Overdose Awareness Day Aims to Remove Stigma

WILDWOOD — Overdose Awareness Day is held yearly to bring attention to the problem of drug addiction and death caused by an overdose. Observed on Aug. 31, it honors certain people involved in combatting the problem. 
This year Cape Addiction Recovery Services (CARES) at Cape Regional Medical Center decided to honor medical professionals who worked to prevent death by overdose, and who attempt to change the way overdose victims are treated. 
Dr. Rachel Haroz, the division head of Toxicology and Addiction Medicine at Cooper University Hospital, said, in her experience, emergency rooms try to get overdose victims out the door as soon as possible. 
“As an MD I was taught, if these people are in the ER, you have to get them out,” she said. “I decided to be part of the solution.”
Her comments were echoed by Wendy Schmolk, a registered nurse, who found her son lying on his bedroom floor, the victim of an overdose. She said she heard herself scream the same way she heard family members scream in the ER when they learned their loved one had died. She found herself on her knees checking for vital signs and “bargaining with God” for her son’s life. She went to work the next day with the intention of not talking about it, but soon learned she had to tell others about addiction. 
“Keeping your story a secret protects the stigma,” she said.
Cape May County Sheriff Robert Nolan, who encounters addiction daily in his work, said there is too much negative stigma on drug use in the legal system. He said addicts build up a tolerance to drugs so that when they are simp ly put in jail without getting medical attention, they tend to use and overdose when they get out, often with fatal consequences.
Nolan understands firsthand the consequences of addiction. He told the guests at CARES’ Overdose Awareness Day ceremony that his daughter, now 42, got involved with drugs when she was 15. 
Nolan’s son fatally overdosed just six months after he was sworn in as sheriff. He still calls that the worst day of his life.
“He was close to me…I haven’t stopped thinking about him,” Nolan said.
Nolan said he took an oath when he joined the Sheriff’s Office and again when he became sheriff, to serve the people of the county. He said he believes part of that service to the community is drug enforcement. The sheriff’s webpage reads, “Bob is focused on eliminating illegal narcotics and has played a major role in developing bomb and drug-sniffing K-9 Unit teams.” 
At the same time, Nolan advocates programs, such as medical addiction treatment, to save lives and break the cycle of addiction before a fatal overdose happens. 
Nolan said he worked with Drug Court Judge Mark Sandson, who told him there were addicts who were being housed in the Cape May County Correctional Facility who were missing out on recovery services because they did not have transportation to facilities with available beds. He said he designated a team to transport individuals to any available facility. 
“We’ve got to do more. We’ve got to fight addiction. We’ve got to fight fentanyl,” Nolan said. 
In referring to fentanyl, Nolan named one of the biggest single causes of overdose death in New Jersey. According to information provided by SueAnne Agger of CARES, in 2017 there were 1,587 fatal overdoses in New Jersey, with 417 of them attributed to fentanyl. In 2019, the most recent year the figures are available, New Jersey had 3,751 fatal overdoses. 2,031 of those were caused by fentanyl.
Derrick Schmolk, a nurse, and the son of Wendy Schmolk is also an overdose survivor.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he told the guests at Overdose Awareness Day. 
Schmolk said three years ago when his family found him on the floor it was not the first time he had used, but it was the first time they were aware of it.
“It was never my plan to chase the needle, to chase the bag…” he said. 
He said it was not his plan to add heroin addict to the list of son, brother, nurse and father. He said that today when he wakes up, he doesn’t feel the need to use drugs because he has the love and support of his family — and he is devoting his time to giving love and support to his son while working as a nurse in recovery services. 
Schmolk told of a 19-year-old who was in the emergency room having survived an overdose and was posting pictures of himself on Snapchat, a popular social media platform. Schmolk said overdosing is not something to glorify, not something to be proud of, and not something to post for younger people to see on social media. 
Haroz said addiction is a disease of behavior, but still a disease that hijacks one’s behavior. She said patients who have addictions should be treated the same as those with diabetes or heart issues. 
Wendy Schmolk said she has learned to talk about addiction to her peers in the ER and tells them, “Addiction does not discriminate — it impacts us all.”
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