Drug education film covering opioids, fentanyl and heroin to be screened at Taneytown library

Heroin still kills — and so do other opioids such as fentanyl, with which it is often cut.

From January through March this year, five people died in Carroll County in opioid-related overdoses — with another five deaths likely, pending confirmation from the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner — according to the latest statistics from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.

With many other people still battling opioid addiction in Carroll — the same Sheriff’s Office report notes 36 non-fatal heroin-related overdoses through March — the Taneytown branch of the Carroll County Public Library will be hosting a screening of “Heroin Still Kills” at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

A contemporary revisit of “Heroin Kills,” which was produced in Carroll amid a slew of heroin overdoses in the late ’90s, the new film premiered in January and updates its messaging to include the salient features of the current opioid addiction epidemic, such as the risks of an addiction beginning with opioid pain medications and of fentanyl mixed with heroin.

The screening is sponsored by the Carroll County Health Department’s office of prevention and the nonprofit Families Against the Stigma of Addiction.

“This is the second time that the Health Department has teamed up with Families Against the Stigma of Addiction for a lifesaving event,” Martha Peterson, founder of the nonprofit, wrote in an email. “The first event was very successful with over 70 people responding.”

The partnership with Families Against the Stigma of Addiction is a privilege for the Health Department, according to Linda Auerback, substance abuse prevention supervisor and the producer of the original “Heroin Kills” film.

“The video presentation with speakers contains an important message about the disease of addiction and prevention, which needs to be heard by everyone,” she said.

Spreading a message of prevention is personal for Peterson.

“In 2016 my family started the nonprofit — Families Against the Stigma of Addiction Inc., after the loss of my son, Chris Peterson to heroin addiction on March 7, 2014,” she wrote. “We chose to fight stigma because stigma is the number one reason people fail to seek treatment.”

For more information, call Auerback at 410-876-4803.

jon.kelvey@carrollcountytimes.com

410-857-3317

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