Vermont, with its picture postcard towns is the poster child for an epidemic that is ruining communities, lives, across the country. Im adam may, and this is an america tonight special report, addicted in vermont. Weve been through it all, institutions. I really didnt think i would be sitting here today. People here dont make enough money to get by, but theyll get rid of their food cards, whatever means date day. Take money from the children k anything. Theyll steal from friends and family to get one more. Heroin is spreading through rural america, striking small up tos like rutland, ver monday. No matter what, 24 7 you plot on how to get the next high. Vermont ranks number two in the country for people seeking treatment for oppiad addiction. Serenity house, a halfway home for addicts is tucked away. Matthew and ashley were two hardcore heroin addicts going through a recovery. How hard is it . It destroys you. Mentally you are all over the place, its a rollercoaster. Youre happy, sad, miserable. Physically everything on your body hurts. You deal with it for the rest of your life, you dont graduate from addiction cured. After trouble with the law and a dozen overdoses, ashley, who is 21, hit rock bottom. Mass addiction cost him a career as a computer technician at the department of homeland security. It was great having a good career, travelling and spend twice of that in a year period of time and sit what wonder how did i spend that. Whp i only made this much. Since last year deaths from overdoses doubled. The amount has increased 771 since 2000. Almost everyone we spoke to new someone effected by addiction. I dont know what to do. The pain and hurt is too much. I know how i raised him. He went to private school. He had the best of everything, and i dont know how this addiction took over. I dont. I dont know how it took over. Carol is one. Many broken parents of children in the grip of heroin addiction face. Your second was going to come and talk to us, and he decided not to. Correct. Why . Its a vicious cycle. Its a game. Hell say and do what you want to hear but not folio through with it. He says hes been clean for seven days, do you believe him . Absolutely not. I know nothing about addicts or drugs. I learn a lot. I wake up thinking thank god my son is alive, i think. I havent heard from him. I think hes okay. Id he has not got in trouble with the law. I want to keep him alive i dont know how to do it any more. Do you think he considers how this impacted you . I dont think they care, as long as yes get their fix. How serious is the heroin problem in vermont right now. You can find heroin n every corner. Its in every up to. Dr deb richter is one of vermonts leading specialists, she says the current invasion can we traced back to the abuse of cheep powerful painkillers that are too easy to gate. Its a problem in rural states, boredom, not sure. I was in primary care. I remember seeing it. I moved here in 1999. In the early 2000, 2001. I saw a bunch of 20yearolds come in with oxicontin. It was a turning point. It started with pills, pills crushable and easy to snort. Dr richter believes pharmaceutical problems could have done more. Who did it stem from . The company chose not to but a coating around the medication, that would have made it difficult to snort. Most kids start by snorting medication. If they put the coating around it it may have stopped this. When they decided or the company decided to put a coating, the cost of the drug went way up. The heroin dealerses moved in. With pain killers going for 80 a pill, heroin was a cheaper alternative. Dealers saw a market in rutland recollects and major profit. We are near new york, near massachusetts, near connecticut. People can take a couple of hour trip down and score cheep heroin and sell it for more here. We didnt know she was using drugs until she was in the cocaine addiction around the age 15 to 16. Thats when things got so bad, we had to admit something was wrong, and seek treatment. Patricks daughter started using drugs in high school. With treatment, her parents thought she was out of danger. She had pushed her life around and applied to college. Martins life shattered when police knocked on his door. It was devastating. I had loss before, but not a loss of mine child. No one should bury their child or figure out the clothe well put them in in a casket. Martin ace his daughter bods body was dumped in a parking lot after she died from an overdose. The heroin was pure, and mixed with cocaine. She died a slow death at the apartment of the people she was in. They san tied the place as she was dying. They knew that she was going. People that were with her never got charged. This is the bench that sara sat on when she came down down. After saras death, patrick and his wife decided to start a support group to help families understand and cope. They named the group wits end. If we save or help one other person live, help another family save their child, her life wont have been in vain. She was so much more than drugs. Next, we talk to an unlikely heroin dealer. Plus vermonts governor makes this his number one priority. Our investigation reveals part of the states plan to deal with its a chilling and draconian sentence. It simply cannot stand. Its disgraceful. The only crime they really committed is journalism. They are truth seekers. All they really wanna do is find out whats happening, so they can tell people. Governments around the world all united to condemn this. As you can see, its still a very much volatile situation. The government is prepared to carry out mass array. If you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live. Real reporting that brings you the world. Giving you a real global perspective like no other can. Real reporting from around the world. This is what we do. Al Jazeera America. These people have decided that today they will be arrested i know that im being surveilled people are not getting the care that they need this is a crime against humanity hands up dont shoot hands up dont shoot what do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now they are running towards base. Explosions going off were not quite sure. Fault lines al Jazeera Americas emmy winning, investigative, documentary, series. Welcome back. Vermont is in the midst of a heroin epidemic. The government calls it a problem. Those in the trenches say state efforts are failing. How long have you been clean . 16 months today. Today is 16 months . Yes. Congratulations. Thank you. What does it feel like . Its surreal, i never thought i would say that. 25yearold Kimberley Jones says she was one of the busiest heroin dealers. Its basically an openair market. We witnessed children playing as drivers pull in to make a deal. You sold a lot of drugs. Yes, i used to buy them and sell them. In the heart of the ski country, rutland vermont is ground zero. Addiction circleses are swamped. Heroin is such a problem that the governor made it the focus address. In every corner of our state heroin and opiate drug addiction threatens us. We travel throughout the state of vermont to find out about the governors plan to deal with the crisis. Part of it may be backfiring. We talk to rehab center directors, and they tell us over the last nine months they have seen the relapse rate at the clinic skye rocket. We have seen an increase in the relapsing. Do you have a percentage. Id say its probably 15 to 20 more than it used to be. This man runs serenity house, a rehab center in central vermont treating 400 a year. The state used to pay addicts to stay 28 days. Last july they cut it in half. 14 days, unless patients get a special waiver. What is the i deal number of days that a patient should be in rehab. What is successful. If we can get them there another 60, 90 days, the percentage goes up. The longer we can keep them in some form of formal treatment, the better their chances. Its a concern we heard across the state. Two hours north, america tonight were told that the relapse rate has increased nearly 100 . We asked the commissioner of health why the state shortened rehab. His response surprised us . Im not familiar with that. I can get you that information. State officials said the rate climbed 5 . Difference between their figures and the clinics are blamed on methodology. Shorter stays in rehab means more addicts can be treated. We have the secondhighest per cap ita rate of people that need treatment. The number of people that we are treating increased tenfold and you have to find to be the best stuarts of the dollars stewards of the dollars, to be the most effective to a greater number of people. Is 14 days in rehab enough. Absolutely not. You need 90 days for people to reset their thermostat. Specialist. We need to spend more money. We need more Treatment Centres and longterm rehab facilities. In vermont. If you have insurance, at a rehab facilities, two weeks is bizarre. Ready. Kimberley is in recovery and turned her addiction into advocacy, lobbying lawmakers to increase funding so addicts like her have a fighting chance. They dont understand that this is a disease. I dont suffer from moral defirm si. Its like anything else. Its like having caps ever. I suffer a disease, and theres no known cure. People. The new plan is to cut back existing treatment and focus on out patient care, giving patients heroin replacement drugs . What we want to create is not one size fits everyone. As we put more capacity on outpatient treatment, or treatment at the hubs, the less well need the intradays. Vermont does not have another doctors in prescribe the narcotics and meet the demand. Theres a bunch of people on waiting lists. Theres one waiting list that is 500 to 700. And some have waited two years. In the meantime they are forced to use heroin. And theres a problem. Even though heroin replacement drugs can save lives, they are controversial. The pills replace one addiction with another. The fear is that some of the behavioural stuff that goes along with addiction, if you are giving someone a pill, may not get addressed or resolved. People. Dr chen admits the challenges are overwhelming. I extent 25 years in rutland as a physician, politician, as a school board member. We raised three kids there. It was all around us. I consider myself lucky that it didnt happen to one of my kids. It happened to kimberley, introduced to heroin by her mother. I knew from growing up that drugs were the way to escape. Thats what my mum did, used drugs to get out of reality. How did you make the other choice to clean up, when so men people are falling through . I wanted to live. And i was at a point where i wasnt going to live much longer. Coming up, so what about the next generation . America tonight gets exclusive access to a hospital where babies born to adict mothers go through intense, painful withdrawals. Al Jazeera America presents somebodys telling lies. It looks nothing like him. Pan am flight 103 explodes december 21st, 1988 was the right man convicted . So many people, at such a high level, had the stake in almegrahis guilt the most definitive look at this shocking crime the major difficulty for the prosecution that there was no evidence al Jazeera America presents lockerbie part two case closed al Jazeera America gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. More on every screen. Digital, mobile, social. Visit aljazeera. Com. Follow ajam on twitter. And like alJazeera America on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. So you dont just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. Al Jazeera America. Im adam may, this is america tonights special investigation into vermonts heroin epidemic in our final report we look to the future. Children born into the dangerous drug culture, paying the price for their parents addiction. It is quite the cry. I know. That was constant. Jessica calman says the guilt is overwhelming. Every time she watches this video of her baby boy. Jax was born physically dependent on a heroin replacement drug. He detoxed. He had the symptoms. Theres no settling him. Jessica lived her life in rutland, vermont. Its a small town with a secret the most pregnant heroin addicted women per capital. By age 20 jessica was addicted to heroin and stayed hooked for 10 years. When she found she was pregnant she fixed to a replacement therapy. Her new sons withdrawal from the drug was so bad jessica thought he would die. He went quiet, his lips turned blue. What did you do . I picked him up and kind of shook him and whichingle breath. Did your heart jump out of its chest . Scared. Now a toddler, jax appears to be normal, energetic and engaging child. He had to be weaned off. Her younger son is also an serboxan baby. This is the ball by clinic. It ball by clinic. It provide treatments to mums and babies. She comes, and then she doesnt. She likes to be rocked and swayed. Thats what we do. Amy is the clinical nurse manager. Giving america tonight a rare look at what the babies experience. This baby is in withdrawal from opiates. In just the last two years, the number of drugaffected new doubled. Drug sickness amplifies itself with physical symptoms. Vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pain. The babies get stiff. They are rigid. That is uncomfortable. They sweat. Most babies are here two weeks. Some require up to 40 address of hospitalisation. Its tough for the professionals to watch. This doctor oversees treatment. Counter to what you think, keeping mothers on a heroin replacement drug during pregnancy and after birth is better than going cold turkey. The treatments allow for a level of the opiate in the system so the babies and mums dont go into withdrawal. Its not the same as when you are searching for the opiate on the street and theres a rush and a withdrawal and a withdrawal. Most babies make it through the program without problems. So far research on serboxal withdrawal has not shown longterm effects. The future of the question. Are you worried about the longterm Health Effect on your kids . I am. They are healthy now. My worry is about learning things and disability that way. Its on my mind a lot. As i see them grow and develop, it worries he less. From everything i can see date they are funny kids. Yes. What raises jessica more is raising her chug in rutland children in rutland. Do you think your kids would have a happy and good life . It would be a challenge. Its possible. I dont know if im willing to take the risk. Im an addict. Their father was an addict. Gene. That risk. Addiction. Jessica is off heroin, but needs the replacement drug. Relapse. What is it like to look at your kids. Do you look at them, hold them and think. Im glad i got clean. Yes. Im so grateful for them. And grateful for the life we have. On days when im struggling or feel like giving up, i look at their faces and theres no way. No way. Theyre my heart. I want nothing but the best for them, for our little family. Im hoping, yes, everything will be good. Hoping the next generation doesnt have to pay the price for this ones habit. One thing we found in vermont is there are people passionate about solving the epidemic. Every one of the addict that we spoke to say they are keep, but its a daily clean. Im adam may. America tonight special. Announcer this is al jazeera. Hello, welcome to the newshour. Im in doha with the stop stories. A Memorial Service for the 10th anniversary of the superstorm sandy. It killed many thousands of people dozens of civilians killed in i. S. I. L. Controlled territory. And some of libyas biggest Oil Terminals 19 soldiers
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.