When I was first asked to cover the heroin epidemic in Woodstock, I felt a little apprehensive. Although it has been well over 40 years since I used heroin, I wasn’t sure if by going out into the streets of Woodstock and speaking to addicts I would open up an old door and put myself in danger.
Instead, I was astounded to discover how pervasive the problem really is today in Woodstock, making me want to help the people that I encountered while writing this story.
I could never have imagined in 1968, when I was using, just how out of hand the problem has become today. Due to the abundance of heroin imported from Afghanistan, the purity and its low price “it has become, the thing to do” according to X., a 22-year-old addict in recovery, with ten months clean. X. went straight to shooting heroin the first time that he used the drug. Heroin is easier to get than a loaf of bread these days if you know the right people.
“It’s pretty much a text away,” he says. “I used to go right into South Poughkeepsie, Thompson and Bement. I still know the address. Go in the door, there’s a window, hand them the cash and bum, you’re out. It’s crazy. We would drive back and forth to Poughkeepsie from Woodstock every day with 10 to 15 bundles (a bundle is 15 bags of heroin wrapped in a rubber band). I was working on a construction crew and I was getting paid cash at the end of every day. They were enabling me and they didn’t even know it. I was making $150 a day. Getting out of work at 4 o’clock every day and then going over the bridge to pick up 5 or 6 bundles at $40 apiece.”
I asked X. if he was ever scared to be pulled over. “I was so high; I was taking a lot of Xanax, too. That shit is hard to get off. That shit will make someone act so much differently. Twenty minutes after I take it I’m a complete asshole.” Perhaps not wanting to “be an asshole” any longer had something to do with losing his best friend Ryan Kelder in August of 2015, who was only twenty-five years old. “Yeah I got this bracelet right here for him. I lived together with him the whole summer before he went to treatment. He was away for I think eleven months. He came out of treatment clean. He went so far with the program; he could have gotten out earlier but he stayed longer. He went to Family of Woodstock to set him up with an apartment, he did all that and the second day out, they found him (dead) on his kitchen floor in Ellenville by his father.”
Y. got himself clean without any outside help since he was refused it when he went to hospitals but had no insurance. “It was all me, only you can do it yourself.” X. had to purchase his Suboxone on the street since he could not go to a doctor for help. Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine, which can be used as a stand-alone treatment for opiate dependence, and naloxone, which is used to treat opiate overdoses. Suboxone seems to be the drug of choice these days to treat narcotic addicts as Methadone was in the past. Many say that it is far more addictive than Methadone. The Naloxone (Narcan) in Suboxone can prevent a person from overdosing if given the drug in time. For now, X. is clean, holding down a job in one of Woodstock’s most familiar places where he has had the owners take a special interest in him.
There are people around Woodstock that have trained to administer Narcan, like Emily Sherry and Anthony Heaney of Provisions on Tinker Street in Woodstock. They truly care more about the kids and the addiction problem in Woodstock and have their pulse probably better on the problem better than anyone else in town.
It’s a place where the kids that are addicted, or trying not to be, can go for advice and help. They have a ‘pay it forward system’ where you can buy for a coffee or sandwich in advance for someone that doesn’t have any money to eat. They also have a bulletin board where people can post anything from an apartment to counseling. In January, Woodstock Times wrote a story on Provisions and the week or so after the article, numerous people came into Provisions and saying that they wanted to help the kids strung out in town. Lately that has slowed down pretty much. “Out of sight, out of mind,” says Emily.
The problem is not going away. The last time I was in Provisions, two kids came into the store to buy lunch. They bantered for a bit about what to eat, “how’s the fuckin’ hamburgers?” one said as the other continued to sway in a nod in the store. “There go two,” Anthony said to me as they went up the street to buy flowers and then came back to the store to pick up their lunches. I wondered, would these two wind up in the obituaries next week?
Thank you for putting more light on this subject. I think more light needs to be shed on medication assisted treatment, It has a success rate of 50-60% versus maybe 10% for abstinence based, yet our local methadone clinic has a 8-10 month wait, and we have suboxone drs that can only accept up to 100 patients and don’t accept insurance. I think we could be saving lives if we educated people about medication assisted treatment, and eliminate the myths and stigma associated with it. Addiction is a disease, and it makes sense that it can be treated with medication. Thank you.
IBOGAINE
Ayahuasca
The chief of police in Saugerties, Joe Sinagra said that there isn’t a heroin problem in Saugerties. Does Saugerties have a wall around it?
Woodstock? Drug problem that’s weird
Ibogaine cures heroin addiction and withdrawal after just one dose. This has been known for over fifty years. It is legal everywhere on earth EXCEPT America. Nelson Rockefeller banned it as schedule I in early 70s — just when Rockefeller University was launching their patented maintenance drug methodone. No interest in eliminating all those jobs in law enforcement, corrections, ansd treatment centers.
Also, nobody seems capable of putting two and two together. Why does Newburgh have so much heroin, more than any other place in the Hudson Valley? What’s so different about Newburgh, compared to everywhere else? Duh! Where does 90% of the worldwide heroin get produced? Afghanistan. Where are all those big military cargo jets from Afghanistan landing? Stewart Air Base. Just like Vietnam, the military drug trade never stopped. Yet another reason why Ibogaine remains illegal — our own government is importing dope.
There is an excellent program that Woodstock Police embarked on and everyone should know about it. They have counselors on duty 24/7. If you’re with someone who has overdosed call 911 please don’t run and leave that person to die because you’re worried about legal ramifications as the police will not arrest you. They will take you to the station of which a volunteer counselor will be there and try to help you, can only lead a horse to water. They have tons of info on where and what you can do, is it a magic wand ? Well no but it is a helping hand without legal ramifications. I have seen less and less young adults Walling around town like zombies. Of course this problem is bigger then all of us but I say Kudos to WPD for taking on the program and I feel many more police dept in local towns should look into it. Like a comment made above about Saugerties Chief of police in denial about a herion problem there but then again he denies alot of the obvious. I would love to volunteer my time to such a program as one who’s brother took his life because of the almighty needle and as a retired EMT with great knowlege of the issue. I’m glad the public can now carry narcan however when I asked people did the class worn you of the patients potential to becoming responsive could be combative I have been told no they werent taught that. So folks if you ever have the need to use narcan 1st have someone near by call 911 try to tie your hair back or anything the patient can grab on you out of the way, I have had many patients become combative with me because instead of them realizing you just saved their life they see it as you ruined their high. Or you can get that painc patient of which the last thing they knew they were getting high and then they become responsive due to the narcan and panic because they don’t know what happened. So please never run away put if fear call 911 stay with that person until help arrives. Even if you have narcan that person still needs medical attention and the help is there at Woodstock Police Dept for this exact issue of course its not the answer if we knew the answer herion wouldn’t be an epedemic. We must take care of eachother because all lives matter.
The community of Woodstock traditionally condones drugs of all sorts. This article is more down and dirty drug porn. On any warm evening you can find lots of stoned teens in Woodstock. Mostly from moderate to wealthy families. Grandpa Woodstock goes on record in the New York Times as dealing dope to kids. Each weekend you can find him on The Green where he offers his services as “The Face of Woodstock” to tourists taking selfies. No role models or help here just rhetoric and bluster.
Drugs will be easier to get than a loaf of bread as long as e want it to be that way.
Lets work this together. Come on out to the Hope Rocks Festival in Saugerties on August 19 & 20. We must do this together. www.hoperocksny.com