Center Lake Pavilion was filled Wednesday night with community members, leaders and recovering addicts for a discussion about the opioid problem.

The Bowen Center organized the event, emceed by Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, and included talks from county judges, law enforcement, professionals and those in recovery.

The point of the event was to educate people about what addiction really is and to connect people.

Thallemer called the opioid and drug problem “a social poison” that is so addictive it’s ruining families, the user’s lives and that the city will do anything in its powers to stop the problem.

“More arrests will follow,” he said, but, you can’t just fight the problem by arresting people. “The bottom line is that we need, as a community, to help or partner with all the users or families to try to break this cycle of addiction. We can’t just sit back and let these guys make arrests without trying to intervene.”

Matthew Graham, Bowen Center outpatient director, encouraged everyone to watch the TED Talk on YouTube called “Everything You Know About Addiction Is Wrong.”?

Part of the video was played during Wednesday’s call-to-action event and told a story about lab rats being put in a box with a bottle of regular water and a bottle of drug-laced water. Scientists found the rats preferred the drug-laced water over the regular water and they would constantly drink from it, then eventually overdose and die. But, when scientists created a “rat park,” which provided them with everything they wanted and needed – cheese, spin wheels, and most importantly lots of other rats to socialize with – that the rats no longer preferred the drug-laced water. In fact, according to the TED Talk, the rats hardly drank it at all.

“Connecting people to a life of hope and meaning and getting them away from isolation is a key thing,” Graham said. “There is hope.”

Phil

Next, the crowd heard from Phil, 32, a man who said he began using drugs at age 9.

“I’m pretty much a poster child for a broken home and a broken family,” he said.

Phil talked about how he started getting locked up at the age of 14, was sent to a maximum security prison in southern Indiana at 16 and has spent 14 years of his life incarcerated for drugs.

“I accepted my situation,” he said of living in and out of the prison system. “I just tried to be a better addict, a better criminal, when I would get out.”

Phil said he began a family and started a small business, but was still using. He would doctor shop for pills and when that would run out, he’d go to the streets for what he needed.

Then one night he went to a bar with three friends who are brothers. Two of those three brothers are now dead from overdosing on drugs, he said. That night they were taking Xanax, opioids and drinking. When Phil woke up the next morning, he was sitting in a jail cell and had no clue why.

“When they told me that I’d jumped over a pharmacy counter and taken everything at gunpoint, I was astonished,” he said.

He went to prison for six more years for that.

Eventually, after getting in trouble again and again, he appeared in front of a judge and was facing 30 years behind bars. Instead of sending him to prison, Phil said that judge sent him to treatment.

“I always have to give credit that something different was done instead of just sending me to prison, and I’m eternally grateful.”

He said he’s been raising his son for over a year now, his family took him back and he is a small business owner in Syracuse.

NET 43

Kosciusko County Sheriff Kyle Dukes got emotional at certain points when he spoke about what law enforcement deals with and the transformation he’s seen of people who choose to get help.

“The opioid problem in Kosciusko County is very serious. When you talk to NET 43 officers, deputy sheriffs, we have a very serious meth and heroin problem. In the pounds. Pounds of meth that they’ve taken off the street, and I mean pounds. It’s unbelievable,” Dukes said.

Dukes also credited the work of NET 43, which stands for Narcotics Enforcement Team and is a collaborative law enforcement group consisting of the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, Winona Lake and Warsaw police departments and the Indiana State Police.

Dukes said the amount of tips NET43 receives is remarkable, saying in just one week 110 tips came in. Dukes said he’s had to use the Kosciusko County SWAT Team 16 times because of NET43 investigations and that he puts his people in very dangerous situations because of the drug problem.

“If we’re going to hit it this hard on the outside, we have to hit it this hard on the inside of our jail,” he said to applause.

JCAP

That led into the sheriff’s talk about the Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) and the success that program has seen. Dukes said he’s close to getting enough funding to be able to operate a male and female class at the same time.

JCAP provides resources to inmates that teach them life skills and help them even after they’re released. Those classes are taught by volunteers in the community from businesses, organizations and churches. Right now, there are 256 inmates at KCJ, with over 80% of them lodged there for drug-related issues, Dukes said.

Courtney Jenkins, JCAP coordinator, said the entire reason she got involved is because her son is a heroin and meth addict.

“I was just a mom. I never thought in a million years that my son would be one of those kids. But he was. And he was a bad one,” she said. “You can sit on your couch and cry. You can hide in your bed. Or you can get up and do something.”

She encouraged people to get involved, learn ways they can help and said they’ll be surprised at the friendships they’ll make and the impact they can have on someone’s life.

Josh

A JCAP graduate named Josh then told his story and said he started smoking weed at 14 years old. Then his stepdad died, who was a father to him, and he began using pills. He thought he’d just use the pills until his grieving was over, he said, but then his friend overdosed on drugs.

Now, he’s a recovering addict who wakes up every morning knowing he can’t go back to that lifestyle.

“I have so many people that care about me and support me beyond my family,” he said of the connections he made through JCAP.

Drug Court

Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Mike Reed talked about Drug Court and said it began in January 2014. Drug Court allows non-violent substance abusing offenders to participate in an 18-24 month program that will provide them with counseling and treatment and court supervision throughout. It encourages – and requires – people to hold a job, pass drug tests and go to meetings.

Two years ago, 563 felony drug-related cases were filed in Kosciusko County, Reed said.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem, although that’s part of it.”

Drug Court here has graduated 55 people and currently has 25 participants. The graduation rate is 74%, Reed said. He also said Drug Court saves money.

“We’re just part of the solution to the big problem,” Reed said. “I think the drug court has made our community a safer and better place.”

Mindy

A woman named Mindy spoke next and said she started smoking weed, and using crack cocaine and meth at the age of 16. She said she got addicted to synthetic marijuana and that, for her, was the worst drug to try to kick. She moved here from Elkhart County in 2017, where she “knew nobody.” Mindy said when her dad died she told him she’d get off drugs and take care of her family. When she was arrested and stepped into the jail, she said she knew she had to change.

“When I g out, I started going to Strengthening Families,” she said. “It feels great to hear your daughter tell you she’s proud of you. And she’s 12 years old. She knows what’s right and wrong.”

CHINS

Kosciusko Superior Court I Judge David Cates said he read an article two days ago that said the cost to fight the opioid epidemic in this country is $631 billion and hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost.

Cates said that juvenile case filings have gone down over the years in the county but Child In Need of Services (CHINS) cases have gone up. There are 115 open CHINS cases, with 101 of those involving serious drug allegations, Cates said.

“Go to any school. Find three classrooms. Take every kid out of them. That’s how many kids are affected every year,” he said.

Cates acknowledged economic boundaries contribute to the problem, and said that there are programs working to help families and children.

“It’s a big task, but it’s a big problem,” he said.

Cates said one of the things he loves about his job is reuniting kids with sober parents. But as a judge, he sees four main things people who appear in front of him need to be able to successfully change: 1. Have a desire to change; 2. Change peer associations; 3. Address underlying issues; and 4. Have involvement, that can include with family, in the community or activities.

Jenna

Next the crowd heard from Jenna, who is 20 months clean and started using in her teens. She said she lost her mother to addiction, she became homeless, she lost custody of her son and she found herself in KCJ. She said most of the women in KCJ don’t have any family or support system to go home to so they return to abusive boyfriends or husbands.

Mostly what Jenna had to say though was how many organizations helped save her life.

“It took an entire community,” she said. “We need to rise up, gather resources and build relationships with as many people as possible.”

Emily

Emily talked next and said when she turned 18 she had a tooth extracted and got a painkiller prescribed. Her life spiraled out of control after that, with her abusing pills and then eventually abusing methadone. Then she got pregnant with her son and was snorting methadone on the night she was going into labor. Luckily her son wasn’t born addicted, she said, but she didn’t stop using. Then one day she dropped her son and he fractured his skull. She took him to the hospital and her son was handed over to her parents and she was charged with neglect. Then she had another child, and she decided to put the child up for adoption so she could take care of what she had to do.

“I now live a boring life that I wouldn’t change for the world,” she said.

Connections

Graham and Shelly Metzger with the Bowen Center then discussed how the brain needs to recover through a new experience.

“When you’re in an addiction, you’re completely isolated,” Metzger said. “We need to create a community of people that come alongside and help.” She said it takes about a year for the brain to switch over through experience.

A recovering addict named Amanda said she was also addicted to the rush of a chaotic life. But now she gets that rush through being active like riding her bike or staying busy with healthy friends.

“It rebuilds your natural dopamine. When you get up and you move and you’re laughing and having fun with people you get along with, it rebuilds,” she said.

Graham said one of the triggers for addicts can be boredom.

“I was scared of isolation for a minute,” Amanda said. “We need the community.” She said her phone is full of people from groups she’s involved with now that help her stay on track.

Graham emphasized the one word heard over and over throughout the evening was connection and that people need to feel connected.

County Councilwoman Kim Cates calls on everyone to take action to help fight this problem.

“Search your hearts and your wallets,” she said. “Donate your time, talent or a checkbook. They’d love to hear from you to solve this issue,” she said of the organizations.

Narcan

Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory Chief Mike Wilson also spoke about Narcan.

“You can buy it at drugstores around town,” he said. Narcan is a lifesaving drug that can be administered by anyone who is unresponsive and overdosing. Wilson said all government officials and first responders are equipped with it, and anyone who has questions about it and how to use it can call the fire department.

“It gives people a second, sometimes third chance,” WPD Det. Paul Heaton said. “And I know it’s cut back on the overdose numbers.”

Another opioid talk will take place 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 30 at the Syracuse Community Center.