The Clinic
A heroin addict hooked on opioid and his journey to recovery
By Caleb Mutua
Next to the busy elevated Metro-North station on 125th St. in East Harlem, is a discreet side entrance flanked by two uniformed guards. Every day for the past three years, Manuel Diaz has gone past them to receive his daily dose of methadone.
He hobbles in, gulps 60 milligram of reddish synthetic opioid from a tiny disposable cup, and is on his way again within fifteen minutes. The fix kicks in fast, suppressing his craving for heroin for the next 24 hours. The methadone also decreases the likelihood of him relapsing and reduces pain in his muscles.
Diaz, 57, is a long-time drug dealer and an addict from Puerto Rico. Since he got out of prison six years ago, he hasn’t been able to secure a stable job. He has no family. However, with Latino New Yorkers increasingly dying from unintentional drug overdose, he considers himself very lucky to be alive.
A new study conducted by the New York Health Department showed that among Latinos who die of drug overdose, almost two-thirds are Puerto Ricans.
“People are just inventing everything and making it into heroin,” said Diaz, adjusting his gold-framed glasses that matched with his dark brown leather jacket, making him look like a punk band bassist in the 70s. “You really don’t know what you are putting into your system, making it more dangerous. At least before you knew you was getting heroin, now you don’t know what you are getting.”
Diaz started abusing drugs when he was 13. What started as occasional sniffs for recreation quickly escalated to a daily activity. To support his habit, he dropped out of school and started selling heroin on the streets in East Harlem.
Then in 1986, at the age of 26, he shot and killed someone over heroin.
“I would give people drugs to sell, and the guy tried to set me up and one thing led to another. He tried to rob me and I shot him,” said Diaz.
Diaz, also known by his street name ‘Papo Cong’ because he is the eldest among his peers, was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He continued using heroin in jail. Things took a turn for the worse when Republican lawyer George Pataki defeated Mario Cuomo in the 1994 gubernatorial race, becoming the 53rd governor of New York.
“Governor Pataki did not want violent offenders out,” he said. Diaz’s efforts to be released on parole hit a dead end and he ended serving 25 years in Attica and Clinton maximum correctional facilities in upstate New York.
When Diaz finally got out of prison in 2011, he stopped abusing drugs. Because of his hearing problem, he was placed on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a federal program that financially supports low-income people who are disabled and elderly unable to pay their bills. He remained clean for a few years before he relapsed on dope.
“Something clicked in my mind and I just started doing it again,” he said. “I got dirty urine and parole recommended I join the [methadone] program or go back to jail.”
Diaz has been on methadone since 2014 and he is afraid he is now addicted to it. Patients addicted to opioid easily overdose, especially when access becomes more restricted and they are forced to switch from prescription opioids to heroin or to other streets synthetic opioids.
Nationwide drug deaths related to opioids are skyrocketing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl among other forms of opioids killed more than 33,000 Americans in 2015.
The stigma surrounding addiction at times makes addicts shy away from visiting treatment facilities. On the other hand, residents in different neighborhoods across the country have protested the setting up of methadone clinics to treat addicts like Diaz, arguing that the clinics attract more addicts and increase crime and violence cases in their neighborhoods.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a three-years plan to make more New Yorkers aware of the risks of opioids and to reduce the stigma associated with seeking effective treatment. The initiative, dubbed HealingNYC, will run multiple large public awareness campaigns, including promoting 1–888-NYC-Well, a single access point through which New Yorkers can use phone, text or chat services to connect to mental health services and counseling with peers who have experience recovering from addiction among other initiatives.
The initiative will cost the tax payer $38 million every year and de Blassio hopes this will reduce drug overdose deaths by 35 percent over the next five years.
“If we’re going to start winning the battle against opioids, we need to start talking honestly about what works, and invest in the strategic measures that will stop abuse, break addiction and save lives,” said de Blasio during the launch of the program earlier this year. “HealingNYC is our plan to treat and help those struggling with addiction — and prevent more from falling under the control of these powerful drugs.”
Hollywood actor Roland Sands, who recently featured in 2017 horror film Dementia 13, has had to battle drug abuse in his 40-year acting career. Sands said that inequality and boredom pushes many young people to do drugs.
“In America, things can be boring and many people are getting high to escape,” he said with his deep, trained voice. “When I started working at Wall Street as a clerk, I started shooting heroin. In fact, me and my boys used to sniff heroin in the stairway to the stock exchange.”
The Bronx native has been clean from cocaine for the last six years now.
“People take opioids to calm down from cocaine,” he said. “Crack stimulates you but those pills bring you down; people have robbed and killed for that shit.”
Dr. Silvia Martins, a Substance Abuse epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, underlined overprescription as a huge challenge to fighting opioid deaths.
“Let’s say an 18-year-old goes to get his wisdom tooth out,” Dr. Martins explained. “He will get a one month’s supply of prescription opioids that he doesn’t really need, so these drugs are usually widely available. We need to educate the general public, particularly children and adolescents to stop using these drugs unnecessarily.”
The psychiatrist also advocated for the importance of training physicians on best prescription practices and on identifying patients at risk of addiction.
Manuel Diaz is proud of the steps he has taken so far to change his life positively, and he largely attributes his success to methadone. He has since fixed his apartment and he even has a dog. Now, he wants to quit methadone too.
“I’m getting off of it. I was on 80 milligrams and now I’m on 60 milligrams. Methadone does help but I’d rather not be addicted to anything.”
