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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Standing at the podium inside the Burke Auditorium at King&#8217;s College, Martin Henehan began to tear up as he looked at his wife, Stacy, who was seated in the audience.</p><p>He did warn the audience he would get emotional as he talked about his daughter.</p><p>Henehan was one of five speakers during Saturday&#8217;s &#8220;Breaking the Cycle: Addiction is Not a Crime Tour,&#8221; presented by U.S. Senate Libertarian candidate Dale Kerns along with Blueprints Recovery Inc.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre was the first stop in a 13-city tour statewide. The day also featured a dozen providers in addiction treatment and recovery from the region.</p><p>Kerns&#8217; proposal, &#8220;Addiction is Not a Crime,&#8221; focuses on the opioid epidemic that&#8217;s hitting the nation, including Pennsylvania and Wilkes-Barre. His bill would propose to end the &#8220;War on Drugs&#8221; in a multi-faceted effort that includes abolishing for-profit prisons in the state, removing lobbyists and the Federal Drug Administration from the problem and using a free market to educate and assist those in need.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the same Libertarian viewpoint that I&#8217;ve had for years, and what it gets down to is we need treatment over incarceration,&#8221; Kerns said. &#8220;I think we need to get to the root cause rather than just throwing people in cages to solve the problem.&#8221;</p><p>Admitting that addiction has dealt a personal blow to his own family, Kerns talked about struggles and successes with addiction and how the &#8220;War on Drugs&#8221; needs to be passed from politicians to licensed medical professionals.</p><p>Kerns proposes giving those with addictions a more streamlined access to treatment facilities, where insurance companies don&#8217;t determine the length of stay or make addicts wait for beds to become available.</p><p>For those not ready or willing to undergo treatment, Kerns suggested &#8220;safe injection sites,&#8221; where heroin users can go to get a safe, non-lethal dose administered by a medical professional.</p><p>&#8220;With my bill, it eliminates the drug dealer on the street. It gets rid of the black market,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So if we completely decriminalize it, there&#8217;s no need for this market where you have crime.&#8221;</p><p>Henehan talked about being the ninth of 10 children and growing up without much money.</p><p>By his teens, Henehan grew dependent on drugs and alcohol, starting a downhill cycle of broken promises to his family, jails and attempts to get clean. He explained that his daughter, Sammi, followed in his footsteps by the time she was a teenager, eventually becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.</p><p>Although she had years of sobriety, Martin said with tears in his eyes, Sammi&#8217;s addiction would eventually claim her life at the age of 23 in 2016.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not a criminal. I&#8217;ve never committed a crime. I&#8217;ve never hurt anyone - when I was sober,&#8221; Martin said. &#8220;The addiction is not a crime. But I will say this, I had to be held accountable for my behaviors because what I did was commit crimes to support that.&#8221;</p><p>Henehan and his wife set up the Forever Sammi Foundation, providing assistance to those in financial distress to transition from treatment facilities to sober living homes.</p><p>Clinical Supervisor Kayla Kressler, M.A., spoke about statistics revolving around addiction and what steps need to be taken to repair a broken system.</p><p>Kressler first asked willing audience members to raise their hands if they fit into a particular category. Almost all hands were raised when she asked if anyone knew of someone in addiction.</p><p>She said the average age of her clients is 24 to 25 years old, with the highest overdose rates causing deaths between the ages of 18 and 24.</p><p>&#8220;The millennial generation is not going to be one that is very receptive to sitting in lecture halls and being told what they need to do to,&#8221;she said.</p><p>Kressler said that 75 percent of heroin addicts started off by using painkillers. There were enough pills prescribed in 2016 to fill a bottle for every U.S. adult who was over 18, she said.</p><p>In order to combat these statistics and overcome addiction, Kressler said that changes need to be made in the accessibility of care, education and more.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011417recovery-5-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Mother and daughter, Roberta Pocceschi and Sarah Suckocki of Pittston, talk with Jessica Budzak of Wyoming Valley Alcohol and Drug services about different counselor positions available in the field. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011417recovery-5-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Mother and daughter, Roberta Pocceschi and Sarah Suckocki of Pittston, talk with Jessica Budzak of Wyoming Valley Alcohol and Drug services about different counselor positions available in the field. </caption0><photoCredit0>Amanda Hrycyna| For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl0114127recovery-4-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dale Kerns, canidate for U.S. Senate, listens as a recovering addicts tell their stories. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl0114127recovery-4-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Dale Kerns, canidate for U.S. Senate, listens as a recovering addicts tell their stories. </caption1><photoCredit1>Amanda Hrycyna| For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011417recovery-3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pamphlets were available during &#8220;Breaking the Cycle: Addiction is Not a Crime Tour&#8221; on Saturday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011417recovery-3-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Pamphlets were available during &#8220;Breaking the Cycle: Addiction is Not a Crime Tour&#8221; on Saturday. </caption2><photoCredit2>Amanda Hrycyna| For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418recovery-2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Dave Harvey speaks about his path to recovery. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl011418recovery-2-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Dave Harvey speaks about his path to recovery. </caption3><photoCredit3>Amanda Hrycyna| For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl0111418addiction-1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A woman in the audience wipes away a tear while listening to Martin Henehan speak about his journey to recovery and the Forever Sammi Foundation he started in memory of his daughter during Saturday&#8217;s event at King&#8217;s College in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/web1_ttl0111418addiction-1-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>A woman in the audience wipes away a tear while listening to Martin Henehan speak about his journey to recovery and the Forever Sammi Foundation he started in memory of his daughter during Saturday&#8217;s event at King&#8217;s College in Wilkes-Barre. </caption4><photoCredit4>Amanda Hrycyna| For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Marcella Kester</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach the Times Leader newsroom at 570-829-7242 or on Twitter @TLnews.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Event at King’s College seeks to shed light on addiction issues