Tag Archives: opioid addiction
‘Completely heartbroken’: Beloved lobsterman loses addiction fight
The F/V Patricia Lynn II was Josiah Beringer’s refuge. It was also his darkness. The red and white lobster boat, named after his late mother, The Patricia Lynn now sits inside a cold warehouse at the state pier in Portsmouth, propped in the air above the concrete floor. A haunting autumn wind sweeps in, circling the boat like a cloak, a spirit. Aboard the Patricia Lynn on July 10, while docked at Badger’s Island in Kittery, Maine, Josiah overdosed twice within the same day, the second time killing him. He laid on her deck for 10 hours before he was found. He was 31. >click to read<05:47
Sick River: Can These California Tribes Beat Heroin and History?
For thousands of years, the Klamath River has been a source of nourishment for the Northern California tribes that live on its banks. Its fish fed dozens of Indian villages along its winding path, and its waters cleansed their spirits, as promised in their creation stories. But now a crisis of opioid addiction is gripping this remote region. At the same time, the Klamath’s once-abundant salmon runs have declined to historic lows, the culmination of 100 years of development and dam building along the river. Today, many members of the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes living in this densely forested area south of the California-Oregon border see a connection between the river’s struggle and their own. >click to read<16:01
Opioid Crisis Taking Toll On Maine Lobster Industry
The nation’s opioid crisis has hit hard in Maine, where at least one person died every day last year of drug overdoses. It’s also penetrated the state’s lobster industry. Some fishermen are suffering in silence in a community that rarely asks for help. Josh Kane has spent more than 15 years fishing off the coast of Maine. For 10 of those years, he struggled with an opioid addiction as his fellow lobstermen looked the other way. In Washington County, economic leaders say the impact of the opioid epidemic on the lobster industry could easily affect an entire generation. “If you look around a coastal town, you have a sense of the value of the catch coming in,” Rudelitch said. “That new roof, that investment that should have come from a series of good years, just isn’t.” click here to read the story 15:16
Trapped by heroin: Lobster industry struggles with its deadly secret
Maine lobstermen are plagued by opioid addiction, leading to deaths, ruined lives and even fishing violations to pay for the habit. Some in recovery also recognize the challenge: Getting help to an intensely independent breed that rarely asks for it. Until last year, when he finally kicked a 20-year heroin habit, Tristen Nelson had always been too high to even notice the best things about being a lobsterman in Down East Maine, like the beauty of a Bucks Harbor sunrise or the freedom of fishing two dozen miles offshore. He loves those things about his job now, but for two decades the 35-year-old Machias man only lobstered to make the quick cash he needed to buy heroin. He would spend all his money, up to $60,000 for six months of work, on drugs. And he would end every fishing season broke. continue reading the story here 08:13
