Opioid fight: Drug recovery advocate emphasizes reaching out to kids before they start

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A local man who survived a heroin overdose as a teen is sharing his insights into the opioid crisis, and why reaching kids at a young age is so important.

“I tried it for the first time at 11, marijuana, alcohol,” Andrew Burki said. “Cocaine by 15 and heroin at 16, then I overdosed five days after I turned 17.”

Burki said his family ultimately sent him to Palm Beach County for treatment and he ended up staying.

“This is really where the miracle happened for me,” Burki said. “I mean, I’m coming up on 18 years of sustained recovery.”

Burki now works as Chief Public Policy Officer for West Palm Beach-based Hanley Foundation, a not-for-profit resource for substance use disorder advocacy, education and treatment.

One of Hanley’s programs is so-called evidence-based youth prevention. That’s where students receive scientifically-tested classroom or small group instruction, and resources if needed.

Burki said, at minimum, "the goal is to delay onset of first use. It is probably the single-most determinant factor in whether someone develops a substance use disorder or not.”

Alcohol, drugs, even some prescribed medications can impact the frontal lobe of the brain, which isn’t fully developed until one is in their mid-20’s.

The longer a person can hold off exposing the frontal lobe to alcohol and harmful drugs, the greater the chance of avoiding substance use disorder.

“We’re not even telling you not to drink, we’re just telling you to hold out as long as possible,” Burki said. “Because if you start drinking at 13, you’re probably going to develop a substance abuse disorder.”

Burki said he feels investing upfront in expanding access to evidence-based programs for teens will save potentially billions of dollars in the long run, keeping people out of treatment, jail or the morgue.

“Even if you just don’t care about us, people in recovery, at all, from a strictly financial, resource-deployment standpoint, the earlier you intervene, the cheaper it is,” he said.

Hanley Foundation said its youth prevention programs reach about 12,000 students in Palm Beach County, which works out to about one in 16.

Burki said these programs simply need more government funding.

“This problem is so massive that the only solutions are legislative,” he said. “I mean, there is not enough money on Palm Beach Island to address this."