PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Swampscott Police Chief Ronald Madigan addresses the crowd in the Swampscott High School auditorium.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
SWAMPSCOTT — If only I had checked on him sooner, maybe I could have saved him, Swampscott Firefighter Chris DiPietro told a crowd of town residents about his brother Ryan, whom he lost to a drug overdose a year ago.
“If Only” was also the title of a short film shown to residents at Swampscott High School Thursday night, which highlights the dangers of prescription drug and opioid misuse and abuse. The film was presented by the Mark Wahlberg Foundation, and was produced by Executive Director James Wahlberg, who also spoke about his recovery from addiction.
The screening was followed by an interactive discussion about drug use and addiction, featuring a panel of local experts, a licensed physician, people in recovery from addiction and those who have a family member struggling with the disease. Outside of the panel, DiPietro was one of the few featured speakers who spoke about losing a family member to an overdose.
DiPietro said his brother, Ryan, enjoyed sports, music, comic books, hanging out with friends and loved his family. At some point in his life though, he said Ryan took a wrong turn that led him down a path of destruction and ultimately, his death. He said many people don’t realize the impact addiction has on families, the fighting and yelling, and countless sleepless nights where a mother and father wait up for their child to come home. Often, they don’t.
He said he found his brother after a fatal overdose on Feb. 16, 2016, the day before his birthday. DiPietro had gone with his wife and son to visit Ryan at his parents’ house. As he entered the house, he said he could smell a faint odor, but couldn’t explain what it was. First, he checked in the bedroom after calling out for Ryan, and then the TV room, where he could see him on the floor, more than likely dead for a few hours.
DiPietro attempted CPR and then called 911. First responders arrived within minutes. He said he goes on and on about that day, asking what he could have done differently.
“I like to go on and say as a professional firefighter and first responder, I’m trained in overdose response,” he said. “However, no training could prepare me for the loss of a loved one, such as my brother.”
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Bryanna Snow, 27, a Swampscott resident, lost her 22-year-old brother, Eric, almost two years ago to a heroin overdose. It was his first relapse. Nine months later, she lost her mother to addiction. She spoke to be courageous on her family’s behalf and try to prevent another family from suffering like hers.
When Snow lost her grandfather to cancer, she said the family received lots of support. When her brother died, it was a different story. Nobody called, she said, and nobody came by. People wouldn’t make eye contact with her in public.
“And I thought, this agony I’m feeling — how can anyone treat me this way and not understand how much this hurts, how much I want to hear his name, how much I want to feel connected with the world, because when this happens, you don’t feel human anymore,” Snow said. “You feel like you’ve lost a piece of your heart and you’ll never get it back.”
Toby Channen, a Salem resident, said she was one of the lucky ones. Her son, Jacob, who she didn’t know at the time was a part-time marijuana dealer in college, got hooked on opioids after a drug transaction went wrong. He was led down a dark path in the woods one night with a gun to his head, thinking that he was going to die. Instead, the people took the gun to beat Jacob to a pulp, breaking every bone in his face, except for his jaw.
Channen said receiving that 4:30 a.m. call was what she thought was her worst nightmare. She picked him up, took him home and to a doctor. He was given opioid pain pills and got hooked. He went back to college to finish out his freshman year and switched his major from criminal justice to becoming an opioid addict. He flunked out and for the next three years, she said, the family didn’t know what his problem was, until one of Jacob’s friends broke the code of silence among peers and told her that her son was doing more than smoking pot.
“Would you as a peer be willing to risk your friendship to save your friend’s life like my son’s friend did?” Channen said. “I hope you too can be a hero.”
From then on, Channen said a long road of recovery began. Jacob did get into treatment, after she gave him an ultimatum, but he relapsed 20 months later. Fortunately, he went right back into treatment, and the family went down to surprise him for his one year of sobriety last month. Before he got into treatment, she said she spent every waking moment being paralyzed with fear that she was going to find him dead from a heroin overdose.
“We can only live one day at a time,” she said. “One day at a time. Will I ever be able to breathe again? No, of course not, but that doesn’t mean we can’t live effectively and healthy. I will, however, be able to exhale now.”
Maureen Cavanagh, of Magnolia New Beginnings, a panelist, spoke about the importance of delaying first use of drugs to prevent the likelihood of addiction. Dr. Jeffrey Gold, another panelist, spoke about how mental illness often underlies addiction, whether it is ADHD or bipolar disorder. He spoke about the importance of continually checking on the wellbeing of kids, and just letting them be kids, when they’re under so much pressure.
Alex Costa, a recovering drug addict, said it was important to stop prescribing opioid pain medication for instances such as getting wisdom teeth pulled or for an injured wrist. Michael Duggan, CEO of Wicked Sober, and recovering drug addict, said he got hooked on pain medication after injuring his wrist. That morphed into heroin addiction. He said the real drug dealers are the pharmaceutical companies.
In Swampscott, in the past 24 months there were 42 overdoses and 13 of those were fatal, according to Police Chief Ronald Madigan.
The Overdose Response Team in town was formed by the police department in 2016. Members include police officers, school and town officials, and fire officials.
Following overdoses Detective Rose Cheever, Officer Brendan Reen, and Mary Wheeler, of Healthy Streets Outreach Program, go to residences to conduct “door knocks,” or follow-ups with the families afterward.
Madigan said work has been done to turn away from drug use as simply a crime and recognizing it as the problem of addiction. The focus instead has shifted to getting people help and into treatment, he said.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley