At Berkshire Opioid Awareness Summit, Drug Expert Judge Calls on Providers to Investigate Root Causes of Addiction | Local news

PITTSFIELD — Judge Charles W. Groce III brings his life experience to work with him every day.

Groce, who runs a specialized court in Springfield for people living with a substance use disorder, said that instead of seeing those she meets as “others,” she sees them as her own family, friends and those he grew up with.

“I’m a child of addiction,” he said. “But since I’m here, I’m also a child of the recovery.”

He spoke to a group of about 80 people working in addiction recovery in Berkshire County who attended a Berkshire Opioid Awareness Summit event at the Berkshire Innovation Center on Monday.

The disease of addiction can be generational, he said, passed down by nature and nurture. But Groce, the president of the Springfield Drug Court for the past seven years, said treatment can also be passed on.

He’s seen it firsthand in drug court, a specialized court that aims to foster recovery. There are 28 drug courts operating in Massachusetts district courts, including one in Pittsfield. Its participants do the work of recovery in the same courthouse where many have previously experienced trauma such as being separated from family or sentenced to prison, she said.

The drug court scene at times feels like therapy, at others like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous and even sometimes like a comedy club, he said. It is an environment meant to deal with an addiction that feeds on the human spirit.

“The opposite of addiction is relationship,” he said.

In Monday’s session, he asked providers to be nimble in their practices, recognize what works and what doesn’t, and then be prepared to make changes accordingly.

In the Berkshires, the number of fatal opioid overdoses fell 24 percent in 2022, then remained mostly flat the following year, said Andy Ottoson, senior planner for the Collaborative for Drug Prevention ‘Berkshire overdose addiction.

With the goal of preventing fatal overdoses and reducing that number to zero, Ottoson stressed the importance of harm reduction initiatives, such as providing free naloxone and substance-detection test strips to detect the presence of fentanyl. Addressing the addiction crisis also requires addressing the root causes of chronic stress, such as access to mental health care and housing.

“People tend to turn to substance abuse unless we can offer them hope and viable alternatives,” Ottoson said.

Judge Groce said virtually every criminal case he had come across had a substance use or mental health element. Fostering recovery requires systems staffed with compassionate people, but people cannot succeed until they want to.

“You must be as desperate for your redemption as you are for your destruction,” he said.

Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue, whose office organized the summit, said prosecutors are willing to dismiss some cases in district court if defendants complete treatment, along those lines.

“I’m willing to get rid of the cases,” he said. “I’m willing to divert them, as long as you stop by and get a treatment.”

He described his approach to dealing with drugs in Berkshire County as a “two-way process,” encouraging those who possess drugs for personal use or, in some cases, selling to support their addiction, to receive treatment and while pursuing drug trafficking. in the Superior Court.

Sarah DeJesus, harm reduction program director at Berkshire Health Systems, said her work focuses on providing the tools people need to stay alive. Part of that mission includes removing stigma: tearing down the facade that says there is some fundamental difference between those living with addiction and those not.

“It’s not us versus them,” he said. “We are a community.”