((PKG)) ((Banner:
The Damage Done
Living America’s Opioid Nightmare))
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More than 115 Americans die each day from opioid overdoses.
VOA looks at three stories from the epidemic))
((PKG)) Chief Bashore – Part 4
((Producers: Jeff Swicord, Chris Simkins, Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Camera: Jeff Swicord, Chris Simkins, Mike Burke, Marcus Harton))
((Map: Edgecombe County, North Carolina ???? or Nashville ?????))
((NATS))
((Thomas Bashore, Police Chief, Nashville, North Carolina))
We're in Rocky Mount. There are two counties that Rocky Mount encompasses: Edgecombe and Nash. The railroad tracks kind of goes straight down the middle of it. This is a predominantly African-American neighborhood, a lot of unemployment here, especially on this side of the tracks, and it becomes a magnet for illegal drug sales. What we see is that individuals that have a real problem with substance use disorder, they can't be responsible enough to get up and go to work on a regular basis, and so they lose their employment and then they fall back on family to kind of support them and then ultimately they end up ruining those relationships because of all the lying, manipulation, stealing that occurs. It's a perpetual cycle that makes it much more difficult.
((NATS))
((Thomas Bashore, Police Chief, Nashville, North Carolina))
I did spend a lot of time over here in the eight years that I was working narcotics in Rocky Mount. A lot of these houses are what we call shotgun houses. Some of them don't even have working electricity in them. They're just meet up or hang out spots for drug dealers. People come and go constantly. This little park here, you know, is a big hangout spot. We've seen drug deals go down right here in the playground with kids around. Many of these houses have been hit multiple times with search warrants. I've been in houses where you know the grandmother lives and the grandson has moved back in with her and starts to deal drugs out of the house, and, you know, they feel helpless. They've been intimidated. They feel like they can't say anything because they don't want to get their grandchild in trouble or if they do say anything then they'll get, they'll get harmed.
((NATS))
Police to suspect: Let’s go upstairs.
((Thomas Bashore, Police Chief, Nashville, North Carolina))
It seemed to me, like in those particular instances, when you would arrest someone and nothing would happen. Even if they went to jail, they would be out on bond right away. It wasn't much of a deterrent.
*****
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
((Thomas Bashore, Police Chief, Nashville, North Carolina))
((NATS))
Resident: My medicine will come down, my Seroquel, and I will take that like crazy just to sleep.
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
Vanessa: I know, baby. I’m just saying the reason why you have to stay clean ‘cause you have, you’re dual diagnosed.
Resident: Right.
((Thomas Bashore, Police Chief, Nashville, North Carolina))
I met Vanessa a little over a year ago. She runs a home in Rocky Mount. She’s providing a venue for people that are in between trying to get their lives back together, provides them a safe place, room and board….
((NATS))
Shirley: Angie, dinner’s ready.
Bashore: ….food, a sense of family.
Angie: Oh, it smells good.
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
Drugs were always in my environment. My brother passed away 15 years ago, one of the sweetest souls on the planet, at the age of 15. He was in the throes of addiction, through his heroin. I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I didn't have a feeling of the inner mental state of a mature woman because of my drug use. It pushed me into an emotional roller-coaster that eventually caused a disaster in my life. So, I didn't have the power to numb that voice out that kept saying, ‘don't do this one. You're going to die.’ You can live without breasts. You need to stay around to help someone else.
((NATS))
Angie: You must have been because I remember.
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
At the end of my road, there were still choices for me and that was jails, institutions or death. I didn't mind the latter. So, I made a decision to listen to the voice on the inside and not die and I went and got some help.
((NATS))
Vanessa: Shirley?
Shirley: Yes.
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
I don't have an institution. I have a home in a community that is available for any woman who is seeking to get on the other side of her horror. I don't want a woman to feel that there is no place for her to go.
*****
((Thomas Bashore, Police Chief, Nashville, North Carolina))
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
((Holly, Former Lighthouse Resident))
((NATS))
Bashore: Where do most of your referrals come from?
Vanessa: First, my alumni’s will tell me they have someone. And then hospitals and institutions, treatment centers, now correction office facilities, so prisons as well.
Bashore: So, Holly, we have started to see a lot more opiate use in African-American communities. So, what's your perception of that?
((Holly, Former Lighthouse Resident))
Holly: Well, I think that's because most black people don't go to the doctor and get opioids. They get them off the street. You know, the people who go to the doctor and get them, go out, sell them. They sell them to black people and then the cycle continues.
Bashore: Right. What do you suppose some of the challenges are for African-Americans to seek out treatment or get into treatment?
Holly: Well, the first thing I think of would be just the shame of asking for help and then knowing where to go to get it.
Bashore: Are there financial constraints? I mean, do they think about that?
Holly: Sure, because a lot of places charge for help, you know, and many African-Americans don't have health insurance. So, they can't pay for a 30-day treatment center.
Bashore: So, you know that we started the Hope Initiative in February of 2016.
Vanessa: Yes.
Bashore: And we had a number of ladies that we've supported to come through the Lighthouse.
Vanessa: Absolutely.
Bashore: But what I've seen is that it's been a very small percentage of the African-American community. What are some things that the Hope Initiative can do to reach out?
Vanessa: There are disparities between a black woman and a white woman. A white woman would go to a doctor’s more often than a black woman. Where you would have to meet the black woman would be outreach. The Health Department is where they go. That entity alone, social services, is the backbone of the community. You don't have that hope until a social worker says, 'We have a place. Don't worry about the funding. You need to get help. All you need to do is keep staying clean and follow some rules.'
Bashore: And I would imagine that they build some initial trust with their caseworker there.
Vanessa: Yes, absolutely.
Bashore: So, if the caseworker there is recommending, you know, to go to this particular program or through this program, it would be a little easier than just me coming in there and saying, ‘Hey, this is what I got available. Trust me and come on down.’
Vanessa: Right.
Bashore: I gotcha.
*****
((Vanessa Skaife, Founder/Director, The Lighthouse Home))
((Dwight Hines, Recovered Heroin Addict))
((NATS))
Vanessa: So, I knew heroin was part of your story, but I didn't know the depth of it.
((Dwight Hines, Recovered Heroin Addict))
Dwight: I was running away. You know, I was telling you I was working. I was in corrections and I was doing pretty good. I had a couple houses in New York, and, but the big H came along.
Vanessa: Heroin.
Dwight: Heroin. I met a female that was actively using and we started hanging out and the next thing you know, she said, ‘well, here, try this’, you know, and she shot me up for the first time and to tell you the truth Vanessa, I still remember the day, I mean, this is heaven.
Vanessa: Yep.
Dwight: And it was off to the races after that. Needless to say, I lost my wife, I lost my houses, lost my job.
Vanessa: Yeah. How did you get here?
Dwight: I got a friend of mine I used go to school with. He ended up working for the DEA and he called me and said, ‘My name was on the ‘to look at list.’
Vanessa: Oh, oh, oh, for a job. Oh, for dealers.
Dwight: Right.
Vanessa: Oh, you were muling, too?
Dwight: Right, right. I was dealing and I was working with corrections and I knew I had to do something different.
Vanessa: Yes.
Dwight: And then once he called me and told me, I kinda vested my rights on a job and got the first thing smoking down here. Got to Raleigh. No matter where you go, you gonna find the people you want to find.
Vanessa: You're going to find what you want.
Dwight: Yeah. And I was looking at it and I said, man, these guys don't know drugs. I know drugs. So, I kind of started doing.
Vanessa: They showed me, though.
Dwight: Yeah. I started running back and forth to New York to pick it up and dealing in Raleigh and I said, these guys, man, I’m going to take over this spot. Well, the young guys weren't having it, you know? And I went to the store one day and they snuck up on me a little bit and they said, ‘You know, you just came back from New York. Give us the stuff.’ And I didn't.
Vanessa: Uh oh.
Dwight: I didn’t, I wasn’t. They got me at the wrong time and then I was like, I refused to give it up and I had a can of dog food in a plastic bag and I went to swing it and the guy behind me shot me with a .380 right in my butt. I still got the bullet in it. So, I got to keep that. That reminds me, you know. And the guy in front of me with a .22 went through my arm, but I thought he hit me in the head, what knocked me down, and I was laying in the blood and I said, I've got to get out of here. And now it's like no, no compulsion whatever with shooting, you know what I mean? Nothing, absolutely nothing. So, what happens is it's a whole different ballgame. Now it's like you are scared. You are scared to come out of your house because you don't know what's going on with the gangs. You know, just do a home improvement in the neighborhood and the next thing you know, you hear pop, pop, pop, pop. Now it's like you don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, you got a gang….
Vanessa: High school kids.
Dwight: Yeah, they're just doing all kinds of craziness. I mean, you see it now. What? Get, get some guy killed. It was a couple of weeks ago.
Vanessa: Yeah. It seems like every weekend.
Dwight: Pow, pow, pow, you know. And you never know what's going to happen when you come out the door. It’s not the same. I mean it's, it's worse.
*****
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Living America’s Opioid Nightmare
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