In June 2011, Nick Kruczek graduated from Daniel Hand High School in Madison, where he had been a four-year letterman on the ice hockey team and was named SCC Hockey Tournament MVP his senior year. A talented athlete who had skated from the age of four, he had excelled at a number of sports—including tennis, golf, soccer, baseball, skiing, snowboarding, and kayaking—and decided to stick with ice hockey when he enrolled at Southern Connecticut State University. He had always been close with his family. Even after leaving the nest, he called or texted his mother every day.

Then one day, Sue Kruczek’s phone was silent. Nick had been struggling, and she knew something was wrong.

“I went to my son’s apartment,” she said. “That’s where I found him.”

Nick had recently confessed a terrible secret to his parents. When he was 14 and a freshman on the high school hockey team, an upperclassman tossed him a little white pill to help him relax.

“That’s where our nightmare began,” Sue recalls.

Nick admitted that from that point on, he never played a game sober. On Oct. 10, 2013, 11 days before his 21st birthday, Nick Kruczek died of a drug overdose.

At an April 6 forum on opiate abuse, Sue Kruczek told her heartbreaking story to dozens of parents, teachers, law enforcement officers, town officials, and community members who had gathered at Andrews Memorial Town Hall in Clinton. She held up a framed photograph of her son, smiling and handsome.

“This is the face of opioid addiction.”

Community Conversation

The Clinton forum was the latest in a series of local discussions on opioid abuse, which many healthcare experts are calling an epidemic. Hosted by State Senator Art Linares, Jr. (R-33) and State Representative Jesse MacLachlan (R-35), the forum explored town-specific and statewide issues related to the overprescribing and misuse of OxyContin, Percocet, and other opioid painkillers; prescription drugs as a gateway to heroin—which, at $5 a bag, is cheaper and easier to get; the effects of drug abuse on families and individuals; community resources for prevention and treatment; law enforcement’s response; and the role of drugs such as Narcan (which reverses the fatal effects of opioids) and methadone, Suboxone, and Vivitrol, which act on receptors in the brain to block cravings or highs associated with heroin.

Along with Kruczek, the panel of speakers included Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health and Human Services (DMHAS); Kristen Granatek, director of prevention initiatives for the Governor’s Prevention Partnership; counselors Allan Griffen (Granite Recovery Centers) and Andy Buccaro (Project Courage Works in Old Saybrook) reflecting on their own long-term recovery from drug and alcohol abuse; Jim Santacroce, EMS coordinator for Middlesex Hospital’s Paramedic Department; Peter Schultheis, director of human services for Clinton Youth & Family Services (CYFS); Officer John Harkins of the Clinton Police Department; and Drs. Jeff Bernstein and Joyce Tinsley of Middlesex Hospital.

“I never get used to this,” said Bernstein, an emergency room doctor who handles fatal and near-lethal overdoses every month. “It’s always scary. It always frightens me. I’m the last guy you want to see, the guy who administers the Narcan because you or your loved one is barely breathing.”

Santacroce, who coordinates EMS services for Clinton, noted a steady uptick in overdoses in recent years. The Clinton Police Department confirmed five fatal overdoses in the last year alone, though not all five were residents of the town.

While the youngest-ever overdose call in Clinton so far has involved a 13-year-old, CYFS prevention services coordinator Kelley Edwards notes that opioid abuse among Clinton youth is still rare. Nevertheless, she says, the conversations about prescription drugs abuse and heroin need to happen now; the potential for abuse increases as young people enter their college and adult years.

According to Delphin-Rittmon, who urged people to ask questions and get proactive in combating drug abuse, heroin and opioids have surpassed alcohol in DMHAS services.

“When a doctor prescribes opioids for you or your child, ask if there are alternatives. Question the number of pills you’re given and the number of refills you’re allowed.”

Many panelists noted the widespread overprescription of opioids for sports injuries and wisdom tooth extractions—including a refillable bottle of 30 pills when five doses are adequate and appropriate.

“Secure your meds,” Granatek advised. “If your kids have been prescribed an opiate, monitor their use. Have a conversation with them about it. Ask their doctor, ‘Does my child need this? This many?’”

Closing the Gap

Panelists and audience members alike pointed out gaps in the current treatment system that need to be addressed. For one thing, access to treatment facilities is often extremely difficult, requiring multiple calls to multiple agencies rather than a single call to a statewide clearinghouse. To add to the problem, drugs to treat opioid addiction, such as Suboxone, are often not dispensed unless a patient is under the influence and can cover the out-of-pocket expense—which, at $150, is more than the cost of a fix.

“I’ve made calls,” one audience member said, “and been asked, ‘Is the person high? If not, we can’t help them.’”

Another reported regularly loaning out cash for treatment and driving people “vast distances” to a certified Suboxone prescriber. Ironically, the same medical practitioners who write prescriptions for opioids are often not allowed to prescribe Suboxone; for that, they need special certification.

“Do they need special certification to prescribe Oxy[contin]?” one audience member asked.

The answer was “No.”

“There is no silver bullet,” said Schultheis. “It takes a lot of resources—families, law enforcement, medical and social services professionals, schools. Talk to your children early and often.”

Griffen, who shared his own story of addiction and recovery—alcohol and marijuana at age 12, heroin and cocaine by age 20, and 10 unsuccessful detoxes before his 30th birthday—noted the role that law enforcement and the judicial system played in his own recovery.

“At 31, I had enough. And the State of Connecticut had enough. I was told if I didn’t go into rehab, I would go to jail.”

Griffen has been sober for more than five years.

Indeed, getting arrested for drug use is not the end of the line, said Harkins. It’s often what gets people into treatment.

Vincent DeMaio, Clinton’s new police chief, introduced himself to the community and pledged “ground-level support” not just in law enforcement, but also drug abuse prevention and awareness.

“Every time you speak about your son,” he said, turning to Kruczek, “you honor him.”

On Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Partners in Community, the Clinton Police Department, and the Drug Enforcement Administration will host a Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. Residents are encouraged to bring unused, unwanted, or expired prescription pills to the Clinton Police Department, 170 East Main Street, for safe disposal. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.