In the beginning there were supposedly harmless pain pills – but in the meantime tens of thousands of people from the working and middle classes are addicted in the USA. The nationwide opioid crisis is now coming to justice.
By Verena Bünten, ARD Studio Washington
The little Aunna is only three weeks old, a petite baby – and on withdrawal. Just like her mother Kelinda, addicted to drugs since her teenage years and full of good intentions that everything will change now. They both live in Lily’s Place, a facility in Huntington where a tiny newborn struggles with withdrawal in each room. Most of them have to face this difficult start without their mothers. Here they are kept and looked after by specially trained volunteers, so-called “cuddlers”.
In the United States, a baby is born every 15 minutes under the influence of addiction, which often overwhelms the drug-addicted mother, but also the hospital. “Some of these babies cry a lot, some want to be held tightly in the arm, others no touch at all,” explains Sandy, former nurse and now “cuddler”. “We are trying to bring some hold to your stormy life.”
The parent generation often fails
Andrianna Riling was once such a baby on withdrawal. The 11-year-old grows up with her two brothers from birth with the grandparents who are responsible for three teenagers at the age of 70. Not a special case in West Virginia: The actual generation of parents often drops out – because of drug addiction, which began with supposedly harmless pain relievers.
“At the time, eight parents died of opioids in the kindergarten group,” says grandmother Beverly Riling, whose son first took pills because of back pain and never got rid of them. Like most, he switched to heroin at some point.
On behalf of their orphaned grandchildren, Riling is now suing for the major opioid trial in Cleveland, Ohio, where pharmaceutical companies are expected to face their responsibilities. “Manufacturers said these drugs were completely safe, but they must have known about the risk of addiction,” said lawyer Booth Goodwin. He also considers the wholesalers complicit: “In West Virginia, small towns were flooded with millions of pills, so massive warning signals were ignored.”
Riling says in tears that it is not about money, but about justice: “As a police secretary, so many parents asked me to help them with their drug – addicted children. But I could not even save my own son this process gives us the chance to maybe be able to help other children. “
