Sherry Chandler » Kentucky Town Grapples with Oxycontin Addiction
Kentucky Town Grapples with Oxycontin Addiction
Go to NPR’s Morning Edition site and listen to this commentary from Natasha Watts of Blackey, Kentucky:
Imagine you are sitting in a room with everyone you love: your elementary school teachers, neighbors, childhood friends. And then you leave the room and find out that every single one of those people is an addict. That’s how I felt when I returned home after fours years away at college.
I have no social circle here (in Blackey, Kentucky) anymore. The one friend I have struggles with her ex-boyfriend as he tries to recover. Almost all my other friends are addicted to prescription drugs.
…
It’s not hard to see how we got to this point. With hundreds of injured coal miners, this area has one of the highest chronic pain rates in the country. For generations we’ve suffered from all kinds of pain — without the kinds of health services and resources we needed to deal with addiction, poverty, and depression.
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3 Comments
1. Drug Addiction » Bl&hellip replies at 10th October 2007, 2:04 pm :
[...] Read it all here [...]
2. charlie w replies at 11th October 2007, 8:37 am :
Natasha’s commentary is indeed a sad one. The culture of addiction she speaks of is a heart-breaking thing. As bad as oxycontin addiction is elsewhere, it apparently is a lot worse there. I’m glad there is a voice now reaching out of eastern KY, and a medium to carry her important message everywhere.
If I spoke to her I would tell her that I once visited her home town, and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Blackey is in Letcher County. There are a different kind of mountains there. Very steep and high mountains and very narrow valleys. A narrow road and railroad along the creek; barely room for a garden spot.
But the town of Blackey and Letcher County have something unique to KY. It is called Lilley Cornett’s Woods. Lilley’s Woods are said to be the last stand of virgin timber in Kentucky. It is a protected place administered by Eastern KY U. as a kind of living laboratory, I think. My wife, Deborah and I visited there specifically to see Lilley’s Woods. Charlie w
3. sherry replies at 11th October 2007, 9:50 am :
Oh Charlie, I love your description of the mountains around Blackey and the Lilley Cornett Woods. Makes me want to hop in my car and drive down there on this lovely October day.
For those interested in more information about the woods, here’s EKU’s webpage.
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