Over the past few months, Massachusetts has witnessed an overwhelming wave of opioid or more commonly known as heroin addiction. Massachusetts State Police recorded double the amount of heroin users from November to January, puzzling the state health board. The authorities consider one reason for the drastic increase is the return of heroin that is mixed with potentially deadly additives to produce hazardous high, leading to the higher risk of addiction. This life threatening drug is not what is used to be. Early last year, heroin was found tainted with fentanyl: another opioid that is up to 100 times stronger than morphine, making drug rehabilitation more difficult.

For whatever the reason is driving this monster of a drug, its toll has astonished workers in addiction treatment and prevention.

Emergency workers in Boston have been using the medication naloxone, also known but the trade name Narcan, to reverse 138 opioid overdoses in December, compared to the 69 in October. Without Narcan, many of those survivors might have died, said health officials. Another attribute of this heroin rejuvenation is that more overdoses, according to Rita Nieves, director of addiction services for the Boston Public Health Commission, are “occurring in someone’s home, in the bathroom and kitchen.”

“They end up in trouble by themselves, and there’s no one to rescue them with Narcan,” Nieves said.

However drug rehabilitation in Massachusetts is extremely possible. The fight for life, user and family, is achievable only 45 minutes north of Boston at the GateHouse Sober Community. A home that provides men that are in search for long-term sobriety, based on their 12 step recovery program. As their mission to provide a safe and supportive atmosphere, they provide residents and their loving families a new thirst for an enjoyable, abstemious life. Remember, you are not alone in your addiction. The GateHouse Sober Community is honored to be apart of the journey towards sober living in Mass and the New England area!

For more information, contact GateHouse Sober Community at 855-448-3638.