Fighting Back Against Opioids: Teens Team Up In Fierce Battle

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — A group of teens who live in one of the most-opioid ravaged communities in the nation came to Long Island to participate in a cutting-edge exchange program that brought together young people to create change and find solutions.

Students from Southampton, Northport and Huntington High Schools, along with the hard-hit Tug Valley High School in Kermit, West Virginia, teamed up to fight back against the opioid crisis.

Last week, the students met and participated in forums to learn from each other and share ideas.

One discussion took place on Thursday at Southampton High School, where students heard from Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman, Southampton Town Police Chief Steven Skrynecki, and representatives from the Southampton Task Force and East End Rehabilitation Services, the town said.

The students asked questions, shared personal experiences and offered their thoughts on curtailing opioid use, with suggestions including the creation of additional mental health programs in schools and the continued mission of imbuing students with a greater sense of purpose.

According to a release, "Kermit, West Virginia is one of the most impoverished communities in the country and is believed to have been one of the epicenters of the opioid epidemic. In 2016, a Pulitzer Prize winning report revealed that wholesaler pharmaceutical companies recklessly flooded Kermit with more than 12 million hydrocodone pills between 2007 and 2012, creating overdose deaths five times more than average."

Students from Northport High School visited Kermit during the past winter and invited the students to Long Island in July, the release said.

The Northport Opioid Task Force was modeled after the Southampton Opioid Task Force and the West Virginia students expressed interest in learning more about what Southampton is doing to combat the opioid crisis, the release added.

The forum also included former News 12 Anchor Drew Scott, who co-chaired Southampton's Opioid Task Force and who lost his beloved granddaughter Hallie Rae to the scourge of addiction.

Scott said more than three dozen students from Huntington and East Northport hosted the students from Kermit; they met with members of the Southampton Opioid Addiction and Recovery Committee to discuss the addiction epidemic in WV and on Long Island.

"I was so impressed by the dedication of these high school students from West Virginia and Northport. Many took notes and several asked very good questions about availability of addiction treatment and law enforcement programs that offer assistance to addicts and not jail time."

According to Kim Raha of Northport High School, who helped to organize the forum, Kermit, W. Va. is "one of the most impoverished communities in our country and part of ground zero for our nation's opioid epidemic."

One event the teens took part in was a community forum Wednesday at the Huntington Cinema Arts Centre, attended by Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Rep. Tom Suozzi.

The kids, Braha said, focused on how the community can come together and "address our mental health issue in relation to our nation's opioid epidemic."