My email to various Episcopals

 Good morning,

My name is Robert (Rob) Burgess. I attend St Augustine of Canterbury in Benton Harbor.

I am a parent, a grandfather, Treasurer of the National Executive Council of Episcopal Peace Fellowship, but for this conversation a father who lost a child just shy of her 25th birthday to opioid overdose 10 years ago.

I have resided.most of my adult life in west Michigan (with exceptions of US Navy service and a couple years in northern Virginia) but was born and raised in Saginaw County.  

My daughter died 10 years ago this Labor Day after several years of struggling with addiction, in and out of treatment including at Brighton Hospital north of Detroit, halfway houses, counseling, etc.

In 2018 at general convention, the Episcopal Church passed a resolution related to opioid abuse and addiction.

This resolution is attached.  While I appreciate the title of the resolution, I recently emailed the office of government relations in New York as a recent release from that office paid lip service in mentioning prevention.

I am unsure if Nalaxone would have saved my daughter.  Perhaps.  By the time my wife and I and ambulance services reached her, I am afraid it was already too late.  She was declared dead a day later and life support removed.

Twelve step programs can be useful. My father and a buddy from Owosso (a former attendee at Christ Episcopal Church there) started several AA chapters in Saginaw and Shiawassee counties in the 1950s and 1960s.  My dad met Bill W, the founder of AA at Brighton Hospital when that institution originated in the 50s. Dad also 12-stepped at Jackson State, Ionia prison, and too many church basements and retreat houses. 

But there is an element in 12-step programs which emphasizes going "cold turkey" over medical treatment and the use of "opioid blockers", such as, buprenorphine accompanied with counseling and other support.  These may be more effective at treatment than simple avoidance.

The church needs to advocate for responsible and medically effective treatment and scientific, medical research in treatment options other than simple avoidance.

My editorial opinion piece appearing in the June 30 Benton Harbor Herald Palladium is also attached.  

There is nothing in the 2018 general convention resolution concerning prevention.  I strongly disagree with and wish this rectified.

I am not talking about police or DEA  enforcement of drug trafficking.  

I am talking about the over use and over prescription of opioids in the USA versus every other Western European country and especially in comparison to Japan.  Please see my attached editorial for more in this regard 

The church should support responsible treatment of pain and disease but not at the risk of over use of opioids in that treatment.  The CDC and other responsible, scientific organizations should research how France, England, Germany, Japan and other countries are able to treat pain and disease with better outcomes than we have in this country and with significantly less reliance on addictive opioids.

We are poisoning our own people.  Certainly, we can learn from other countries as to their success and failure in treatments.

Why do we have an issue with gun violence in America?  Some would say the abundance and ease of access of guns 

Why do we have a problem greater than any other country with opioid abuse and over dose?  For much the same reason.

As far as liturgy related to addiction, Bill W. already wrote that:

It's called the Serenity Prayer.

Amen.

Rob Burgess

P.S. For my friends in Eastern Michigan, how long has it been since the former missionary church, St John's closed in Chesaning?