H.O.P.E. House shines light on signs of drug addiction
The Heroin Overdose Prevention Education (H.O.P.E.) House, presented by the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, is an educational mobile trailer, designed like a teen’s room, used to show possible drug use signs.
Opioid addiction in the United States is a rapidly increasing epidemic across the nation, but decreasing in Charles County. Sheriff Troy D. Berry (D) invites the public to take a tour and see firsthand the agency’s newly acquired trailer designed to raise awareness and inform parents of the warning signs related to drug use.
The CCSO’s H.O.P.E. House is filled with donated items by families who have lost their children to addiction. One item in the house is a pair of cleats that belonged to Joel Wilson who died on Valentines Day in 2017. His father went to check on him to find out why he didn’t get up for work and found him dead from an overdose in his bed.
Wilson graduated from North Point High School, later becoming addicted to drugs. By the time his parents found out, it was too late. Joel was found by his father sitting in his bed with vomit on him. After the police were called, Wilson’s parents began CPR, and once paramedics and police came on scene, they were unsuccessful in saving Wilson.
CCSO Lt. J.A. Burroughs encourages parents to search thoroughly. “On-the-surface searching will not suffice,” said Burroughs, “they are only limited to their own imagination and ingenuity.”
One of the first things deputies and investigators did when speaking to families about their family member’s overdose was gather information on what the first thing they saw was. Most found plastic tops but didn’t know what they were.
The sheriff’s office identified these plastic tops as tops of Ziploc bags the user pulled off to contain the narcotics. Burroughs warns parents to look for items that look out of place and also picking up, looking under or behind objects.
“If you that you don’t know why it’s there, ask questions until you do. Don’t fall for it; if it doesn’t make sense to you there is a reason it doesn’t make sense. Keep asking questions. If you are not sure of what something is, call your local police or sheriff’s office. We will be happy to come out, tell you what it is and if it is something we have seen before, we want you to know and have that information,” Burroughs said.
Parents Affected Addiction (PABA) was founded in 2014 by a group of parents that felt isolated and lost by the addiction that was affecting their families. The group started with approximately four to five people and has grown to 20 to 30 people attending monthly meetings, according to Amy Young, a mother whose family is also fighting addiction. PABA offers roundtable sharing sessions where attendees may share their story or just listen.
Stacey and Frederick Wilson are members of PABA and have contributed to the H.O.P.E. House their son’s cleats and other materials to be used as demonstrations for the exhibit.
Det. Patricia Adams, a narcotics detective with the sheriff’s office who is also part of a DEA Task Force, worked hard on the H.O.P.E. House because she understands “there are less than six degrees of separation from anyone that knows someone who has been affected by this and it is a terrible thing. If I could know going to sleep I have helped a family know where their family member is, that is why I got into this project.”
For information on drug abuse prevention, treatment and recovery, call the hotline at 1-800422-0009 or visit www.beforeitstoolate.mar yland. gov if you or a loved one is suffering from drug addiction and seeking help.