The Palmyra man died days after he was released from a 30 day stint in a drug rehabilitation center. His cause of death was a heroin overdose.
CBS News reported that in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the parents of a 20 year-old college sophomore, Emmett Scannell, decided to tell the truth in his obituary concerning his death from a heroin overdose. After only 18 months of addiction and an in-and-out stay in rehab centers, Emmett promised his father he would kick the habit.
Bill Scannell and Emmett’s mom, Aimee, decided to be open about the cause of their son’s death. They posted a Facebook message with their son’s obituary, and Emmett’s dad read it before all at the funeral.
The story repeats itself every day throughout the area. Either paramedics, or police revive an opioid overdose with a Narcan injection, too often heroin, just in time, or another overdose death is reported.
According to the website heroin.net, “Many struggling addicts do not really understand the difference between heroin detox vs. heroin treatment. The main difference can quickly become evident to anyone who has gone through the heroin detoxification process and promptly ended up relapsing on heroin shortly thereafter.”
According to the Wayne County Investigator in charge of drug arrests, the main problem is that a heroin addict sthat who have gone through rehabilitation come out “chasing the high”.
While in treatment, their body may have expunged the high dosage of heroin they required. They went in with a 10-20 bag daily heroin addiction and come out thinking they need the same dosage to reach the same high before entering treatment.
The resulting highs result in a quick overdose the body can no longer handle.
Diane Devlin, the Director of Wayne County Public Health pointed to yet another cure causing the kill with heroin. She stated that when the State began the I-Stop program to put the brakes on prescription medication abuse, it forced opioid addicts hooked on prescription pills to switch to cheaper, easier to obtain – heroin.
Wayne County Sheriff, Barry Virts, said it is obvious the Finger Lakes Region has an exploding heroin problem, but good statistics on the problem are hampered.
“There is not one repository for heroin statistics.” Sheriff Virts said the Sheriff’s Office, State Police, local police agencies, ambulance services, hospitals, rehab centers, Public Health, Mental Health and even private vehicle transports must have a clearing center for reporting heroin incidents in an attempt to get a handle on the local situation.
At a meeting on Wednesday (4/27) Sheriff Virts, along with Public Health Director Diane Devlin, has arranged a meeting of all local agencies in an attempt to create a heroin statistic repository. The meeting is set for May 10th at 9 a.m. at the Wayne County Health Building, 1519 Nye Road in Lyons.
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