‘Drugs Did This’ forum in Ramseur set for Feb. 25

Feb 11, 2020 at 10:08 AM

RAMSEUR ― Two Randolph County residents will share their personal experiences with substance abuse and addiction at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the Ramseur Municipal Building, 724 Liberty St. The program is free and open to the public.

The stories are included in “Drugs Did This,” a new book by Randolph County writer Chip Womick, a former staff writer for The Courier-Tribune. The book will be available for sale.

Amber Mabe was almost 30 before she plunged into a rabbit hole of drug use ― opiates, then methamphetamines ― that cratered her life. She lost her children. She lost her business. She lost herself. She spent five years in and out of active addiction, but she quit for what she says she is confident was the last time on March 2, 2019.

“I don’t want to go back to where I was just a few months ago, living in my vehicle and not having a job and just struggling to find the will to live,” Mabe said in the summer of 2019 during an interview for the book.

Mabe says those in recovery face stigma ― from people in general and from prospective employers in particular ― that makes getting on track, and staying on track, even harder. “People do change,” she says. “And they do recover.”

Anna Bigelow’s husband, Jason Bigelow, died of a drug overdose in May of 2018. They had been married for 11 years, and their union produced three children, Bearik, Grace and Maverick.

An early childhood condition that required him to wear braces introduced Jason to pain medication. Hip replacement surgery after the couple wed required more pain pills; later, life-threatening complications led to more painkillers. Jason’s addiction eventually spiraled out of control, followed by a rollercoaster cycle of rehab and relapse.

When Jason died, Anna says she wanted to hide under the sheets forever. But she is not hiding anymore.

“I am not hiding behind my fears, shame, guilt, could-haves or what-ifs,” she says. “I am here to take a stand, to give the face of addiction a new name, to bring light into the darkness … I will let the world know that people are not defined by their addiction, their loss or their shame. They are beautiful. They are loved. And they are here for a purpose.”

The book has two goals: One is to raise money for the Community Hope Alliance, an Asheboro-based harm reduction non-profit with a multi-pronged mission to provide resources and promote substance use education, awareness, prevention and safety. All proceeds from sales go to the organization. The second goal is to raise awareness of the toll drugs are taking on individuals, their families and in fact, on every person in Randolph County.

Other speakers at the program will include Kelly Link, Susan Hayes and Donovan Davis.

Link co-founded the Community Hope Alliance with Ashley Hedrick, one of her three daughters. She will talk about why they started the organization and about its work.

Hayes, director of the Randolph County Health Department, and Davis, director of Randolph County Emergency Services, will share facts and figures about the impact of addiction and overdose in Randolph County.

According to data from Randolph County EMS, which does not include individuals who sought treatment at a hospital, there were 664 suspected overdoses and 36 overdose deaths in the county in 2019.