{"id":21754,"date":"2015-11-06T09:06:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/on-heroin-deaths-something-had-to-be-done\/"},"modified":"2015-11-06T09:06:32","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T17:06:32","slug":"on-heroin-deaths-something-had-to-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/on-heroin-deaths-something-had-to-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"On heroin deaths: ‘Something had to be done’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This is part of a series of stories on heroin, with the next installments to be published Sunday and Monday. <\/em><\/p>\n

Michele Stuart Morgan lost a friend to a heroin overdose in Juneau last summer. She\u2019d seen the friend earlier that day during a city softball league tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hit very close to home,\u201d Morgan, 53, said. The friend was 24 years old, the same age as her son.<\/p>\n

Six months later another softball player she knew, this one 25 years old, died of the same fate. She used to coach him in soccer and tee-ball. Then another six months passed before the next heroin death, a 27-year-old man whose family Morgan knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one talked about how these players died,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cIt was very hushed and quiet. You heard through the grapevine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan\u2019s breaking point was on a Friday in September during the annual Mudball softball tournament in Sitka \u2014 she learned teammate Brenyer Haffner, a 26 year old from Juneau, had died of a heroin overdose.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s known Haffner since he was a little kid, and they played on the same adult co-ed softball league for the past seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was too much,\u201d she said of his death. Morgan said she knew she had to do something about it.<\/p>\n

When she returned home to Juneau from Sitka the next Monday, she said she \u201cwent a little crazy,\u201d logged onto her computer and ordered a bunch of stickers and magnets that read, \u201cHeroin will kill you and your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

She emailed Juneau\u2019s mayor, Assembly members, the police chief and state legislators, asking what they were doing to address the heroin epidemic.<\/p>\n

Then she rallied her friends and teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what I was doing,\u201d she said. \u201cI just knew something had to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018STOP HEROIN, <\/strong>START TALKING\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a recent weekday afternoon, Morgan stood in the dining room of her Douglas home and folded her most recent shipment of T-shirts with friend Taelyn Coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cZombies have problems but heroin isn\u2019t one of them,\u201d one T-shirt reads. Underneath a picture of a zombie it says in all caps, \u201cJUNEAU \u2013 STOP HEROIN \u2013 START TALKING.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHeroin will kill you and your friends, Please don\u2019t start,\u201d reads a sticker in bright red bold letters on the dining room table, with a skull and crossbones on it. Another sticker has a picture of a pig on it: \u201cBacon is 100% better for you than heroin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought these ones would play better with the kids,\u201d Morgan said of the light-hearted zombie shirt and bacon sticker.<\/p>\n

Whether intentional or not, Morgan and her friends have created a grass-roots movement to help combat heroin in Juneau. The group is called \u201cJuneau \u2014 Stop Heroin, Start Talking,\u201d dedicated to bringing awareness of heroin addiction in the capital city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a troop,\u201d she said. \u201cThis troop, we want to bring awareness and make some changes so this doesn\u2019t continue to happen to our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since forming in late September, the group has launched a public awareness campaign by handing out anti-heroin stickers, magnets and bracelets for free, and selling T-shirts for a $10 donation.<\/p>\n

Morgan invested $1,000 of her own money to print the materials, with the help of Alaska Outdoor Warehouse & Embroidery, which gave her a discount for the T-shirts. All donations go back into the program. She said she\u2019s already recouped about $600 by selling the T-shirts. The group wants to team up with an established community nonprofit in the near future.<\/p>\n

The group has received support from the local business community, like Bullwinkle\u2019s Pizza Parlor, which recently ordered 10,000 stickers to put on their delivery boxes.<\/p>\n

The Juneau Police Department, which itself launched a series of educational public service announcements about heroin last month, is also on board. JPD says six people have died of a heroin overdose in Juneau since February.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome,\u201d Lt. Kris Sell said of the group, \u201cbecause it\u2019s going to take everybody. This can\u2019t be just a police department issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group is also working with state legislators on supporting a bill related to heroin overdoses. (For more on this story, see the Empire\u2019s Sunday edition.)<\/p>\n

\u2018IT COULD BE ANYONE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morgan\u2019s group has attracted throngs of supporters in the community who want people to realize how pervasive heroin is in Juneau and how anyone can become addicted.<\/p>\n

Morgan estimates the group has about five core members and at least 30 committed supporters. Some have lost family members to heroin and others have lost friends.<\/p>\n

Myriah Shakespeare said she was blinded by Brenyer Haffner\u2019s death in September. While Haffner\u2019s family was aware of his dug addiction (which they have been open about, sharing his story with the media<\/a> in hopes of preventing similar deaths), many of his friends were not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t believe it when they told me,\u201d Shakespeare said, tearing up in an interview. \u201cI said, \u2018Not Brenyer, not Brenyer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Michele Morgan, Shakespeare played softball with Haffner for years and had no idea he was using drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are assuming that these people that are dying are drug addicts, and they\u2019re drug dealers, and they\u2019re just the scum of society,\u201d Shakespeare added. \u201cThey don\u2019t understand that it could be anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

That observation is a nod to what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has been saying about the heroin epidemic across the nation: Heroin use is no longer just for so-called \u201cjunkies,\u201d an outdated stereotype from generations past. Heroin use has increased among affluent young men and women, particularly those who were hooked on the overprescribed opiate painkiller OxyContin.<\/p>\n

As prices for OxyContin soared and the pills were reformulated by pharmaceutical companies in 2010 to make them harder to abuse, heroin emerged as a cheaper and more available alternative. The rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled in the United States between 2002 and 2013, according to the CDC. More than 8,200 people died in 2013.<\/p>\n

Taelyn Coffee, 26, recalls not being able to go a day without heroin for about a year. She only drank alcohol once in high school, never smoked marijuana and was generally considered a \u201cgood girl\u201d who came from a loving family, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started with Oxy, that was the big thing at the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI had a boyfriend who was dealing and it spiraled from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffee was able to quit heroin on her own about three or four years ago. Not many people know about her drug use \u2014 she said she hid her addiction from everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a survivor. I say survivor because I could have very well been in this mix,\u201d she said, referring to the recent cluster of Juneau residents who have died of an overdose.<\/p>\n

Now, Coffee is outspoken about her addiction and recovery, and she\u2019s on a mission as a member of Juneau \u2014 Stop Heroin, Start Talking. She wants people to know how easy it is to score heroin and how prevalent the drug is, even in small-town Juneau. <\/p>\n

\u2018SHINE A LIGHT\u2019 <\/strong>ON HEROIN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morgan said she hopes her group can help educate people about drug use and change the stigma surrounding it. The first step to change, she said, is to get people talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids were on our softball teams, they were our teammates, our friends, our brothers,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then one day, someone tells you they OD\u2019d.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to shine a light on this,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe can\u2019t brush it under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month, the group is hosting a gourmet hot dog bar\/potluck and karaoke night at Rockwell on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 5:30-8 p.m. They\u2019ll be handing out education material, promoting Juneau \u2014 Stop Heroin, Start Talking, and giving out their bracelets.<\/p>\n

\u201cA small bracelet and no judgment helps open up a conversation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2022 If you\u2019d like to be a part of the Empire\u2019s coverage highlighting heroin addiction in Juneau, contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or emily.miller@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: This is part of a series of stories on heroin, with the next installments to be published Sunday and Monday. Michele Stuart Morgan lost a friend to a heroin overdose in Juneau last summer. She\u2019d seen the friend earlier that day during a city softball league tournament. \u201cThat hit very close to home,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":430,"featured_media":21755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21754"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}