Matt Schickling, the Wire
Cris Fiore decided almost immediately after the death of his stepson that the loss had to count for something.
“Anthony P. Fiore died Saturday May 31, 2014 at his home in Warrington. He had lost his battle with addiction. He was 24,” the first lines of his obituary read.
People are not accustomed to reading causes of death in obituaries, especially when a person as young as Anthony dies of a heroin overdose.
“It’s not something that’s talked about,” he said. “That’s allowed for a stigma to grow around addiction, like ‘addicts are bad people, they’re weak, they make bad choices.’ ”
There is a general perception, according to Fiore, that heroin is an inner-city problem with little relevance in the suburbs.
“That’s just not true,” he said, firmly.
He knows it’s a problem that reaches the suburbs, because it’s something that reached inside his own home. Now, he and his wife Valerie are pushing to break the stigma on a national level.
Fiore started an online petition to amend the Affordable Care Act to provide for a minimum of 90 up to a maximum of 180 days per year for inpatient drug or alcohol treatment at a certified facility. The proposal is called Anthony’s Act and, as of last week, it garnered nearly 23,000 signatures on www.MoveOn.org.
This is something that Fiore believes needs to be addressed immediately. The United States has reached a point where there is awareness that heroin addiction is a prominent problem.
A study released in October 2014 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that deaths from heroin overdose doubled across the 28 participating states from 2010 to 2012.
Fiore wants to put the 90-day question in front of politicians to see if anyone will be moved to action.
“We’re in a position to put a little pressure on these guys,” he said. “I’ve got at least 23,000 people interested in knowing the answer.”
He has reached out to several politicians for meetings, including U.S. Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-8) and Brendan Boyle (D-13), but nothing has been set yet.
Of course, mandating coverage for 90-day care does not ensure that recovering addicts will stay that long.
Anthony went into treatment three times: the first lasted 28 days, the second lasted 21 days and the third lasted seven days.
“If Anthony’s Act had been around when Anthony was still alive, we would have been hard-pressed to get him to do 90 days,” Fiore said. “He wanted to do it his way.”
But with the 90-day system, Fiore believes, those working at the facilities could convince a person of the importance of staying longer.
“Every life saved is a life saved,” Fiore said. “Ninety days is a start.”
According to a 2008 LA Times article, the 28-or-30-day recovery period has no basis in actual medical evidence.
When the U.S. Air Force established the first addiction treatment programs in the 1970s, 30 days was placed as the standard because those in treatment would have to be reassigned if they were away from their duty for more than 30 days.
Fiore said that insurance companies embrace this standard because providing for a longer treatment period means higher costs for them.
But the real problem isn’t the length of treatment, it’s the drug itself and the general misconception of people suffering from addiction. This is something Fiore has spoken about before, most prominently in Anthony’s eulogy.
“He loved candy. He loved his car. He loved his brother. He loved his mother. He loved the Lord. And he loved heroin,” Fiore began. “Lord, how he loved heroin.”
There’s a video of the eulogy on YouTube, which has sinced gained several thousand views. It touches on Anthony’s life, showing him as a good kid with a devastating problem. Addiction blinded him from realizing that he wasn’t just hurting himself — he was hurting everyone around him.
Fiore has gotten a lot of response to this video. One 23-year-old called it her “breaking point” and sought recovery immediately, others share it, knowing that an open, unobscured reaction to another death by heroin is exactly what some people need to see.
It’s one of the reasons he started a Facebook group called “The Left Behind.” Here, people can privately share thoughts and feelings on addiction and the loss that comes with being left behind by someone else’s overdose.
“You’re never recovered, you’re always in recovery,” Fiore said.
With Anthony’s Act, he hopes to ensure that for those who seek it, proper, affordable treatment will be there when they’re ready.
To sign the online petition for Anthony’s Act, visit www.petitions.moveon.org/sign/anthonys-act.
To join The Left Behind forum, visit www.facebook.com/groups/1458604797714992/.
To view Cris Fiore’s eulogy for Anthony, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PwFV3-0FcU.
