TULALIP – Community helps to create the environment for drug use. So it needs to be involved in the solution.

That was a major theme of the Opioids and Heroin in Snohomish County community forum at the Tulalip Resort Casino Sept. 20.

Another in the series of forums will take place Tuesday, Sept. 27, at 6 p.m. at Arlington High School.

Tulalip Tribes Chairman Mel Sheldon said the first time he saw heroin usage was when he was in the Vietnam war. Soldiers because addicted to “China White” and had nobody to turn to.

To turn around this plague, he said addicts need to “have someone to turn to.”

He said Tulalip right now, thanks to the gaming industry, is going through a “Golden Era,” with more people going to college than ever before.

“But I’m still going to too many funerals because of heroin overdose,” he said.

He added the solution is not about pointing fingers and placing blame, but about “coming together and sharing hearts.”

Dr. Gary Goldbaum of the Snohomish Health District explained that once a person gets hooked on opioids, it’s “almost impossible to stop.”

So one key solution to the epidemic is education early in life so people never get started.

It’s easy to get hooked, he said. Opioids reduce pain and increase pleasure. After awhile, the body physically is dependent on the drug. Withdrawals are painful, so the person will do almost anything to avoid that experience. Addicts have to take more and more to the point they can overdose, stop breathing and even die.

Goldbaum admitted doctors play a role by prescribing pain medicine.

“We as a culture expect to be pain-free and demand a pill,” he said.

People get hooked then change to heroin because it’s less expensive and easier to get. That’s why in the past 10 years heroin deaths are up, while overdoses from prescription drugs are down.

Snohomish County has 1/10th of the state’s population, but 1/20th of the state’s opioid deaths.

Goldbaum said counseling alone won’t solve the problem. Because of the physical issues, medical treatment, such as methadone, is needed.

Another medicine, he called a “miracle drug,” is Naloxone. He said it needs to be widely available because it saves lives.

People can be on “the verge of dying, and it can reverse an overdose. We cannot help a person who has died,” Goldbaum said.

Cleo Harris of Snohomish County Human Services talked about the county’s Opioid Project, which has made Naloxone more available in the community.

“We’ve had 54 reversals so far,” she said.

Harris said another key to solving this problem is reducing the stigma. Addicts need to feel safe to reach out for help and be supported in their recovery. They can’t be helped if they hide in shame.

If society would connect more with them as people who are sick and need help, more would feel valued and be willing to seek treatment, she said.

Carlos Echevarria, Tulalip police chief, said in the early 2000s there were few problems related to heroin on the reservation, but now it’s a part of almost every crime.

“It’s our No. 1 concern,” he said.

Echevarria said when he was 15 he lost two uncles to overdoses, and last year a brother died of an overdose.

“So I understand your anger,” and frustration related to heroin, he told the audience of a few hundred people.

He said he has “shared tears together” in his office with moms planning their son’s or daughter’s funeral.

“I wish there were simple answers, but we have to find new ways to help people through it,” he said.

Annaliese Means of the Tulalip Health Program said it’s the goal of her agency to Prevent, Promote and Protect. She helps get addicts into treatment then follows up with counseling and housing services.

She deals some with women who get pregnant while using. That often inspires them to get clean. She said it’s so important to support these women, but help them understand, “Your baby might be a little bit different.”

Mother Debbie Warfield talked about her son, Spencer, who died of a heroin overdose.

She urged society to become more knowledgeable and understanding about addiction.

“Society views addiction as a choice. It’s not. It’s a disease,” she said.

She said her son started having issues with aggression in middle school, but they thought it was “just a stage.” But it got worse in high school, as he grew to 6-foot-5. He liked sports, but not school.

“Something was missing,” she said.

He was diagnosed with ADHD and depression. He was prescribed drugs, and started pulling away from friends. Even so, he excelled in shot put and discus in track, graduated in 2006 and went to Washington State University. After three semesters they brought him home due to poor grades.

Warfield said he was using pot and alcohol, but after cleaning up his act moved out.

After receiving disturbing calls from him, Warfield made a surprise visit. She found out a doctor had prescribed opioids for him to deal with anxiety.

He went to treatment for 28 days.

“But we didn’t understand how big the addiction was,” she said.

Father Jim Hillaire talked about the death of his daughter, Angelina.

“You are all looking for the answer. You are all part of the answer,” he said.

Hillaire said people have lost a traditional value of helping out each other, in favor of “it’s none of my business.”

He said he used to appreciate when people would scold his children when they did something wrong.

“You don’t see that anymore,” he said. “It’s that type of involvement we’re lacking.”

Hillaire has been involved with helping people using drugs for 20 years with the tribe.

“People talk about the zombie apocalypse, it’s here now,” he said. “All these people are sick and worth our time. They still have value.”

About his daughter, he said she had seven kids and lost them to the foster system because of her bouts with sobriety.

“She never forgave herself,” Hillaire said. “Drug dealers are our internal terrorists.”

Hillaire vowed to keep fighting drug use.

“I work hard to put myself out of a job,” he said.

In introducing Rico Jones Fernandez, Sheldon talked about how “one person can made a difference.”

Fernandez walks around the reservation and picks up drug needles. He showed the crowd about 200 such needles that he had picked up in just the previous seven days.

“These aren’t bad kids. They are our kids. I’m not here to watch people suffer and die,” he said.

During a Question and Answer session that followed, Cmdr. Pat Slack of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department said most of the heroin that comes to this area comes from Mexico by way of Arizona.

He said the county would rather focus on dealers than addicts, but families actually call police as a last resort to try to get help their loves ones.

The county jail has about 80 addicts currently, who cost about $185 a day each to house.

Slack said he went to 12 heroin houses just that day, not to arrest them, but to try to help them get public services to get off the drug.

Chief Echevarria said he would like to bust even small dealers that “wreak havoc on the tribe.”

But Slack said the U.S. Attorney wouldn’t prosecute one bust he made where the suspect had $900,000 and 33 pounds of heroin because a gun wasn’t involved.

“I get your frustration,” he told a woman who was upset a known drug dealer hadn’t been arrested.

He said he does not want to plug up the jail and courts with addicts when he can put 2,000 drug dealers out of business by arresting a supplier.

The forum ended coming full circle, with Slack saying reducing the demand for heroin is the only thing that can end the problem.

“Schools should educate kids about drugs as much as they do English or math,” he said.

Statistics

•Heroin use has increased among men, women, most age groups and all income levels in the U.S.

•More people die from drug overdoses than traffic accidents in this state.

•Between 2002-13, heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled.

•Every $1 spent on prevention saves up to $10 in health, criminal, court and education costs, along with lost productivity.

To address the epidemic:

•Doctors can prescribe the lowest effective dose and only the quantity needed for each patient.

•Develop prescribing guidelines for chronic pain.

•Support development of pain medications less prone to abuse.

•The strongest risk factor is addiction to prescription opioid painkillers.

•Increase access to Medical-Assisted Treatment.

•Increase access to Naloxone to reduce overdose deaths.

•More detox beds are needed countywide.

For more, go to www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heroin