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Fla. treatment centers offers scholarships to help fight Valley heroin epidemic
HOWLAND
Heroin isn’t the root of the problem, it is the end result of the real problem, said Michael DeLeon, recovering addict and founder of Steered Straight, Inc.
Steered Straight is a non-profit educational and prevention/intervention organization, committed to reaching children, teens and young adults with a message of reality about life choices and the importance of understanding there are consequences to their actions.
DeLeon was the featured speaker at Wednesday’s meeting of Solace of the Valley at Leo’s Ristorante, where Lake Haven Recovery Center and Reawakening Wellness Center, both of Florida, announced it is offering nine scholarships to its facility for Mahoning Valley residents.
The scholarships, offered after the centers learned about Ohio’s heroin epidemic, are in memory of Dennis Howells, who was 30 when he died of an overdose of fentonyl-laced heroin June 5, 2013.
His mother, Anna Howells of Boardman said many who have lost children to drugs are trying to change the perception, the stigma and the shame associated with drug deaths.
“Addiction is a disease, not a disgrace. It really controls their minds,” said Howells, who along with Barbara Schindler, has created a grief support group for area family and friends who have lost someone from an overdose.
Called “Grief After a Substance Passing, it meets on Mondays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. For information, call Howells at 330-720-0878.
The heroin pandemic starts with the use of alcohol and marijuana by youth, coupled with over-prescribing and over-use of prescription pain killers, DeLeon said.
“We are a pill society. We are diagnosing ourselves. I want pharmaceutical ads ripped off television. For the protection of society, sometimes free speech has to be curbed,” he said.
The only people who can solve the problem are recovered addicts such as himself and kids.
“We have to take drug training back to the classroom. We have to tell kids how to say no and why to say no, and we’ve got to start in the sixth grade because that is when it starts,” DeLeon said.
“We need to unite and speak with one voice. We need to treat addiction like every other disease,” he said.
Enter Lake Haven and Reawakening Treatment centers.
“We’re launching H.O.P.E., Helping Ohio Promote E.N.D. (Eliminate Narcotic Deaths) in the form of scholarships for Mahoning Valley residents for detox and substance abuse treatment in Florida. Ohio doesn’t have the resources it needs,” said John Reeck, director of communications for Lake Haven Recovery.
“In my job, I get a chance every day to help people like me,” said Reeck, who on Feb. 21 will have been “clean and sober” for 10 years.
Reawakening Treatment Center provides the detox, including for pregnant women, for Lake Haven, where patients like a 30-year-old Elyria woman, who was a patient from June to December 2015, got “clean and sober” eight months ago.
Addicted to alcohol and pain killers, the woman said: I didn’t know who I was. Now I know. I am a tall, beautiful, intelligent woman.”