Probation sign says it all: "... get clean or you die"
Probation officer Pam Myers: "Some of the families accept that you're there to help. Some of them want to blame you."
Probation sign says it all: "... get clean or you die" Probation officer Pam Myers: "Some of the families accept that you're there to help. Some of them want to blame you." Check out this story on mansfieldnewsjournal.com: http://ohne.ws/2bWZ7mR
Mark Caudill, Reporter Published 10:00 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2016 | Updated 11:24 p.m. ET Sept. 2, 2016
Probation officer Pam Myers talks about her interactions and experiences with her probationers and how heroin impacts their lives. Jason J. Molyet/News Journal
Helping addicts' distraught families challenging
Richland County probation officer Pam Myers has seen an increase in overdoses among her probationers.(Photo: Jason J. Molyet/News Journal)Buy Photo
One in a Series
"Overdosed: Frontline Stories" is an in-depth report from the perspectives of those on the front lines of the local battle against the heroin crisis.
Coming Sunday: No easy answers to solving heroin overdose epidemic
Richland County probation officer Pam Myers has an ominous note posted in her office.
It says: "Drug abuse doesn't last forever. You either get clean or you die."
Myers has seen her share of overdoses in her 20 years as a probation officer. Before that, she put in 10 years at the sheriff's office, rising to the rank of sergeant.
Myers has about 45 probationers on her caseload and works with about 85 people in the local drug court.
As a probation officer, she is not one of the first on the scene of an overdose.
"Most of the time, if I go, it's after they've passed," Myers said.
She said she never gets used to dealing with distraught loved ones.
"You get involved with the family. That's real hard," Myers said. "Some of the families accept that you're there to help. Some of them want to blame you. They think you put too much pressure on them, per se."
Probation officers often try to find the source of the drugs, but they usually don't get much help from those on the scene.
Myers said she pays attention each time she hears a siren, wondering if it's another overdose.
"I think the overdoses are getting worse because you see more and more every day," she said. "I don't think a day goes by that you don't have at least one."
She said she thinks overdoses might be on the increase because addicts often can be revived with naloxone, a drug carried by first responders for those who have overdosed on heroin or other opiates.
"Or else they don't care," she said of some who take chances.
Myers said those are the people she doesn't understand, the ones who take heroin when it could be cut with fentanyl, a more powerful drug that is seen in many overdoses.
Myers estimates there's an even split between heroin overdoses and fentaynl overdoses locally.
"They don't even know what's in there," she said of drug abusers. "That's my biggest question. Why do you want to put anything in your body when you don't know what it is?"
Myers says she believes locals are on the right track in dealing with overdoses through the use of naloxene and vivitrol, a once-monthly injection that doesn't lead to physical dependence.
Vivitrol is designed to prevent relapse to opioid dependence after detox.
"You get the shot every 28 days," Myers said. "It takes away all your cravings, at least the heroin part of it."
The probation officer says vivitrol is much more effective than suboxone, which also is used to treat opiate addiction.
Suboxone can be abused in a manner similar to other opioids and can cause physical dependence.
"Suboxone's very addictive, and people seem to stay on it way too long," Myers said.
Myers also is a veteran of Richland County's Drug Court, which was founded in August 1997 as one of the first of its kind in Ohio.
Drug court is an 18- to 24-month program in lieu of prison. Offenders undergo treatment and counseling, submit to frequent and random drug testing, make regular appearances in front of Common Pleas Judge Brent Robinson and are monitored closely for program compliance.
Robinson took over duties for retired Judge James Henson.
"Judge Robinson does a great job with the probationers," Myers said. "He's firm but fair. He doesn't take a lot from them."
While drug court has a high success rate, some fail. In most overdoses, probation officers get involved late in the process.
"By the time they come to us, they're detoxed or in jail," Myers said. "To get their system clear of the drugs, it's usually a three- to five-day period."
Myers said she often talks to her probationers about overdose victims.
"They get emotional," she said. "I tell our people, 'That could be you.'"
Sometimes that's not enough.
"If they're not ready, it doesn't matter how you try to help them," Myers said.
mcaudill@gannett.com
Twitter: @MNJCaudill
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