Poplar Bluff church helps distribute drug to battle heroin overdoses

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — A $10 drug that could have saved as many as four Butler County lives in the past three months was distributed Thursday to community members as part of an ongoing battle against the heroin epidemic officials say has hit the area.

Narcan, an antidote for opioid overdoses, was made available during an educational event at Fellowship General Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff. The church has hosted a recovery program for the last decade, Fellowship of Acceptance. Weekly meetings average about 70 participants, said pastor and facilitator Keith Woodruff.

“Heroin has flooded the area,” Woodruff said. “You think that’s a big-city problem, but go to Neelyville, Fagus, Broseley, you’re going to find heroin. It’s out there, and it’s available.”

Fellowship of Acceptance lost a young man to a recent spate of overdoses, someone who had been attending the program for months and appeared to be turning his life around, Woodruff said.

It was that death that inspired Thursday’s event.

“We don’t know if someone having this training and having access to Narcan could have saved him, but maybe it could have,” Woodruff said.

The training was provided by Chad Sabora of St. Louis-based Missouri Network for Opiate Reform and Recovery. Sabora is a former prosecutor who abused prescription pain killers and heroin for 17 years, until 2011. He since has partnered with other recovering addicts to provide education, recovery support and help change state laws, including the one that made Narcan available to the public in August.

“Is Narcan a silver bullet that’s going to make them get clean? ... No,” Sabora said during the presentation to about 100 people, including nurses from the Poplar Bluff School District, social-service workers, recovery program participants and other community members.

But his philosophy in recovery is to reduce harm and look for any positive change, Sabora said.

“Death is not a positive change,” Sabora said. “Life, continuing life, is.”

Sabora advocates for finding new ways to reach those fighting addiction and changing the way addiction is viewed.

The country has been fighting the war on drugs for decades and losing, Sabora said.

“We want people to stop using drugs, yes, but we also have to accept reality that we have active users,” Sabora said. “We can’t hang out in NA and AA programs in church basements, waiting for people to show up and want to get help. Most will end up in prison or dead before they get there.”

Narcan has been standard in hospitals since 1961 because opioids are used during surgeries, he said.

Opioids are a respiratory suppressant and slow breathing.

Narcan displaces the opiate, he said. The brain no longer signals the lungs to slow breathing.

The opiate still will be in the user’s system, Sabora cautioned, but they will not feel it while the Narcan is there. By the time the Narcan leaves their system, the most dangerous effects of the opiate typically have passed.

Narcan is not harmful, he said. A person cannot be given too much Narcan, Sabora continued.

An audience member asked Sabora whether heroin addicts could see the Narcan as a free pass and whether it could increase or encourage use.

“There’s no research that says that,” he said, adding, “I shot dope for 17 years, and I didn’t care if Narcan was there or not. I was shooting dope, no matter what.

“We don’t care if we live or die. A lot of the times, we don’t want to be alive anymore. Sometimes death is easier than living as an addict.”

There is no one path to recovery and heroin addicts, like alcoholics, face the same moments of weakness.

“But they could die. They both deserve as many chances for recovery,” he said.

Acceptance without judgment is one of the primary tenants of Fellowship’s recovery program, according to participants.

People attending the program are getting younger, said director Lois Shearrer, who started Fellowship of Acceptance after watching a family member battle addiction.

“There are many things that could destroy your life; you don’t have to be an addict for that to happen,” Shearrer said.

The types of addiction also have changed, said Vicky Whited, a member of the leadership team and a recovering alcoholic.

The first participants had problems with cocaine and marijuana, then methamphetamine and now prescription drugs and heroin.

Many started using heroin after access to prescription drugs was cut off, they said.

Members of the 16-person leadership team include recovering addicts. The church funds training for the team, a bus to transport participants and other needs for the program.

The program helped recovering heroin addict Carmella Fenske through her daughter’s suicide with love and acceptance. Fenske has been in recovery for 3 1/2 years after 36 years of addiction.

The program offers structure without judgment, she said.

Whited agreed, saying she attended the church as she battled alcoholism.

“They loved me through the whole thing. They never turned their back on me,” she said.

The number of fatal heroin overdoses seen in Butler County in the last four months is staggering, said Butler County Coroner Andy Moore.

Moore supports the efforts of recovery programs to obtain Narcan.

Moore has seen the devastation in the families of those who died, who have fought for years to help their children, siblings or parents find recovery.

“I think if more people could see that, it would be very sobering,” Moore said.

Poplar Bluff school health coordinator Sheryl Talkington said the nurses attended to learn more about what has become a real problem in the community.

“Any knowledge we can gain is beneficial to us. Any time education is offered, we want to be there,” Talkington said.

The nurses did not attend to receive Narcan. Any decisions about the use of Narcan by the district would be made by school leadership.

Pertinent address:

Fellowship General Baptist Church, Poplar Bluff, Mo.