Februari 08, 2017
announcer: funding for this program was made possible by: [police sirens beep] police chatter:here in the 400 block of center, just before 4th street, a real big guy, he looks like he's about to overdose. [response over radio] - i'm sage capozzi. i'm 18 years old,and i'm an addict.
- there was my beautiful boy. pitcairn police: how longdid you take the heroin? ashley potts:the life of an addict, i could best describe as hell. narrator: heroin has a hold on this country, and western pennsylvania hasn't escaped its grip. - there isn't a community, a town,a county in our region that doesn't havea major heroin problem today.
- it's cross-generational. it crosses ethnic lines. narrator: the problem is so pervasive, people are, literally, overdosing on the street. pitcairn police: pay attentionto this officer, okay. - yes, sir. kenneth aquiline: i could've lost my life so many times. dr. capretto: it started with the dramatic rise of prescription pain medicines.
- when i was 13 years old, my uncle gave memy first oxycontin. - i eventuallymoved to heroin. - the pull of the drugswould grab me. - their brainshave been hijacked. ashley: and in the end, i became a slave to the drug. - i do not do what i want, but i do the very thingthat i hate. dr. capretto: stigma keepspeople from talking about it.
narrator: but now, people "are" stepping out of the shadows... - hi, i'm jenn,and i am an addict. - and i felt embarrassed. - my life went south real fast. - this is the placethat really truly saved my life and gave me that foundationthat i had needed. narrator: sharing their stories... inspiring others... herb bailey: recovery is something
that anyone can do at any point. narrator: ...working for change. carmen capozzi: we need treatment on demand. narrator: there "can" be "hope after heroin." but how do we get there? and who's leading the way - to fight the epidemic in our backyard. - this is the greatestdrug epidemic of our time. question is,how are we going to respond?
[♪♪♪] carmen on video: hi, sage. sage was a happy baby. on video: who loves you? sage: you. carmen: right! he was that little kidtrying to discover his world. narrator: carmen capozzi loves talking about his son. carmen:one of his cub scout meetings. we played music together,we golfed together...
sage hit a hole-in-one.he was a heck of a golfer. [notes on guitar] narrator: sage's other love was music. it was a strong bond for father and son. - this is where me and sage would spend a lot of timewriting music. narrator: a home studio... they built it together... sage was just 12 when he bought his own electric guitar.
carmen: the first thing he wanted to do was write a song about his brother david. - this next song is dedicatedto my brother david, who's no longer with us. - david was 19, we lost himto drug-induced suicide. so he wrote a song called,"see you again." and it goes,"now you're gone, but your memory lives ondeep inside of me. this ain't the end,i know i'll see you again."
- ♪ this ain't the end i know i'll see you again ♪ narrator: at the time, carmen had no idea what those lyrics would foreshadow. when sage was 20, he overdosed on heroin, and died. carmen: sage startedexperimenting at 14. but we didn't find outuntil he was 17. that's when it was exposed. narrator: carmen had gotten a call from the state police. troopers had sage and two friends.
carmen: they were breaking into cars to get oxycontin. narrator: carmen also found outabout so-called "pharm parties" that sage had attended with friends. carmen: they steal medicine from home and they get together, they throw it in a bowl. and put on a blindfoldand you take whatever you pick. a lot of these kids thought, well, this is harmless. you know, it's not harmless,none of this is. narrator: sage entered treatment.
that's when he admitted it wasn't just pills and marijuana, it was heroin, too. then began an exhausting and emotional cycle of rehab and relapse. carmen: there was times he'd work a program for six months. and he'd be doing good. but it was a struggle, it was a struggle. - i'm getting treatment and helpto help my addiction. narrator: sage opened up about his struggle
in a video he recorded for a friend's school project. - i think about using every day,but it's just one day at a time. you have to keeptelling yourself that it's one day at a time. narrator: those days at home included regular drug tests, and his parents kept a close eye on his behavior. carmen: some of the signswe looked for were sleeping a lot,agitated, anger. narrator: like many parents, carmen tried punishment,
but that didn't work either. - here's the thing, you takeeverything off your child and nothing matters. took his phone,took his car. you take his stereoout of his room. that's allyou have to work with. and when they're doing opiates,whether it's heroin, prescription pills,whatever it is, they don't care,they just don't care.
narrator: the first time sage overdosed, he was 18. emts saved him with narcan, which reverses the effectsof a heroin or opioid overdose. carmen and his wife rushed to the hospital . - we got there,there's sage in his bed, in the bed crying, scared. "i'll never do this again, dad.i'm sorry, i'm sorry, sorry. i never want to do this again." narrator: sage entered another program.
but when carmen once again saw the signs of drug abuse, he made sage leave their home. carmen:that's what they say, "kick 'em out.kick 'em out." kicked him out. two days later,i get a call from sage, "dad, can i come home? please, can i come home?i wanna come home." narrator: carmen let sage come back.
when he did, sage admitted that he had overdosed just the night before. - he told me, "dad, i'm scared.i don't want to die." he goes, "dad, i came toa door with a light and i didn't go through it." we sat there and cried. that day, the second timemy son overdosed, i realized i waspowerless to help my son. all i could dowas support him.
narrator: when sage learned that his grandmother was dying of cancer, he didn't take the news well. carmen: him and his grandmawere very close. they spent a lot of summerstogether golfing. and just like people dowith alcohol, they figure, well, i'm going togo sit in a bar and drink my blues away. sage decided, i'm going to,one more time. [phone rings]
narrator: just a few days later, another call in the middle of the night... carmen's wife answered. carmen:i heard her say, "what? oh, my god, alright,we'll be right there." and i knew. and i said,"no, please, no." and she said, "get dressed."and i said, "no, cindy..." and she said,"get dressed now." we got there, and the doctorcouldn't look me in the eye,
he just stared at the ground. and i knew. i said, "he's gone"and he just shook his head. we go in, my uncle's holding me up, i can't even walk,and there was my beautiful boy. a kid that would siton the golf course and tell me, "dad, look at the sky, that's god. look at the way the shadows come across. it's me and you, dad, it's me and you sitting right here together."
we cherished those moments,and there's my boy laying there. when sage died that night, they took me to my parents' house... to my old bedroom. i spent two days on the floor... couldn't take the hands off my face. and that night, it waspitch black in that room, that nighti heard sage's voice say, "dad, get up,they're not bad kids.
you have to help." [sirens wailing] narrator: to show how badly help is needed... police radio:here in the 400 block of center, narrator: pitcairn police allowed our crew to ride along with officer robert gowans. and it didn't take long, in broad daylight, just off the main street. officer robert gowans:yep, he's overdosing.
police radio: it has to be heroin; he has a needle in his hand. pitcairn police:how long did you take it? how long did youtake the heroin? narrator: the officer treats him with narcan. - pay attentionto this officer, okay. - yes, sir. - lean back, lean back.lean back, lean back. hey, we got you a medicon the way, ok,
alrighty, becauseyou need to be treated, ok. kenny, it seems likethat narcan worked a bit. you seem a little morecoherent already. officer robert gowans: when we first got there, he was white as a ghost, he was grey, his eyes were rolling into the back of the head. he was about as close as most people will get to going unconscious. narrator: three weeks later,
we caught up with that man, on that same sidewalk in pitcairn. his name is kenneth aquiline, and he told us what he could remember from that day. - well, i hadstarted off the day taking percocets,and then later on in the day, i used probablya couple bags of heroin. narrator: not too many years ago, kenneth was a marine on active duty, deployed to iraq.
these awards are memories ofa much happier time in his life. kenneth: i was pretty much at the top of everything that i did because i loved it. but i got to come back and i got to seethe highest parts of life to the lowest parts of life. narrator: like homelessness, drug addiction, and multiple overdoses. kenneth: at least 7, 8,possibly 10 that i could count.
narrator: kenneth's story is becoming all too common. - there are at least nineheroin overdoses in five days in one local township. narrator: headlines have chronicled the problem, county by county. different ages, different backgrounds. dr. neil capretto has been on the front lines from the beginning. dr. capretto:i'm in my 27th year full time
because i know that recoveryworks, and treatment works. narrator: dr. capretto is the medical director at gateway rehabilitation center. - there are more peopleaddicted to heroin, more familiesbeing devastated by it, and more peopledying from heroin than in any timein our history. narrator: in pennsylvania, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death,
even worse than car crashes, and sharply higher than the year before. and of those deadly overdoses, more than 80 percent were heroin or opioid related. this crisis has been building for more than a decade. - it started withthe dramatic rise of prescription pain medicines,the opioids, the oxycontins, the vicodins,the hydrocodones. there was also heavy marketingof pharmaceutical companies
with some misleading information that these substancesare not addicting, are safe. and a lot of well-meaningdoctors started prescribing more and more of these,with good intentions. but we've now learnedthat the pendulum swung too far. narrator: from 1999 through 2013, prescription opioid sales in the us nearly quadrupled. deaths from prescription opioids, also quadrupled. dr. capretto: so much of thisgot diverted onto the streets
and by the thousands, people in our regionbecame addicted to them. and these medicinesbecame expensive. oxycontin was going fora dollar per milligram. the average personwe were seeing, was using close to200 milligrams a day. so, you do the math. narrator: when the pill habit becomes too expensive, users turn to the cheaper option...
heroin. - they go from pills,to snorting heroin, and then,after a couple of months, to get more for their money,they switch over to needles. the last 5,000new heroin users i've seen, that's the exact paththat they follow. narrator: heroin tricks the brain into thinking the drug is needed to survive. that, combined with intense physical pain,
forces people back for more. - the withdrawals from heroinare unlike anything. narrator: ashley potts started using when she was 17. ashley: heroin,in the beginning, made me feel euphoric. but wheneveri didn't have the heroin, it was the worst sickness thati could ever imagine in my life. everything on you hurts. you can't move, you can't eat,you can't sleep,
you're hot, you're cold. you know,i always tell people, imagine the worst fluyou could ever possibly have, and times it by a thousand.- but there is hope. if they do get helpand treatment, they can break free of it. narrator: if anyone knows about breaking free, it's ashley. she's now 30 years old, and in long-term recovery. - today, i do everythingthat i can
in order to try to give backand let everybody know that recovery is possibleand that treatment works. narrator: ashley shares her story often at public hearings, drug summits, in schools. ashley:every time i speak, it just takes a little chiselout of the brick wall to reduce the stigmaand raise awareness. narrator: but awareness of the dangers was not part of ashley's childhood.
ashley:when i was 9 years old, i took my firstdrink of alcohol. my mother had let us alldrink on new year's. narrator: by the time ashley was 12, she was smoking marijuana. then came prescription drugs. ashley: the first timei took oxycontin, the prescription opioid,i was 13 years old. it was an oxy 80and i snorted it.
my uncle had given it to me. and i rememberi puked my guts out. i got so physically illfrom that pill, but i had fallen in love with the euphoric feelingthat it gave me. and i chased that feelingfor years. narrator: chasing it with cocaine, then crack, and remembering the high from opioid pills, she finally gave in to heroin, sometimes 25 bags a day.
- i couldn't shower,i couldn't brush my teeth, i couldn't do anythinguntil i got high. and then, once i got high, it's how am igoing to get high again, how am i going tofind more money. narrator: ashley stole from family, bounced checks, even burglarized a home. - i robbedan innocent person's home and i stole their belongings.
and i just can't even imaginewhat kind of trauma that imposed on somebody. narrator: ashley managed to stay clean when she was pregnant, having a healthy baby girl when she was 19. and with her father's help, she was getting her life back together. ashley: he helped me get a car, a job, and i was trying to be productive again. i remember saying to myself
that i was going to be the best mom that i could be. narrator: but not long after giving birth, ashley relapsed. her father and stepmother tooktemporary custody of baby riley and kicked ashley out of the house. ashley: i felt likei had let her down, i felt like she would bebetter off without me. i felt like the world would bebetter if i would just die. narrator: but she kept using, lived with a friend who also abused drugs,
and even missed her daughter's first birthday. ashley: i had doneall of those things that i said i'd never do. like i said i was never going tobecome a heroin addict, i was. i was never going tohurt my daughter, i hurt her more than wordscould possibly explain. narrator: family intervention didn't work, her turning point finally came when she was 20 when her mother had her arrested.
ashley: she came in, and the policecame in behind her, and walked me out in handcuffs. i realized that i had no morepeople to manipulate in my life. narrator: ashley was at her bottom and decided to get clean one more time. first, a detoxification unit where medication helps ease the withdrawal from heroin. ashley:nothing about detox is pleasant.
it is awful. it's just a very,it's a very dark place. narrator: after an inpatient program, she spent six months in a halfway house in washington, pennsylvania. narrator: it was here she had to turn herself in to authorities. ashley: i had several warrants out for my arrest from all these crimes i committed during my usage.
i had over a hundred counts of felony charges pending against me. narrator: the judge's sentence was life changing. seven months' time served and immediate parole. - that was wheneveri truly, truly felt that i hada second chance at life because that judge could havesent me to state prison for a long time. dr. capretto: welcome togateway rehabilitation center.
we're here totry to be of help to you. i like to view addiction more as a public health issue. narrator: dr. capretto is among a growing number of advocates in favor of drug "treatment" versus incarceration for non-violent offenders. - because if you justincarcerate a person with addictionand don't get them treatment, there's a very,very high likelihood they're just going tocome back out
and continue to use. narrator: ashley stopped using, but is still a convicted felon now petitioning the state for a pardon. ashley: this is a letter from dr. capretto, and he's writing a letter of my character to present to the board of pardons. narrator: and for good reason. at the halfway house, ashley tested at justthe sixth-grade education level.
but years of study got her into college. - this is my awardto be a presidential scholar. narrator: she's now two semesters shy of a master's degree in social work and currently working for the southwestern pennsylvania human services department. - i oversee and supervisethe crisis workers, the crisis staff,and the crisis program workers. [phone rings]- hi, this is ashley.
narrator: she also counsels people in recovery. ashley: i see drug and alcohol, and mental health clients. i assist them in obtaining achievable goals. narrator: ashley has also achieved a goal she failed at before-- ashley:what's your favorite ride? narrator: --being a good mom to her daughter. ashley: my relationship with her now is amazing. my father and my stepmother,
they adopted her and she lives with them. she spends weekends with me, we go on vacation together. she misses me when i'm not there and she loves me unconditionally. i had to lose everything to know how great it is to have something. narrator: loss has driven carmen capozzi, too. and his mission started just ten days after his son sage died.
- a young man showed upat my house with a laptop. he started a "sage capozzimemorial page". i said, "nick,sage's heart was good, he was alwaystrying help his friends. i need to create awareness;i need an army of people." and he goes, "oh, cool, dude,sage's army." narrator: that was the beginning of carmen's effort to start sage's army. they're working to change laws...
- we've advocatedfor the narcan, we've advocated forthe prescription database, the good samaritan bill. narrator: ...help families... carmen: they're lost, they don't know how to help the person battling addiction. narrator:...and lead people to recovery. carmen: we open our door to anybody that needs help. and we try to guide and inspire them to the next step.
abbey zorzi: i was struggling with my addiction. narrator: abbey zorzi needed help, and she knew it. abbey: i was just not in a good spot. narrator: for this scholar and athlete, it started in high school. first drinking and marijuana, then a vicodin prescription after having her wisdom teeth pulled. abbey:some of my friends said, you can get high off these.
so, i started taking themmore than prescribed and then i startedbuying them on the street. six monthsinto taking those painkillers, i moved to heroin. narrator: by the time she was in her first year of college at saint vincent, abbey had a full-blown heroin addiction and didn't know where to turn. but she remembered a friend, sage cappozzi, and she reached out to his dad.
abbey: i was on social media at the time and i saw his page of sage's army. and i ended up messaging him. narrator: abbey is now in recovery, back at saint vincent college finishing her degree in psychology and still thankful for sage's army. abbey: i just feltthis love and this warmth. i could cry right nowjust thinking about it.
narrator: abbey also volunteers with sage's army, speaking at schools, attending events, proving that personal stories impact people in a way doctors can't. - get somebodywho's been through the exact same experienceof heroin addiction and talks to them abouttheir own journey and says, "i was like you once and becausei took this journey of recovery, here is my life today."
that's very powerful. [reading of names at vigil] narrator: this vigil in beaver county remembered people like sage, who lost their battle with drug addiction. it was organized by the pittsburgh chapter of a group called not one more or nom . [reading of names ends] - we're fightinga very serious epidemic
with drug issues,especially heroin. narrator: laura propst started nom pittsburgh after both of her children became addicted to heroin. laura:we have a lot of families, parents, wives, children who are experiencinga lot of loss and grief and they just need likea comfortable place to land. - for i don't dothe good that i want, but the evil i do not want.
narrator: at the vigil, herb bailey said a prayer. herb: with my mind,but with my flesh, i fight this battleto serve my addiction. narrator: he's used to offering comforting words. herb does it every day here in nearby aliquippa as ministry director at uncommon grounds cafe. herb: uncommon grounds is a sanctuary. narrator: it's a restaurant, and a community gathering spot with a spiritual mission .
herb: our mission is to reach the least, the last, and the lost. narrator: uncommon grounds also hosts recovery meetings, and herb counsels people dealing with addiction. herb:people lose family, lose contact with or cut offfrom their support systems, and we try to be thereand support them and they appreciate that. i'd roll my window down,and you'd be like,
bye, mr. herb,bye, mr. herb. narrator: somona woods comes here often. her addiction to heroin began like many others. - a dentistbroke my jaw by accident when pulling a wisdom tooth and i became addictedto opiates. narrator: somona says she hasn't used heroin for about six months, in part thanks to herb. somona: he would tell me that he better not see me
out there using, and i'd say i promise, i promise, brother herb. then later, the pull of the drug would grab me, and i'd find myself ona street corner in a dark alley, and he'd blow his horn and like be chasing me down. it just made me want to change my life because i knew he truly cared about me. - the stigma of beinga heroin addict is that you're a bad person,
you're not worthy,you're killing yourself, you just deserve to die. carmen: when my son was battlinghis addiction, i was shamed. i thought i was a bad parent. narrator: and that's a mindset advocates are trying to end. families don't need to suffer quietly. people with addictions don't need to hide. - hi, i'm lauren,and i am an addict. dr. capretto: stigma keepspeople from talking about it,
from even getting the treatmentthat they need. - people are asking, why do they have to waitfor a bed in treatment? people literally are dyingwaiting for a bed sometimes to get into treatment. narrator: the need for treating the heroin epidemic has not gone unnoticed in harrisburg. - how do we address this medicalproblem in pennsylvania? narrator: it's so bad, gov. tom wolf organized
statewide forums like this one at saint vincent college in westmoreland county. - frankly, we're using our jailas a detox, and i can't thinkof a worse place to do it. narrator: the 2016-2017 budget includes more than 20 million dollars to expand treatment options for thousands of people suffering from addiction. dr. capretto says more help can't come soon enough.
dr. capretto: you've gotthese windows of opportunity, and if we can't get them inwithin a couple hours, they may be back in the streetusing heroin again, and you can lose that person. narrator: at the root of the epidemic - prescription painkillers. in 2016, a state task force developed new guidelines for prescribing opioids. that means doctors will morecarefully monitor prescriptions
relating to treating pain in emergency rooms, pain related to dental care, and chronic pain not related to cancer. - i carry narcan all the time. narrator: new laws also allow better access to naloxone or narcan, the drug that reverses the effects of an overdose. sage's army was an early advocate and now holds training classes on narcan use
at its headquarters in irwin. - what if they're not breathing?how are they supposed to get it? it actually soaksinto the nasal cavity. narrator: you can now get narcan at most pharmacies. carmen: anybodyprescribed an opiate, should have access to naloxone. narrator: the pitcairn police, who helped save kenneth that summer afternoon in 2016, was the first police department in western pennsylvania
to carry narcan. - the officers haveadministered narcan, i can at least countabout maybe eight, nine times, with, then eight or nine livesthat was saved. kenneth: i guess i'm one of the lucky ones, one of the fortunate ones to be able to have made it through. narrator: despite many second chances, kenneth isn't optimistic about his future. - probably deathbefore anything.
that's just the truth. narrator: just the oppositeof what sage capozzi hoped for. - i want to get intocommunity college, just make up for lost timewith people in a positive way. - he didn't mean to die.he just got weak. you know, my sonwould be 25 years old, and i sit and think. where would he be?what would he be doing? narrator: sage's dad doesn't want pity.
he wants action. carmen: we have a huge problem and we need to accept it. - so, this is a beacon call. if we're going to dealwith the issue, we need to be-- bye, mr. herb!--people who actually care. narrator: people who are willing to be honest and open, fight for change... or show compassion and offer hope
when it seems there isn't any. - it's possible. if i can stop using,i know anybody else can. recovery is possible. - there is lightat the end of the tunnel. ashley: it's a lot easierto fight a war when you have an army than it iswhenever you're by yourself. carmen:we won't stay silent. our voices are gonna be heard.
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