The Boston Fed has long studied New England’s opioid crisis because of its devastating economic impacts, and the COVID-19 pandemic only made things worse. Boston Fed writer Amanda Blanco and photographer Steve Osemwenkhae went to Maine and Massachusetts to meet people facing addiction and helping others overcome it.

Their story was headlined, “‘More funerals than weddings:’ Opioids hit New England hard, devastating families, the economy.” In this episode of Six Hundred Atlantic, we talk to Blanco and Osemwenkhae about what they’ve learned about this crisis and those fighting it.

JAY LINDSAY:

Hi, I’m Jay Lindsay, I’m your host on this episode of Six Hundred Atlantic. I'm really looking forward to this one today because I get to talk to a couple of my colleagues here at the Bank, Amanda Blanco and Steve Osemwenkhae. Steve and Amanda teamed up on a series at the Bank we call Boston Fed in Focus. The series just takes a deeper look at some of the topics we research here at the Boston Fed, and the topic of this one was the opioid crisis in New England, which has just been devastating.

So welcome to both of you.

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

Glad to be here, Jay. Thank you.

AMANDA BLANCO:

Thanks, Jay. Great to be here.

JAY LINDSAY:

So, I'm going to start with Amanda, and I'm just hoping you can briefly outline the story itself for me. The opioid crisis is something the Fed has been studying for years, but after your reporting, it was surprising to me, maybe it will be surprising to our listeners, just how hard the crisis has hit New England.

AMANDA BLANCO:

Yeah, so it's no secret that the opioid epidemic has been a huge issue nationally and in New England. But when the pandemic happened, that attention, obviously and rightfully, shifted elsewhere because of the global crisis we were all experiencing. But at the same time, what people may not know is that from almost everyone we spoke to, they told us that the opioid crisis got worse during this time. Part of that is due to the isolation that we all experienced, which is one of the worst things for people that are combating and going through and trying to recover from addiction. And another part of that is the rise of fentanyl, which is a synthetic drug about 50 times stronger than heroin. And it's really spread. It's causing a lot of overdoses. And at the same time, there's also a lot of people that are trying to help each other, trying to form communities around sobriety, trying to reach people at an earlier stage so they don't have to go through the horrible experience that is addiction.

JAY LINDSAY:

You just referred to this, and I want to ask you to give us some more specifics about just how hard the epidemic has hit New England. Because like I said, I found the numbers really surprising.

AMANDA BLANCO:

Yeah. So, we were speaking with one of our Bank researchers, Mary Burke, and she was telling us how over the years people turned to heroin after it got really hard to get their hands on prescription pain killers like OxyContin which they had previously relied on. And as I mentioned, fentanyl is now becoming a growing problem. And there is some pretty striking data about this from recent years.

So, for example, in 2021 the rate of overdose deaths was higher than the national average in every New England state but New Hampshire, and that’s according to the CDC. And that same year, Maine had the highest overdose rate in the region, and it was the fifth highest in the U.S. And even in 2022, more than 2,300 people in Massachusetts alone died of opioid related overdoses. And that is an all-time high for our state according to the Department of Public Health.

JAY LINDSAY:

Thanks a lot, Amanda. Steve, I want to talk to you. So, I'm curious, when you start on something like this, it's a huge story and you've got an aspect to tell that we really can't tell with words, how do you get going? How do you decide what you're going to do as a photographer? How do you kind of get started on this?

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

Me and Amanda, we decided to collaborate on this particular story together. The idea was to really listen to the interviews that she had with these particular individuals, and really understand where they were coming from. And this story is pretty much a tough conversation for a lot of people to have.

JAY LINDSAY:

So, Amanda mentioned the focus was on two different places. You have Worcester, which is an urban setting, it's inland. You have Bath, a small coastal city. It's a rural state. So, and the settings are an important part of the story, right? It's showing that the crisis isn't confined to one type of place or another. So, can you talk to me about how you chose to portray these two places to kind of make that clear?

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

It was raining, it was gloomy in Worcester, and I was able to use my drone to really photograph everything that was happening in Worcester at that particular time.

JAY LINDSAY:

Bath is different in what way? What were you trying to convey there?

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

If you look at the picture, you'll see a lot of greenery, a lot of fall foliage and things like that. And you see the sky is completely blue. Where the contrast to that, and the mood setting is Worcester and how dark that is and gloomy with just a different darkness in tones.

JAY LINDSAY:

Thanks Steve. So, Amanda, I want to talk to you again here. And this question is kind of about the people that you had to talk to. You can't tell the story without them obviously, but these are personal stories, they're painful stories. So, how do you get them to speak to you honestly about it?

AMANDA BLANCO:

Yeah, that's always a huge source of stresses. You're at the mercy of other people's kindness and their willingness to be honest with you when you're dealing with a topic like this. But there were a few things that were on our side for finding people for this story. The first one was that people who've spent the last year, the last 20 years, reaching sobriety and really changing their lives have probably spent a fair amount of time reflecting on their life stories. So, we're talking to people that are very thoughtful, very reflective, that have experience sharing their life stories with others, whether that's in a recovery group, whether that's with family, whether that's in the public. And the second part of this is that as we talk about how this crisis has been going on for decades, the numbers are unfortunately kind of in our favor, almost, just because almost everyone, I'm sure at this point in New England and other parts of the country, whether or not we realize it, we probably know someone whose life has been impacted in some way by the opioid epidemic. And luckily, we found people that were really excited to work with us. Which is awesome because when it comes to a topic like this, you never want to pressure someone into doing something they might regret, especially because the stigma of addiction is still very real.

JAY LINDSAY:

I want to ask you about a comment from one of your sources in Worcester, his name was Michael. He talked about the generational aspects of opioid addiction and his father’s own addiction in the 1970s. I am interested in knowing a little but more about what he is saying here. The problem has been spotlighted relatively recently, but he’s talking about roots that go back 50 years. Is he saying it’s been overlooked? Or something different?

AMANDA BLANCO:

Well, so a key perspective that Michael spoke with us about is that this issue gained a lot more public attention after addiction spread out of the inner city and into the more affluent and more white suburbs. Back when he was growing up in Worcester, within the lower-income Black and Hispanic communities, you know, in the 1970s and the 80s, he said that people with addiction were much more likely to end up in jail than a treatment center. And I think it’s hard not to wonder how many people’s lives could have been saved and how many family’s stories could have been completely changed if addiction was recognized back then as a public health issue, which we know it is today.

JAY LINDSAY:

So, I’ve got one more question here before I move on to Steve here. And I want to ask about the quote you used in the headline, which is, you know, "By the time I was 30, I'd been to more friends’ funerals than weddings." Now this is such a good quote. And when you heard that, were you like, “Bang, this is it. This is compelling, I’m going to use this up top.”

AMANDA BLANCO:

Yeah, so that quote comes from Kimberli Lovell. She is leading the Bath Recovery Community Center in Maine. And she really just had a life story that mirrored so much of the opioid epidemic from how it developed in the 90s, how a lot of people got hooked onto heroin and then went to fentanyl. And she's been in recovery for a long time and is just a really awesome person. But she's seen so many of the people around her unfortunately overdose and pass. So, as she was talking about her own experience, she said that, and it really just hit my ear that that's what we should go with.

JAY LINDSAY:

Yeah, I mean it really is super compelling. So, Steve, I want to talk to you now, about this stuff. I want to talk to you specifically about some of the pictures you ended up taking. There's a shot, and I think it's my favorite one, it's a side profile of Cody, outside the Bath Recovery Community Center. He's looking down, there's a little shadow over his eyes. And the effect is that it's serious, it's stark, and it's gray, even though it's sunny out. And so can you tell me a little bit about how you got this shot, because I think it just really works for the story.

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

Sure. For me, I wanted to capture who Cody was past tense and who he's now. And that's a stark difference, like you said, right? And, you know, I said, just stand right here. Just look down and think about your past, what you were, right?  And really again, still think about what's going on in your life now presently and reflect on that altogether, kind of that 360 moment for him. It was a great moment.

JAY LINDSAY:

I am wondering Steve, how did you come to better understand the issue, this opioid epidemic, as you went on the visits, as you met the people. And I’m wondering, how did that affect your photos?

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

You know, for a number of years, when you drive through Boston, there’s an area called Methadone Mile. And that particular area is full of individuals who are going through drug-addicted cases. Specifically, opioids, right? So, when this conversation came up about taking photos and really talking to individuals who were going through it between Maine and Worcester, I said to myself, this is going to be an awesome opportunity to understand and really educate myself on the particular issue. You know, working with Amanda, really helped right in that too, because her knowledge, her journalistic knowledge of asking questions, really helped me understand their answers, specifically. Just their personal issues really helped me understand the deep meaning of what they were going through, but also their personal growth. And how they are either helping out the community or trying to work within themselves to help better themselves. In some ways, it did help and affect the photos, but in other ways I also had an opportunity to kind of educate myself and understand the particular issue at hand.

JAY LINDSAY:

So, I kind of want to kind of bring us home here with a final question here for Amanda. So, as we noted from the start, the Boston Fed has been studying this problem for years. It's got a real significant regional economic impact. So, you learn some things as you're going along here while you're reporting this story. And I'm wondering if you can share just a little bit about what some of those were, what were some surprising things for instance, one of the most important things you’ve learned? Or something that’s just really stuck with you.

AMANDA BLANCO:

I'd have to say what's probably stuck with me the most is the extent to which you have young people in recovery or getting sober, people in their twenties and thirties, how they're already worried about the next generation of teenagers, of young adults, some of these people that I talked to, Cody for example, mid-late twenties, they’re already worried about the amount of fentanyl that's being distributed on the streets. And also, that young people are kind of directly seeking out almost, they're almost skipping heroin. I mean, it's crazy, just the overdoses that it can cause and the damage that it can wreak across a generation and across a community. So, in some ways, you kind of sit back and wonder, is this ever going to go away? Is this ever going to get better? But at the same time, it's incredibly encouraging to see how many people from all walks of life and all generations are really coming together around this issue and encouraging people to get into recovery, to get help and to help one another. And are really committed to that and to continuing to build awareness. So, I was really inspired by that as well.

JAY LINDSAY:

Great. Great. Thanks, Amanda. I appreciate that answer. And really thanks a lot for coming on the show.

AMANDA BLANCO:

Thanks for having me, Jay.

JAY LINDSAY:

And Steve, I know usually you're taking photos of our guests, so thanks for being willing to be a guest this time.

STEVE OSEMWENKHAE:

No, I'm glad to be a guest. It's a little different for me, but I was glad to do it.

JAY LINDSAY:

So, I want to plug the article again before we adjourn. The headline of the article, so just put in your search engine, “More funerals than weddings: Opioids hit New England hard, devastating families, the economy.” You can find the story on bostonfed.org. You can also find all our podcast seasons and interviews at bostonfed.org/sixhundredatlantic. Please subscribe to our mailing list when you're there to be notified about upcoming episodes, and we always ask people to rate and review our episodes. That would be hugely appreciated. I'm Jay Lindsay, and this is Six Hundred Atlantic. Thanks a lot for listening.