Fentanyl Addiction Stretches Beyond Dark Corners Of Society
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The problem of prescription drug addiction isn't restricted to shady characters in the dark corners of society. Doctors, lawyers, and even your next door neighbor are among those addicted to powerful drugs.
Mendy DeGennaro is now helping others get their lives back on track. It's something that took her years to do after a car crash when she was 20.
"Flipped a truck in Colorado on some black ice and broke all the bones my face," she said.
She was prescribed Norco. The accident was bad, but what followed would cause her to hit rock bottom.
"I went from pharmaceuticals to buying opiates off the street," she said.
Trying to deal with her pain, she became addicted. When she couldn't get prescriptions for the drugs, she turned to the streets.
"I found that heroin was cheaper. That was the go-to. You could buy pharmaceuticals on the street, they're just very expensive," she said.
After the prescriptions ended, she turned to other drugs, wherever she could find them. While high on Fentanyl, she said she tried to save a friend also on the drug who overdosed.
"Unfortunately it was too late he was already dead," she said.
That friend's death was her wake-up call.
"That was the end for me the end and the beginning of a road to recovery," she said.
From Southern California, she came to Sacramento, a city she says has the most recovery homes per capita. Now working at Transitions Clinic and helping others with opiate addiction, she's five years clan this month.
She credits her work for keeping her on the right path.
In the Sacramento region, and across the country, she's not alone.
"You have soccer moms going out and buying heroin on the streets," said Richard Alcala.
He's the director of the Transitions clinic in Oak Park.
"The doctor won't give them a prescription anymore for Norco or OxyContin. Then, they turn to heroin, which is cheaper and readily available," he said.
Phone calls to the clinic have doubled recently after an increase in Fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the Sacramento region. Nine people in Sacramento County and one person in Yolo County are believed to have been killed by overdoses on the drug in the past two weeks.