Mike Stuart always carries a wallet with a pack of portrait photos. “These pictures haunt me at night,” says the former district attorney in Charleston, the capital of the US state West Virginia.
The photos show young Americans. In these snapshots they seem to be bursting with joie de vivre. They’re all dead, all of them died of a drug overdose. West Virginia is the epicenter of the opioid epidemic in the USA – Stuart speaks of “Ground Zero”. “There is no family, no street, no church, no school, no village, no city that is not massively affected,” he says.
In the United States, someone now dies of a drug overdose about every five minutes. Between April 2020 and April 2021 – during the corona pandemic – more than 100,000 fatalities were recorded for the first time in a year, as the CDC recently announced. Compared to the same period in the previous year, the number increased by more than 28 percent. For comparison: In Germany a total of 1581 “drug-related deaths” were registered in 2020 (plus 13 percent), whereby, unlike in the United States, the long-term effects of drug use are counted as a cause. With a population around four times as large, the USA recorded more than 60 times as many drug deaths as Germany.
From pain relievers to heroin
Around three out of four of those deaths in the United States died from an opioid overdose. According to the CDC definition, this includes natural opiates such as heroin, but also synthetic substances such as oxycodone. In the 1990s, the now notorious company Purdue Pharma pushed onto the market with its oxycodone pain reliever, Oxycontin – it was the big bang for the current crisis. Purdue incorrectly rated Oxycontin as being low on addiction.
While oxycodone falls under the Narcotics Act in Germany, doctors in the USA freely prescribe the drugs even for moderate pain. Patients became addicted en masse. If they couldn’t get oxycodone on prescription after treatment, they often got it on the black market, where over time they switched to a cheaper alternative: heroin. Meanwhile, dealers often stretch heroin and other drugs with fentanyl. This synthetic opioid is considerably stronger than heroin, which increases the risk of a fatal overdose even further.
Gigantic profits for the pharmaceutical industry
In the years after the opioid pain reliever was launched, Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies, as well as unscrupulous doctors, made huge profits. Purdue has been accused of hiding the potential for addiction. Several companies had to answer in court – there are still a number of lawsuits pending. Opioids are now being prescribed much more restrictively. According to experts, the former practice has prepared the ground for the current drug crisis, which the USA cannot get under control.
Newborns with withdrawal syndromes
“There is no section of the population that is not affected,” says Stuart, who is now a partner in a law firm in Charleston. Black and white, rich and poor – in West Virginia, addiction did not stop at anyone. The poorest state in the United States has long led the overdose statistics. According to CDC data, there are more than 85 drug deaths for every 100,000 people in West Virginia. Another statistic also suggests the misery that opioids cause in the region: According to official figures, more than five out of 100 newborns in West Virginia in 2017 were born with what is known as neonatal abstinence syndrome. They experienced withdrawal symptoms because the mother used drugs during pregnancy.
Great grandparents raise toddlers
Joanna Tabit experiences daily how addiction destroys families in West Virginia. The Charleston judge estimates that 70 percent of her trials now revolve around child abuse or neglect. Substance abuse plays a role in the vast majority of these cases. Neglected children would be removed from their parents’ care and placed with relatives or in foster families. However, relatives often have drug or other problems themselves. The system of foster families in West Virginia is completely overwhelmed by the mass of cases. “We have great-grandparents who raise small children,” says Tabit. “It’s tragic.”
When the son doesn’t wake up anymore
Stacie Archer lost her son Joel to opioids. He can also be seen in one of those photos that ex-prosecutor Stuart always has with him – some of them he spread out in front of him during a conversation in his office. The shot shows a young man in a suit and tie smiling at the camera. Archer says her son didn’t wake up on the morning of June 12, 2013 after an overdose. Joel was 24 years old.
Archer describes himself as “a very angry mother”. “The big pharmaceutical companies came here selling a lie,” she says, referring to the claim that the drugs are not addictive. “They sold the doctors a lie, they sold the politicians a lie. Everyone complied because of the money. ” Archer is now involved in addiction care and she is the chairman of the board of directors of Recovery Point West Virginia. The non-profit organization operates several inpatient therapy facilities.
How Corona Fueled the Opioid Epidemic
The corona pandemic has exacerbated the opioid crisis. In 2018, the number of fatal overdoses in the US fell for the first time in a long time. But the virus ruined all successes. The network of help and care offers is much thinner in the USA than in Germany – because of the pandemic, many institutions had to close temporarily. Recovery Point Charleston was also unable to accept anyone for a few months. Addicts sat in isolation at home if they had one. All public attention was focused on the pandemic, and the opioid crisis largely disappeared from the headlines. Archer says: “I just want our politicians to know that this is going on, that families are losing loved ones every day.”