Fall River's Number One Problem

I don't know why I get shocked or stunned anymore with news like this. The phone rang at a strange hour of the night, and I knew it couldn't be good. It wasn't. Another young man was gone among the many who have been lost in Fall River's version of the war on drugs. Another young life cut way too short. But this one was a little different. Every life is valued unquestionably, but this was a young man whom I had coached and known, a young man who had potential and didn't deserve the drastic fate he encountered. There are no fancy funeral processions, no full honors for the victims of the war on drugs right here in our city - a drug war that has taken way too many lives and has touched each and every family through the SouthCoast. It's a war that we are losing on a daily basis despite the constant infusion of funds to our law enforcement and penal facilities to fight this.

The latest victim was 27 years old. In fact, I know most of his friends - not friends from the life that ultimately claimed him, friends from the life that I knew: Boys & Girls Club friends, Columbus Park friends, real, good friends. They were a special group. They liked sports, music, and hanging out with their friends, friends with ties that bind. Friends like Jose, Peter, and Billy. The friends that I saw with their eyes swollen with tears, shaking their head shocked that such a cruel fate could happen to one of their own.

All the politicians and all the pundits can step on their soap box and tell you all about Fall River, talking about things that Fall River needs: a commuter rail, a casino, the perpetual carrot for decades now. While it's true that Fall River needs all of these things, the biggest thing it needs to realize is that the number one problem is the heroin, oxycontin, opiate epidemic that has had Fall River in a death grip for decades. Make no mistake about it, folks. Take a look around you, and you will see its effects all over the SouthCoast. Shattered dreams, fractured families, and many lives lost all around us. Many like the 27-year-old that I had once known, I had once coached, and who is the subject of this blog post.

I remember distinctly talking to his friends about how nice his mother was and how well she treated everyone in the neighborhood. I remember them talking about his personality and his love and loyalty to his friends from his old neighborhood. I also watched them with sunken eyes and deflated shoulders talk about the destruction that the opiate epidemic has left on their childhood group of friends.
One of them said to me, "Who the fuck would have thought this when we were all at the Boys Club and Columbus Park when we were 12 years old?" I shook my head and said, "I know. Believe it or not, this one shocked and surprised me." But the reality is that no one should be shocked or surprised, especially me. I've seen it too many times.




This is the first installment in a series running all week looking at Fall River's crippling opiate/heroin epidemic. We have made a commitment at HurricaneRadio.net to bring you news and information in a much more direct, street-level way as only new media outlets can provide. This is the first of many, taking a hard, close look at the issues affecting all of us.







Coming next, Hurricane takes a walk, and you won't believe what he finds.