RI kicks off week of heroin and opioid addiction awareness

By Alana Cerrone

acerrone@Abc6.com

@Alana_Cerrone

Paul Kandarian describes his journey from the front lines of drug addiction, to the front lines of Afghanistan…and back again.

"’I’ll never do heroin…I’ll never shoot up’….within a month I was jabbing myself anywhere I could."

Kandarian is not alone. In 2015, 239 Rhode Islanders died due to drug overdose. That’s more than car accidents, murders, and suicides combined.

"If there’s a market for it…it’s gonna be easily gotten. We’re not gonna be able to arrest ourselves out of this problem."

FBI Special Agent Harold Shaw and all of the others on Monday’s panel discussion for Heroin & Opioid Awareness Week agreed that there has to be a group effort to tackle this epidemic. Educators, treatment facilities, and law enforcement have to work together.

But even with all of that, the reality is there is still a huge mountain to climb when you’re talking about the problem of opiates, as Kevin Baill, PhD, from Butler Hospital, explains.

"The overdose problem is the tip of the iceberg and underneath the water is an enormous problem of people in our society who are dependent on opiates."

Kandarian tells us he was able to get in front of his addiction problems by getting help at the VA.

"That’s what the drugs do…they make you not who you are.”

Rhode Island is one of only 5 states putting limits on first time opioid prescriptions. Dr. Baill says he’s concerned laws like that might only help people who aren’t addicted yet.

© WLNE-TV 2016