As the opioid crisis continues to plague the regions, state officials, political activists, parents, and members of the public came together for the “Wake Up! Stigma Kills” event at Martin-Bishop Field on Aug. 27. The event focused on breaking down stigma and raising awareness about addiction.

The day included a petition signing, a T-shirt table, music, food trucks, a raffle, and a series of speakers. Besty Jehan, a Guilford mother who lost her daughter to addiction, and Chris Butler of Spiritual Gardens, a sober living program in New Haven, partnered to put on the event.

After losing her daughter Martine, a Guilford High School graduate, a few years ago at the age of 26, Jehan began to raise awareness about addiction and stigma. She held her first fundraiser, Martine’s Wake Up, last year and said people need to continue to talk openly about this disease.

“When Martine was struggling, I didn’t tell anybody,” Jehan said. “There was such a fear in me that thought if Martine got better, she would have that hanging over her for the rest of her life, because there is a stigma, there is a shame. I would take that shame any day now to have her here with me. I would take that and shout it from the rooftops —’My daughter needs help!’”

Speakers discussed the need for better guidelines and legislation to combat the opioid epidemic. Butler introduced a petition pushing for stronger legislation that will be sent to Hartford and said people need to change the way they think about addiction.

“We have to help our society as a whole to start thinking about addiction differently because it is a real disease,” she said. “It is not a matter of weak character.”

State Representative Sean Scanlon (D-98) attended the event and agreed there needs to be a strong push for better legislation. Scanlon co-authored a bill, signed into law earlier this year, that limits first-time opioid prescriptions for adults to a seven-day supply. Despite that step, he said there is much more to be done.

“There are a lot of politicians on every level that want to claim we are making progress on this and we are having big successes,” he said. “You can’t just pass two bills and expect we are going to solve this overnight. It has to be a long process.”

Many individuals currently in recovery attended the event. Molly Ashcroft, 29, a Guilford native, spoke about her experience and the struggles people still face.

“It is about people helping each other,” she said. “There is a lot we can do on a legislation level, on an insurance level, on a resource level, but ultimately I believe it is those who are in recovery who need to step up.”

Ashcroft, who has been sober since December 2008, said recovery is difficult—particularly if you don’t know where to turn—but said that it gets better.

“I think everyone needs to understand that things can be different,” she said. “It takes work and it takes consistency and it takes showing up every day and some days really suck and you don’t want to do it…but I can promise you a life full of happiness if you stay consistently sober.”

Emily Palmer, 23, who has been sober for almost two years, said people need to better understand addiction.

“This is a disease. People don’t just wake up on a Tuesday and say, ‘Oh I am going to go shoot heroin now’—that is not how it goes,” she said. “It is an over time loss of control and once it is gone, you can’t regain it until you are ready to get well.”

Palmer said more needs to be done to break down stigma, but she said in her experience of trying to get sober, more people have been willing to talk about this problem.

“This is not my first time trying to get sober, but this time I have found that there is a lot more awareness and a lot more people speaking out about things like overdoses,” she said. “When we come to an event like this and they are honoring people who have died of this disease, it is about not being ashamed of where we came from, it is about what we have to be able to do to stop it.”

Independent Pharmacies Carry Narcan

In addition to the speakers and activists, some local pharmacists attended the event to share information on Narcan, a medication that blocks the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose.

The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy Old Saybrook Manager Laura Craven said independent pharmacists are now stocking Narcan, opening up access to the medication.

“Pharmacists now under Connecticut law are allowed to prescribe and dispense,” she said. “I don’t think a lot of people know that you can go to a pharmacy. It is so much more accessible and we are really trying to break that barrier.”

Pharmacists train recipients on how to distribute the drug and offer further education, according to Craven.

“If you have an EpiPen, you hope to never use it, but it is the same idea,” she said. “If you have opioids in your house, it is good to have it and most insurances are covering it.”

Chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens may not yet be distributing the medication, but Northeast Pharmacy Service Corporation Consultant Karen Hekeler said independent pharmacies have noticed an uptick in individuals requesting the medication.

“What we see is when the public is made aware that they can walk into a pharmacy, they do come,” she said.