An Australian mother is battling to save her opioid-addicted son's life in a country where the drugs are cheap and easy to get. By KristenGelineau.
Deb Ware sits for a photo in the room of her home where her son Sam had been staying periodically for the past three years while battling an opioid addiction, in Fountaindale, Central Coast, Australia, Thursday, July 18, 2019.
For three years, she had battled to save his life, a lonely war against a system that made pharmaceutical opioids cheap and easy to get, in a country that has quietly endured what was once thought to be a uniquely American crisis of skyrocketing opioid addiction and deaths. . It has all unfolded despite the glaring warnings from the U.S., and despite more than a decade of warnings from Australian health professionals about a looming disaster.
Deb had worked for years as a nursing assistant. She’d seen plenty of kids prescribed opioids after wisdom tooth extractions. And so there was nothing that initially worried her about Sam’s pills, medication that combined paracetamol and codeine. Initially, the codeine was an occasional treat. Soon he realized he felt lousy when he wasn’t taking it. He took more, moving quickly from a few pills a week to 40 a day. Then 80. Then 110. His abdomen began to ache, which he feared was a result of all the paracetamol in the drugs. So he went online and learned how to extract the codeine from the pills.
The drugs were cheap. Most medications in Australia are government subsidized. For people like Sam who have concession cards — those who are older, or on low incomes, or have a disability — the out-of-pocket cost is just 6.50 Australian dollars per prescription. Sept. 8, 2016: “Said he wants to get off codeine. Withdrawal symptoms: nausea headache stomach cramps. Called paramedics.”Sept. 29: “Sam sacked.”Dec. 27: “Sam slept in his car — unable to contact him by phone. I contacted police.”
His life became an endless pursuit of pills. He lost friends and family and most of his belongings. His phones, laptop and clothes were left behind or stolen while overdosing on trains, in shopping centers, in a library. Eventually, all he owned would fit into his plastic shopping bag.Deb tried to get him committed to the state’s involuntary drug and alcohol treatment program, but there are only 12 beds available for New South Wales’ population of 8 million.
“I wish you and your son all the best for the challenges you are both facing,” the bureaucrat wrote, infuriatingly, in closing. She steered toward the freeway and jammed her foot on the accelerator. Sam clutched his seatbelt. “Let me out of the car!” he screamed. Day after day, she sat by his bed and prayed. She held up her phone to his pale face and played a song they both loved, “When the Rain Comes” by Third Day.But I will hold you ’til it goes away”After 10 days, the doctors successfully awakened him. He looked terrible. Deb went home that night with low expectations.“You’re alive!” she cried.
“So you can see what you’re like,” she replies. “I thought seeing yourself on life support would help you not do this anymore, but clearly not.”The ambulance arrives. Deb is too fed up to follow. She calls the hospital later and learns that Sam was briefly put back on life support, but that it’s not as bad as last time.
“For me to say that after everything mum’s done for me... especially bringing me up by herself, providing for me. And then with the OD in ICU when I was in the coma, coming to visit me every day, the toll that would have taken — I can’t begin to imagine,” he says, eyes darting toward his mother, who stares back in silence. “I felt terrible.”
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