Students and other Lehigh Valley community members gathered at Northampton Community College Sept. 17 to learn about Opioid/Heroin addiction prevention.

Lisa Wolff, the senior manager of Special Projects at The Center for Humanistic Change (CHC) was instrumental in developing the HOPE (Heroin and Opioid Prevention Education) program and led the seminar. CHC is a nonprofit based in Allentown that educates others on preventing addiction to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Wolff spoke about the dangers of using opioids such as oxycontin as pain relief. What can seem like an innocent way to get rid of back pain, can turn into a full blown addiction.

Several teens who Lisa spoke about were sucked into addiction by using painkillers (they were prescribed them after surgery or obtained them from peers), and then turned to heroin due to its affordability and accessibility.

Edwin Ramos, the manager at the Allentown Rescue Mission, a homeless shelter for men, spoke about his experience with opioid addiction. He started using marijuana and cocaine at a young age, and ultimately became addicted to heroin. Wolff had mentioned throughout the program that young teens will often start off using marijuana and other drugs, which can act as a gateway to heroin and other opioids.

Ramos became homeless and ended up at the Allentown Rescue Mission, where he currently works. He discovered his passion for giving back to his community, and this helped him get clean. Working at the Allentown Rescue Mission has allowed him to move forward from his addiction. He said, “My urge to get high was no longer there. My urge to help outweighed the urge to get high”. Ramos saw the destruction that heroin brought to his life, and now sees the prevalence of addiction at the homeless shelter. According to Ramos, “96 percent of the intakes that were coming in were addicted to some type of mind altering substance, 60 percent of which was heroin.”

Wolff and other speakers at the HOPE program want parents, friends and peers to know that addiction can happen to anyone. One might not expect their child to be using, but addiction can be a secretive disease. Although it can be painful to share his story with others, Edwin emphasized the importance of educating our communities about the dangers of addiction.

Wolff said, “This heroin addiction is consuming the population like a wildfire. The only way we are going to make a dent in what is going on today is by sharing information, letting people know that it can happen to anybody.” Instead of addiction spreading through society, information on the impact of addiction and how to stop it should spread faster.