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Heroin Hearse makes the rounds with message

During the Steps of Change, OhioCAN drug addiction awareness program in Centennial Park recently, the Heroin Hearse Awareness vehicle appeared with its message that heroin kills. Based in Huntington, owner Dwayne Woods and his partner Trish Burns, along with Woods’ two children, Brandon, 10 and Victoria, 8, talked with many of the 500 or so people who attended the event. — Larry Shields

SALEM, Ohio — The Heroin Hearse pounds across interstates from its base in Huntington into eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, delivering a fiercely frank and timeworn message on the tailgate: “Heroin Kills, is this your last ride?”

A 6-year-old boy strapped inside a hot vehicle, his father passed out from an overdose, compelled Dwayne Woods to act.

“I’ll never forget that child (Kenny) as his arms wrapped around my neck and his tears running down my back,” Woods said of the May 2016 incident.

He saved the child and today the Heroin Hearse, owned by Woods, roams the streets anywhere and collects teddy bears to give to children in a new “Bears from Kenny” project.

“We’re advocates for children, we’re getting the word out,” Woods said.

In February, he bought a 1988 Buick hearse, a bit of an unusual model for that calling, but Woods said he was thinking more along the lines of cutting the top off and hauling motorcycles in it.

But listening to the radio he heard report after report of drug overdoses.

“It had another purpose other than what I wanted it for,” he said, and the Heroin Hearse, which declares, “Inject heroin, reject life” on its side, came to life.

With his partner, Trish Burns, and his two children, Brandon, 10 and Victoria, 8, they hit the streets “talking to children and families every day” about the deadly heroin epidemic, trying to shake its lethal grip with logic, awareness and hope, one person at a time if necessary.

Woods says, “It’s all about getting awareness out there. Stigma, in my opinion, is killing as many as the heroin.”

The opiate comes in (to the body), he explained, “you fall, you push your hands forward to help break the fall, one drop goes to the brain receptor … your brain is gone, then your heart is next and it owns the person.”

Then, stigma.

As a defined mark of disgrace associated with addicts, the stigma is a major force, combined with a number of contributing factors including economic, societal attitudes and indifference, that drive the lack of awareness about the epidemic.

Woods said the battle must be fought on a larger scale.

“It’s kind of sad that no one wanted to participate, but you know what, it’s what’s happening out there every day.

“People want to hide behind their fancy houses, or their trailer parks, behind their big jobs or their public whatever and say it doesn’t exist, or say this, and I hate to hear this, ‘all junkies need to die.’

“No, they don’t, everybody deserves life … is there anybody here that doesn’t deserve life?” he asked a large crowd gathered for the Steps of Change, an OhioCAN addiction awareness program in Centennial Park.

He and his family drive thousands of miles, more than 6,000 since buying the Heroin Hearse in late February, and they spend anywhere from $500 to $1,000 keeping their self-funded awareness mission on the road each weekend.

Mention certain areas, where the epidemic is more prevalent, more dangerous, as an “epicenter” and Woods, whose Heroin Hearse operates on a tactical, on-the-streets level, bristles.

“There is no epicenter,” he said. “You think you can hide from it. It’s everywhere. Law enforcement takes one off the street and 20 more show up. It’s terrible. There’s no epicenter, there’s no ground zero.”

It’s face-to-face, one-on-one, confronting the problem head-on for Woods and while he does it, he wonders about other drugs, new to the scene.

“There’s something floating around out there called acrylfentanyl,” he said.

A Netherlands research group said acrylfentanyl is a highly potent opioid analgesic that has been sold online as a designer drug. The drug is more potent than fentanyl and displaces naloxone, also known as Narcan, that is used to treat overdoses, and it has a longer duration of action.

“Narcan won’t help you,” Woods said.

And then there is the “gray death,” which is blamed for overdose deaths in Ohio, Alabama and Georgia.

“When the mind’s blocked, the opiate is telling you the only thing you want is another hit,” Woods said. “The opiate goes to the grave with you. It doesn’t care.”

Woods and Burns travel with Project Dawn Kits, opioid overdose counteracting nasal inhalers and are also stocked with Narcan that can be administered by auto-injection.

The Heroin Hearse isn’t loaded with pamphlets or flyers — it has more than 220 “Bears for Kenny” — but its awareness information comes in the form of human interaction, people talking to people, helping others by looking them in the eye.

“It’s better to talk face-to-face to get the word out,” Woods said. “I want to start a fire in the heart and mind.”

The stigma has to be removed, he emphasized.

“Today, Steps of Change should have shown everyone something,” he said. “One thing we have collectively, we don’t have big funding, we have hardly nothing, but we have hope.

“We’re not going to stand back any more. We’re going to get stronger, larger and work to build a platform for every state, multiple states and communities. We will never sugar coat this epidemic. We’ll tell you straight.”

There is a second vehicle, known as H2, which is a funeral family car, a six-door family limo, a larger one that will help draw more attention and awareness to the epidemic.

To help fund the Heroin Hearse Awareness operation, there is a “Heroin Harley” drawing for a 2006 Harley-Davidson Custom Sportster.

For information and tickets for the drawing, visit www.heroinhearse.com or “like” the Facebook page.

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