Driving to Stay Clean

(open with SFX in car)

It’s not quite 6 A-M, and the sky is still dark.

I’m riding south on Route 16 in a rusty Chevy Suburban.

It’s a Thursday, but there aren’t many cars on the road.

Most people still have a few hours before they have to leave for work.

So does Bill, the man driving the Suburban.

But before he goes to work, he has to drive from Ossipee to Somersworth… and back.

Bill: It’s 45 minutes each way if there’s no traffic, which at this time, 6 o’clock, will be fine. But if I left at like 7 there’s so much construction going on now that it would take an hour, hour and 15 minutes.

In the last two and a half years he has made this morning trip more than four hundred times.

Bill is driving to Merrimack River Medical Services.

It’s a methadone clinic in Somersworth operated by Community Substance Abuse Centers, or C-S-A-C.

Bill: I just got to run in the store here, I got my little morning routine. I got to get my Redbull. You want anything? You all set? I’ll be right out. [CAR DOOR OPENS ANDSLAMS SHUT.]

Bill is an opiate addict.

He got hooked on prescription drugs after a back injury, and he spent five years buying pills illegally.

After trying to quit several times without success, he enrolled in a methadone program.

It costs him one hundred five dollars a week…. and a lot of time in the car.

Methadone helps addicts get their cravings under control.

It’s distributed only at special clinics with strict rules.

Addicts need a daily dose, and for the first three months of treatment every dose must be taken at a clinic.

The closest clinic to Bill’s hometown of Ossipee is in Somersworth, so Bill started making the drive every day.

Bill: Well, because I’ve been going for 2 and a half years I get 5 take homes, so I only do it Wednesdays and Thursdays. And, I mean, that makes all the difference, because when I was going every day it was, you know, it was a drag, I’ll admit it, because it’s 100 mile round trip.

The Somersworth clinic is the closest facility for Northern New Hampshire residents.

Bill: …. There’s a guy who drives down from Berlin everyday. I don’t know how he does it but he does. I think it’s 2 and a half hours each way, he told me.

This past spring C-S-A-C tried to open a clinic in Northern New Hampshire.

The company approached the town of Conway, but the selectmen voted unanimously against the idea, and the proposal stalled.

Bill says he doesn’t understand why towns don’t welcome methadone clinics.

Bill: People want addict to get help, but nobody wants it in their own back yard. It’s very frustrating to me.

We arrive at the clinic at 7, and Bill goes in for his dose.

He says it takes him about 5 minutes to get the drug, but today he is meeting with his support group.

I sit in the Suburban and watch as others arrive for their treatment.

They hustle in and out, glancing hellos but never stopping to talk.

I find out later that congregating outside the clinic is against the rules, to avoid possible drug deals.

An hour later Bill comes out.

BILL: Did the wait seem very long?

He’s got a small lock box. He opens it to show me his take-homes.

He has five plastic screw-top bottles, each the size of a film canister, each half-full with a red, syrupy liquid – methadone.

It took him two years to earn the right to bring these five bottles home.

But if a drug test ever comes up positive he’ll lose all his privileges.

Bill: If you use, and you get a dirty urine, then they take all your take-homes away and you gotta start from scratch, and prove yourself all over again.

The program has worked well for Bill, who says he hasn’t used illegal drugs since he started.

Bill: All I know is I never think about or crave taking pills anymore. And I haven’t done it for 2 and a half years.

Bill would like to wean himself off methadone too.

It’s highly addictive, and he doesn’t want to be hooked on any drugs anymore.

He hopes the clinic and his support group can help him through this next challenge.

Bill: I’m an addict, you know. It’s something I’ve got to deal with the rest of my life. You know I’ve dealt with my past. I’m dealing with the present, getting my life together. Now it’s like ok, what lies ahead? And that my next big chapter.

Bill isn’t the only addict from Northern New Hampshire wondering about the next chapter.

Brett and Amanda are married and live in Conway, and they also make the drive to the Somersworth clinic.

Brett: I’ve been there going on 2 and a half years now.
Amanda: And I’ve been there almost four years, four years.

Both credit methadone for their success in controlling their addictions.

Amanda: I’ve been using heroin and opiates since I was like 17, and I’m 36. So I mean just off and on for years. The only time I’ve ever – I’ve been in jail for 2 years at a time when I was using. And I just, the only time I’ve ever stayed clean is a methadone clinic. This is the only thing that maintains my life. And it’s been 4 years now.

It is one hundred thirty miles roundtrip from Conway to Somersworth, and Brett and Amanda make the drive four days a week.

Amanda: All together it takes about like 3 and a half hours to do.
Brett: So you have to take 3 and a half hours out of your day in the morning, get up, you know, fit it in your schedule.

They make due, building their lives around the clinic’s hours as best they can.

Amanda: He needs to be working a second shift. I mean he’s working second shift now, which really isn’t not a great job for a family. First shift would be a lot more helpful, but it would be so hard to find a job that he can make it back for in time, you know? And you don’t want to tell someone “I’m in a methadone clinic,” you know?

And Brett and Amanda say they aren’t the only people from the area making the morning drive.

Amanda: Lot of people from like Ossipee.
Brett: You just see other people from right around Conway, Ossipee area, you know, Wolfeboro, all that.
Erik: How do you know that?
Brett: You just know a lot of them. You hear people talking.
Amanda: You see them on 16 driving, you’ll be like I saw you at Dunkin’ Donuts in Tamworth and then you bump into them there.

They say many people would benefit if there were a clinic in Northern New Hampshire.

One of them is Brett’s father, Adam, who’s also addicted to opiates.

Brett:….. He’s somebody that actually wants to be on the clinic, but due to money and, schedule-wise, getting up in the morning and not having the money, he can’t be on the clinic right now. So if there was a clinic closer for him, where he didn’t have to travel so far and spend so much money it would definitely benefit him.

Adam’s a gruff man with a stocky build.

He’s watched Brett and Amanda move forward with their treatment.

Adam: I congratulate the both of them for what they’re doing, and what they’ve made a decision to do. And I see such a big big big big difference and I’m proud that they’re doing what they are doing.
Erik: Are you still using?
Adam: I don’t want to answer that. And that gives you an answer right there. I’m what you call a career junkie, you know what I mean? And that’s not going to stop until the day I die.

Officials at Community Substance Abuse Centers say they’ve given up on putting a clinic in Northern New Hampshire for the time being.

Instead they’ve shifted their sights for a new clinic to western Massachusetts.

So, for the time being, Bill, Brett and Amanda will continue their morning commute.

Adam says he’ll continue to deal with his addiction on his own.

For N-H-P-R News, this is Erik Eisele.