Shelter Island Reporter editorial: The human factor

The use of illegal drugs is a complicated subject, touching on several aspects of society. There’s the legal system, involving the police, the courts and the prison system. There’s the medical factor of addiction, and hospitals and treatment centers, and the debate on how best to treat those caught in cycles of dependency.

There’s the educational component, on how strategies are developed by the government, the schools and the media on how to produce clear, truthful information on what drugs are and what they do.

This newspaper and our sister papers, The Suffolk Times and the Riverhead News-Review have reported extensively on the crisis of opioid overdoses and will continue to do so.

Often overlooked is, perhaps, the most important part of this structure — the human element. When word comes of overdose deaths, as it has recently to our communities on the East End, it’s easy to overlook those who have died — if we don’t know the individuals.

But worse than overlooking them and not realizing they were part of our community, is to stereotype them, placing them in a category and ignoring the fact that they were very much like us. We have tried to make this real in our story about one of us, an Islander whose family, friends and employer loved, respected, and relied on.

The stereotyping becomes absurd when looking at addiction as an illness, since illness doesn’t spare anyone. Alcohol and drug dependency exists in every community, every economic class, every race and ethnic group. These days — maybe always? — it’s rare to find a family who has not been affected by a loved one who is dependent on alcohol or drugs.

The crisis is not limited to where we live, but is everywhere in the U.S. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30% in the United States in 2020 compared to the year before. In 2020, the CDC reports, 93,000 people died from “synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine … Cocaine deaths also increased in 2020, as did deaths from natural and semi-synthetic opioids …”

There is work to be done on the levels of society — law enforcement, the court system, public health strategies, the media, government and education — to battle the forces that have ruined so many lives and brought sorrow and grief to too many families.

A good start in that work is to see those caught in cycles of dependency, and those who have lost their lives, as real, whole human beings, who have loved and been loved.