Alcohol and drugs

ruining local lives
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Oxford County has had one of the highest rates of alcoholism and alcohol-related deaths in the country.

That’s according to a three-year, $1.8 million federal study done by the Western Regional Council of Alcoholism for 1992 to 1995.

The study showed that while alcoholism affects 10 percent of the country as a whole, in Oxford County the rate is 15 percent. Deaths from alcohol-related causes – auto accidents, falling down stairs, shootings, suicide and health problems – also lead the nation.

Do the statistics still hold true today?

“There’s no reason to believe there’s been any change,” said William Stockwell, chairman of the Substance Abuse Services Committee at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway.

For the past eight years, the committee has been combating abuses. Teaming with other substance abuse treatment providers, members recently held a day-long alcoholism and drug addiction conference at the hospital’s Ripley Center. Sixty people attended, including health care providers, social workers, substance abuse counselors, people in the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program and school guidance counselors.

“I had one middle school guidance counselor tell me that every teacher should be required to attend this conference,” Stockwell said, because of the increasing problem of alcohol and drug abuse among young people.

Stockwell said the regional council’s study did not try to pinpoint why Oxford County’s alcoholism rate was higher than the national average. He said the rate likely reflects cultural norms of this predominantly rural region.

“Whatever is normal for you is what you’ve been living with,” he said.

William Lowenstein, associate director of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, also spoke at the conference. He later agreed that community norms play a big role in alcoholism and drug addiction.

“In rural communities, there’s a large segment that doesn’t say this is wrong,” Lowenstein said. There’s an attitude of acceptance at small little mom and pop stores, where people say, ‘”We don’t have a town drunk, we all take turns,'” he said.

Alcohol remains the primary drug of choice in the state, Lowenstein said. In the past five years, though, the use of heroin, opiates and methamphetamines, or speed, has risen dramatically, he said.

“My belief is that a lot of people want things to get better, they just don’t want to change,” he added.

The remedy lies in treatment. Get people off the substances, then counsel and mentor them,Lowenstein said.

“The 12-step recovery programs are absolutely essential. They are a major source of support” to people recovering from alcohol or drug addiction, or both, he said.

Lowenstein said the $25 million annual budget of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse strains to keep up with treatment programs.

“We need to put more money into prevention,” he said. “Substance abuse and addiction is one of the most under-diagnosed problems in our country today.”

That’s not acceptable, he added. “There needs to be more outrage about what it does” to people’s lives and to society. Society needs to be educated that alcohol and drug addiction is a disease that can be treated, he said, instead of looking at it as a moral character weakness.

Stockwell said Stephens Memorial Hospital offers medical detox services to patients on a referral basis. Support also is offered at the hospital’s counseling center, Gateway Recovery Services.

Community Concepts Inc. of Paris offers assessments and treatment through its Supported Journey into Recovery program. A list of local AA meetings is available at the Web site www.aamaine.org. Information is also available on-line at the state’s office of substance abuse Information and Resource Center, www.maineosa.org/irc, or by calling 1-800-499-0027.

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