Pubdate: Fri, 26 Feb 2016
Source: Daily Review (Towanda, PA)
Contact:  2016 The Daily Review
Website: http://www.thedailyreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1015
Author: James Loewenstein
Page: A1

OFFICIALS: COUNTY LACKS FACILITIES TO TREAT ITS MANY DRUG ADDICTS

TOWANDA - While Bradford County is experiencing a heroin epidemic, 
there aren't any treatment facilities for addicts in the county and 
the ones elsewhere in the region are full, officials said.

Speaking at the Bradford County commissioners' meeting on Thursday, 
Bradford County Coroner Thomas Carman said the region's drug rehab 
facilities, which are located outside the county, "are full," so 
getting a local addict into a rehab facility "is a challenge."

"There are so many people who need treatment, but we don't have 
enough facilities for them," the coroner said.

The lack of drug treatment facilities in Bradford County also makes 
it harder for addicts to stay clean after they have been to a rehab 
facility, the coroner said.

When Bradford County's heroin addicts "come out clean" from a drug 
rehab facility, "there is no place for them to go" to get further 
treatment when they return home to Bradford County, which leads to 
them injecting drugs again, the coroner said.

"There's nothing for them" in the county, "no half-way house or 
anything. I hear that from parent after parent after parent. So they 
end up seeing me," the coroner said.

There are no "sober houses" locally, which are drug-free housing 
facilities where former addicts can work with others to stay off 
drugs, said Bradford County Commissioner Ed Bustin. Sober houses, 
which are "very successful," are "virtually unavailable" unless you 
travel to a place like Scranton or Ithaca, he said.

While there are Alcoholics Anonymous groups locally that people with 
drug problems can go to, they tend to attract older people, whom 
young addicts may not relate to easily, Bustin said.

"People are traveling three, four, or five hours" to get to a 
treatment facility, Bustin said.

The discussion on drug abuse, which was the biggest focus at the 
commissioners' meeting, was initiated by Daily Review Editor-in-chief 
Matt Hicks, who asked the commissioners to comment on Ithaca Mayor 
Svante Myrick's recent announcement that the City of Ithaca is 
considering creating a safe and supervised place for addicts to use 
their drugs (see sidebar).

Carman said that, so far in 2016, there have been six drug-related 
deaths in Bradford County. While the Coroner's Office is still 
waiting for the results of toxicology studies related to the deaths, 
at least four of the deaths are believed to be related to heroin 
abuse, he said.

The last three of the six deaths are suspected to have resulted from 
a combination of heroin and fentanyl, an anesthetic, the coroner said.

Bradford County Sheriff Clinton "C.J." Walters said: "I don't think 
people have a clue how bad the problem (of heroin use in Bradford 
County) really is. Not a day goes by that I don't get several people 
calling me about heroin."

These calls come from people who are trying to find out about 
treatment options or other ways to get help for family members or 
others they know, the sheriff said.

Bradford County Commissioner Doug McLinko recalled how his friend 
Keith Kinsman had found his son, 28-year-old Benjamin Kinsman of 
Towanda, dead of a heroin overdose earlier this month.

An audio recording of Keith Kinsman's eulogy at his son's funeral, 
which has been posted at the Facebook page of the Bradford County 
Sheriff's Office, has received over 18,000 views since it was first 
posted several days ago, the sheriff said.

In his eulogy, Keith Kinsman said that his son was good-hearted, a 
voracious reader, and was only a few credits short of a bachelor's 
degree, but had made a fatal mistake when he tried heroin for the 
first time last year.

"Sometimes that's all it takes to become an addict," Kinsman said in 
his eulogy. "From that moment on, his life became a hellish struggle."

Benjamin Kinsman had left home in November because of the opposition 
of his family to his heroin addiction, but moved back on Jan. 2, his 
father said.

"He got clean, he recovered, he was doing well, was making plans and 
he was full of life. The real Ben was back with us again," Keith 
Kinsman recalled in his eulogy, which he delivered on Feb. 18 at the 
Independent Baptist Church in Towanda. "But last Friday night, in a 
moment of weakness, he relapsed, and it killed him."

Both McLinko and Bustin said there needs to be treatment for drug addicts.

"It's a critical need in the county right now," Bustin said.

But society's treatment of drug dealers should be much harsher, 
McLinko said. They need to be shown that, if arrested and convicted, 
"the gates of hell" await them, McLinko said.

Commissioner Daryl Miller, who was out of town, participated in the 
meeting via speaker phone.

The county might work with the Lazarus Project, a non-profit 
initiative that was founded in North Carolina, to help it develop a 
blueprint for attacking the local drug problem, Bustin said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom