Mother losing two sons to drug overdose calls for OD prevention centers in Mass.

MARLBOROUGH ‒ Cheryl Juaire knows the agony and unimaginable loss that comes with a loved one that succumbs to a drug overdose.

Juaire, who lives in Marlborough, lost her son Corey to a fatal overdose 12 years ago. Juaire explained that her divorce when Corey was 5 "devastated" him. He experimented with drugs and started on a downfall after he was given OxyContin for a hernia operation when he was a teenager.

"Corey was doing drugs and I thought it was his choice, which is so different now. I would tell him to stop. He tried to tell me it was addictive and hard to stop. I was angry with him," she said.

"At the end of the day, Corey ended up dying alone in a bedroom with shame and nobody to talk to because everybody was mad at him. It's a horrible way to die."

The heartache didn’t end with Corey’s death. Two years ago, Juaire’s son, Sean, died from an overdose.

"(Sean) was devastated when Corey died,” cascading in a downward spiral after his brother’s death, going from recovery to relapse that he never recovered from. “He lost everything. He lost his will to live.”

Juaire is determined to spare other families the horrors of opioid addiction. She attended a Thursday rally at the Statehouse in Boston to call on lawmakers to support a bill that would establish a 10-year experimental period for so-called overdose prevention centers in Massachusetts.

A recent poll of more than 600 Massachusetts registered voters showed 70% support a bill to allow cities and towns to establish the centers. The poll was sponsored by the ACLU of Massachusetts and released by Massachusetts for Overdose Prevention Centers, the organizer of Thursday's rally.

Here's how the centers work: Drug users bring illicit drugs into the center, where trained monitors oversee users when they take the drugs. Recovery and treatment services are available to those who want them.

"Overdose prevention centers will save lives. That's a no-brainer," said Juaire.

Lives saved and a sticking point

Supporters say the centers save lives since many overdose deaths occur when the victim is alone.

A sticking point to their establishment is some believe the centers enable drug users. Another is federal law deems the centers illegal, but supporters say they’re needed as Massachusetts and Worcester face a public health crisis.

Massachusetts had a record 2,359 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2022, according to the state Department of Public Health. Numbers dropped slightly over the first nine months in 2023, with 1,718 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths statewide, approximately 32 fewer than in the first nine months of 2022.

Worcester's Department of Health and Human Services reported to the City Council this week that from 2018 to 2022, statewide overdose deaths grew by 15.7%. Worcester exceeded that trend with an increase of 17.8% over the same time.

Meanwhile, preliminary numbers from the Worcester Police Department show an 11% increase in opioid-related deaths from January to Sept. 2023, compared with the same months in 2022.

Reflecting on Corey’s death at a time when she said knowledge about opioid addiction was limited, including her understanding of the disease, Juaire said if overdose prevention centers were around during Corey’s lifetime, they could have been a lifesaver.

“I believe if we had those then and more education, like now, then Corey would probably still be alive today,” she said.

Two in U.S.: More than 1,300 overdoses prevented

Only two overdose prevention centers, also called supervised injection sites, operate in an official capacity in the U.S. Both are in New York City, run by OnPoint NYC. The nonprofit's website indicates more than 4,400 people used the two centers since they opened in 2021, with more than 117,000 monitored situations and more than 1,300 overdoses prevented.

Legal liability is the rub in the Massachusetts debate — and nationwide — because without lawmakers legalizing the centers, those with a direct connection to their operations could be sued. That point was made by state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, who sponsored the bill to establish the 10-year pilot program.

Cyr filed a separate bill to expand the state’s Good Samaritan Law to make those affiliated and working in the centers immune from prosecution because they’re helping someone in a medical crisis. As Cyr sees it, the State Department of Public Health’s recent study that backs the centers means the proposed measure to expand the Good Samaritan Law could unlock the legal impediment.

State lawmaker lost son to opioids

State Rep. Kate Donaghue planned to attend Thursday’s rally at the Statehouse. She supports the bill calling for the pilot program, citing the centers save lives and are a gateway to recovery and treatment services.

Donaghue lost her son, Brian, to an opioid overdose in 2018. She declined to discuss why her fellow state lawmakers have not legalized the centers. Four years ago, the Massachusetts Harm Reduction Commission supported them.

Donaghue believes there are only two centers in the U.S. because it “takes time for people to wrap their arms around the idea that the centers save lives.” She compared the current climate of hesitation to earlier opposition to clean needle exchange programs. Today, those programs are widely accepted.

Overdose prevention centers also save money, said Donaghue, because the cost of running them is cheaper than ambulances that take overdose victims to local hospital emergency rooms. Not only is the expense of using ambulances prohibitive, said Donaghue, but the cost of emergency room care is exorbitant.

Another stop on advocacy road

Thursday’s event at the Statehouse is the latest stop in Juaire’s journey to help families who lost loved ones to the opioid crisis.

She attended last month's oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices decide if a $6 billion bankruptcy settlement between numerous plaintiffs and OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is legal. The central issue remains whether the Sackler family, who owns Purdue Pharma, is exempt from future civil lawsuits as part of the settlement.

Juaire was in the courtroom because she helped negotiate the settlement as part of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Purdue Pharma.

Massachusetts would get $110 million, paid out over 18 years, to help fund opioid treatment programs, if the settlement is legal. If it happens, Juaire said Massachusetts will get an infusion of cash that should be enough to fund overdose prevention centers without the need for state funds.

Besides, Juaire has a hard time understanding why some lawmakers might oppose the centers when many states, including Massachusetts, legalized the sale of recreational marijuana, a drug that remains illegal under federal law.

'Doing OK'

While sharing the tragic stories of her two sons, Juaire paused to say, "I'm doing OK." She's thankful for a support network from Team Sharing Inc., a nonprofit Juaire founded after Corey’s death. The organization offers support services to parents who lost children to drug addiction.

This week, Juaire and more than a dozen mothers in the network went out for dinner. Some planned to join Juaire at Thursday's event at the Statehouse to deliver a clear message to lawmakers — it's time to bring overdose prevention centers to Massachusetts.

“To me, the end goal is getting them into recovery so another mother does not have to suffer this type of loss," said Juaire.

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Cheryl Juaire backs overdose prevention centers in Massachusetts