The recreational use of opiate painkillers in Massachusetts is at record numbers and continues to climb. Often referred to as “the opioid epidemic,” addiction and death rates have skyrocketed in recent years. Statewide, 1,089 people were killed by opioids in 2014, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. About 75 percent of the state’s 351 municipalities reported at least one opioid-related overdose death between 2012 and 2014.
The death toll disproportionately affects less-wealthy towns and cities in the state; the health department’s figures reveal large increases in the number of reported deaths in Haverhill and Lawrence, as well as high per-capita death rates in Revere, Everett and Lynn.
Drugs bought and sold on the street can be quite expensive, and the abuse of prescription painkillers brings with it a host of attendant criminal activity in an attempt to fund the addition. It can also escalate into a full-blown heroin addiction. Heroin is cheaper, the high is better and it is more readily available. It’s also killing Massachusetts residents at a startling rate.
Where, one might ask, is there a supply of easily siphoned funds that can be used to support one’s opioid or heroin addiction? Look no further than under your own roof.
Financial institutions nationwide and across the commonwealth – not just in those “less affluent” towns and the economically depressed Gateway Cities – are reporting a rise in financial abuse and fraud by addict family members, particularly of their elderly customers. Coercion, manipulation and outright theft are all being observed.
There have always been those who would prey on the most disadvantaged. Some schemes aimed at the elderly never change – the lottery scam, phony contractors, mortgage scams and the ever-popular “African prince” among them. Financial institutions are constantly on the alert for all types of fraudulent activity, but no one can identify every scam, every time.
But most heartbreaking of all is when a bank or credit union employee recognizes a case of elder financial abuse, helps the customer to realize it and discovers the criminal in question is a customer’s beloved granddaughter or trusted son. These situations are becoming more common, financial professionals say, and frequently a drug addiction is the root cause. Few victims are willing to prosecute their own family members.
Addiction is a terrible, terrible disease. It is deadly to the addict and detrimental (to put it mildly) to their loved ones. It can decimate a neighborhood and destroy a town. The rising death tolls and addiction rates in the commonwealth are rapidly becoming – if they are not already – a public health crisis.
We urge all financial institutions to thoroughly train frontline staff on the warning signs of financial abuse of all customers, but most particularly the elderly, and to revisit that training as often as necessary. The addict is already suffering and the scourge need not spread.
