Starting an education in drugs, overdoses

I sat inside the police station recently waiting for information while covering a drug bust and arraignments.

Having a few minutes to spare, I glanced over at a large wall chart next to me.

The colorful graphic showed samples of pills and drugs, a handy identification reference guide for Tamaqua police.

The chart features dozens of photos depicting drugs in every possible shape, size and form.

"Wow," I said. "How could anybody possibly stay on top of all of this." I stared at the poster, an eye-opening education.

Drugs are versatile. They can be ingested, snorted, injected or smoked.

"How things have changed," I said. "When I was in school, it was a big deal if someone was caught with drugs. But back then, it was marijuana, considered benign by today's standards."

Nowadays, drugs are heavy duty: heroin, fentanyl, amphetamine, methamphetamine, mescaline and so on. Don't ask me to describe each; I don't have a clue. But it doesn't mean I'm a dummy about drugs. I realize the damage they can do. Many years ago, I lost a nephew to heroin.

Saturday night, I spent four hours with close to 300 others who've been impacted the same way. I took notes while listening to details of their tragedies and heartache.

The event, a mile-long candlelight walk, was meant to shed light on the problem. In Schuylkill County, 45 young adults have overdosed so far this year.

Grieving families brought photos or mementos of their loved ones.

Organizers John and Tammy Sienkiewicz spoke of daughter Alex. I didn't know her but saw her picture. Others told me about her. She was a young adult so charming and beautiful she could've been a high-fashion model in New York City.

On the day she died, she was found in her room at her parents' house. Fentanyl apparently played a role in her death.

She might have been given a hot batch. What's that? Well, it describes a potent drug combination that causes overdose and death. Potential homicide. Drugs are serious business. And there's much education involved.

"This is the worst epidemic we've ever known as a nation," said William Stauffer of the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance.

"We need to find answers," he said, describing options and possibilities to turn us toward progress.

Stauffer understands all angles of the problem. He, himself, is in recovery.

And that's an underlying theme.

Drug abuse affects everybody. Not bad kids, or problem kids. But our kids.

One mother of an overdose victim came up to me in tears and spoke words directly from the heart.

She talked about an angelic child who simply was looking for direction.

"My daughter just wanted to be loved," she said. "She couldn't find where she was supposed to be. She only wanted to be accepted."

Those words broke my heart.

She only wanted to be accepted.

Just about every child feels that way at some point. Every adult, too.

A moment later, a man in recovery stood up and spoke to all of us as we huddled beneath a pavilion during a rainstorm. He urged everybody to turn left and right and offer an unconditional hug to the person standing there.

Everybody did so. They embraced. Total strangers hugged and cried as rain fell from the skies.

"It's the tears from our lost children," said one mother.

It was a powerful moment of unity in a community trying to heal.

There's much to learn about drug abuse and overdose awareness. And we need to figure out what to do next.

I'm not sure what the next step will be toward healing and progress.

But whatever it might be, it started on a dark, rainy night when total strangers hugged.

Contact Donald R. Serfass at dserfass@tnonline.com.