter where I was living you were my best friend. No judgment ever between us. Such a rare thing. We completely understood each other on every level. I had never had a friend I connected with on the level I did with you. I haven’t since either.

Your funeral was so surreal to me. It still hurts so bad, so often. I think of you and the things we will never get to do. Losing you and my father so close together is a wound that will never heal, no matter the time passed. I wish you could see my life today and share it with me. I think of you often and still say to myself a lot of the phrases we always said to each other. The memories we made together will always live within me. I hope to see you again one day.

Love, Matt

A Significant Impact

I never knew John Leif, but his life had an impact on me that has been significant. I met Jude & John Trang through their friendship with my own parents, and I heard their story with addiction, which so closely mirrored what I had put my parents through with my own substance dependence. When I met the Trang’s, I didn’t know any other families like mine. John Leif and I had a lot in common. We had two parents who loved us, we had a nice home life, we had options and opportunities, we were the same age. And we did heroin anyway. John Leif lost his life, but I did not. Why?

The Trang’s are deeply religious, spiritual people, whose beliefs guide them through life’s joys and sorrows. I have witnessed the power of their faith as it illuminates the space around them wherever they go. As for me, the question of “why?” has no answer. Why him, and not me? Why should I be so lucky? Why couldn’t he have been saved? Why should the Trang’s be the ones with broken hearts, while I get to sing and dance with my parents today, almost 12 years since I used a syringe? Neither my belief system nor my experience of life has provided any kind of reason. It is part of the great mystery. To me, the question itself is where the lesson resides: be grateful. Appreciate life’s beautiful moments and be present when life is challenging.

Through knowing the Trang’s, I remind myself to feel ALL my feelings without trying to numb, distract, or turn to harmful habits. I am deeply connected to the Trang family because of our shared experiences. My life is enriched because of them, and I keep John Leif in my meditations.

Mattea Tampio

SCOTUS Decision on Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family

Can money compensate for a life destroyed by a greedy family and their products?

(Translation available in most languages at tab on the right)

My husband and I recently returned from visiting his relatives in Norway. Even in that enviable nation, a mother shared her anguish about the 45 yr old son who is still “living” with addiction to prescription opioids. He is not really living – he is just surviving with little hope for his future as rehab failures mount up.

On Thursday, June 27 the Supreme Court handed down their decision on the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case in which it would have paid billions for victims and states BUT would have shielded the Sackler family from any future liability.

The majority (5-4) ruled that the bankruptcy court did not have the authority to release the Sackler family members from opioid victims’ legal claims. The Biden administration had argued the bankruptcy court could not release the Sacklers from the claims.

The U.S. Trustee, which oversees bankruptcies under the Justice Department, as well as eight states, Washington, D.C., and the city of Seattle, objected to the Purdue Pharma deal. The trustee argued that the liability the Sacklers face could induce voluntary settlements more favorable than those under the plan and that a win for the Sacklers “would provide a ‘roadmap for corporations and wealthy individuals to misuse the bankruptcy system’ in future cases,” Gorsuch wrote in the opinion.(1)

Dis-Couraged or En-Couraged?

Discouragement is the opposite of having the heart, the courage to face something. It’s when the heart has been sucked out of you. But the en in encouragement means “into”, the process of putting courage into someone. Giving them the heart and hope to go on.

(Translation into most languages at tab to the right.)

It’s time for a confession. I have not been writing many blogs for Opiate Nation in the past two years – not because I haven’t had time but because I have felt discouraged. Decades into the Opioid Epidemic and all the information and media coverage, the hope that addiction and deaths from drug overdoses would decrease has proven unfounded. It seems that people in general are just tired of hearing about it, especially if it doesn’t particularly concern them. And I have felt that I didn’t have anything helpful to add to the conversation and wondered: what more needs to be said?

But I felt reprimanded in my heart and soul for being one more person who is fatigued by the persistence of a problem that seems to never get better, let alone go away. What about all the people living in active addiction? And what about their friends and family who spend sleepless nights and anxious days worried about them? And what of those who have lost loved ones to addiction and are living in debilitating grief?

I started thinking about discouragement and how to “snap out of it”? For me, there is no snapping out of it on my own. Once I’m dis-couraged, I have found that only being en-couraged changes things. And encouragement usually comes to me through two avenues: a few intimate friends and God, both of whom know me well. The words spoken out loud by friends and the ones directly into my soul by God are what lift my troubled and discouraged heart and bring hope and courage.

Courage comes from Latin cor meaning “heart”. The dis in discouragement means “opposite of”. Discouragement is the opposite of having the heart, the courage to face something. It’s when the heart has been sucked out of you. But the en in encouragement means “into”, the process of putting courage into someone. Giving them the heart and hope to go on.

Although my life has not been characterized by addiction personally, encouragement has been important in my life, especially after my son died from addiction. How much more important would encouragement be to those struggling with addiction? And for the families and loved ones of those struggling or already lost? And how can we encourage without enabling?

So, I have been reminded of the importance of an encouraging word. Knowing this, how can I offer encouragement in the arena of addiction and Harm Reduction? Although people do recover from addiction and live full lives, there will always be people struggling with addiction and using drugs. When we acknowledge and accept this, we must try our best to help minimize the harm from that use in the ways we can. For me, that has been through writing to offer information, comfort, and encouragement.

Remembering The Least of Us on Int’l Overdose Awareness Day August 31st, 2022

(Translation into most languages at tab to the right)

I wish everyone could read the penultimate chapter of The Least of Us by Sam Quinones. Its title is the same as that of the book. I have almost every line underlined and starred. In it, he describes the dire state we in Western society are in with addiction, the well-thought out reasons many of our public policies are still getting it wrong, and the slivers of hope that encourage us that the world could look differently for the next generation of young people. Some poignant quotes:

“Underground chemists seem to be searching the chemistry literature for drugs that might be molecularly modified to be more potent…The world Gary Henderson predicted when he coined the term ‘designer drugs’ in 1988 is now with us. Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl (and new synthetics every day) and made in Mexico now dominate the market…There seems now no way to stop all the bizarre drugs devised by those whose own brain chemistry has been twisted by the profits of the underworld’s free market…recovering addicts face scary odds as long as the drugs that torment them are widely available, potent, and almost free. The now-cliché is ‘We can’t arrest our way out of this.’ We can’t treat our way out of it either, as long as supply is so potent and cheap.”