Heroin is cheap, available and often mixed with other dangerous drugs.
The result has been catastrophic nationwide for an ever-rising wave of opioid addiction and death by overdose.
In 2014 alone, 37 Marylanders died from heroin laced with the synthetic opiate fentanyl, according Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The Eastern Shore has fared no better.
According to the Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council for Talbot County, Talbot ranks fifth in the state for 12th graders who have used heroin one or more times in their lives (8.5%). Over 22% of students have used prescription drugs like Oxycontin and Percocet.
Death by heroin overdose continues to rise yearly and has caught the attention of Maryland’s Governor enough to create a Heroin and Opioid Task Force and dedicate $2 million to the task.
Enter Dr. David Hill.
Hill, a Talbot county resident and businessman—he developed William Hill Manor and was Chairman of Easton Bank and Trust—wants to address the opioid addiction problem head-on and will soon open the doors to Chesapeake Treatment Services, an opioid addiction treatment program that includes maintenance dispensing of short and long-term methadone and buprenorphine (Suboxone), hand in hand with individual and group counseling, support, treatment planning and other rehabilitation services.
Although methadone is not without its detractors—those who believe that abstinence if the only path to recovery—it is becoming more apparent that detractors are on the wrong side of research.
Just today, in the New York Times, Maia Szalavitz writes “in the scientific literature, however, there’s no question that maintenance works. Every expert group that has ever studied it — from the Centers for Disease Control to the Institute on Medicine and the World Health Organization — has determined that, for opioids, ongoing maintenance is superior to abstinence. That’s because maintenance is the only treatment known to reduce drug-related mortality, which it cuts by more than 70 percent.”
In this video Dr. Hill and Melissa Bishop, Chesapeake Treatment Services board member and consultant, talk about creating an optimum opioid treatment center and what it means for the Mid-Shore.
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Joan Berwick says
It’s about time. Whether we want to face it or not, the increase in heroin users has increased exponentially on the Eastern Shore. I am glad we are addressing it and if methadone and suboxone are needed so be it.
Marty Wright says
Hello Dr. Hill and Ms. Bishop:
Your video is very inspiring. I am approaching an 18-year sobriety anniversary this September in AA and CA and just passed 3 years in GA. CA (Cocaine Anonymous), is a Twelve Step program whose membership statement is as follows: “… The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using cocaine and all other mind-altering substances…”
You are correct, from what I have seen, that the opiate problem is an ever-increasing one – affecting our youth disproportionately. A complete treatment model is so very encouraging. I reside in Chicago, IL and the old model of showing up for “Methadone” daily and then nothing else has always resulted in either a switched addiction or an additional one. Many acquaintances actually used “Methadone” to get their sick off in the morning, then used Heroin during the day – anyway.
I applaud your plan for COMPLETE treatment and I hope CA is available in your area to be part of the Twelve Step fellowships you connect with to bring the recovery message/process to your clients.
Information about CA can be obtained on our website: http://www.ca.org. I am part of the Illinois Area of CA and our website is: http://www.illinoisca.org.
Best of luck to you in this undertaking. Marty W.