Native of southeastern Kentucky town describes its "culture of addiction" for national audience

Natasha Watts, right, left tiny Blackey, Ky., to go college four years ago. When she returned, she found almost all her friends and acquaintances addicted to prescription drugs such as OxyContin. The problem is bigger than that drug, she explains in an Appalachian Media Institute essay that aired on National Public Radio. She says more must done for Blackey and other towns like it in Eastern Kentucky than just taking OxyContin away:

It's not hard to see how we got to this point. With hundreds of injured coal miners, this area has one of the highest chronic pain rates in the country. For generations we've suffered from all kinds of pain — without the kinds of health services we needed to deal with addiction, poverty, and depression.

She recalls watching her fellow high school students crush pills and snort them on their desks, and she says that now she has no "social circle" in her hometown. This "epidemic" has ravaged the community, she says.

We're going to live with the human costs of addiction here for generations. Addicts who get clean still won't be able to find jobs in our coal-dependent economy. The mother who finally gets her kids back from the courts won't be able to make up for all the years apart. We have paid for the addiction epidemic with our sisters', brothers', mothers', fathers', grandparents' and friends' lives.

The piece is one of the many multimedia presentations produced by Watts for AMI, and more can be viewed at its Web site. To listen to Watts' full essay on addiction, go here.