Heroin use in Knox County is a major problem affecting more than 10 percent of our population.

It affects business owners, store owners, secretaries, lobstermen, carpenters, painters, landscapers, waitresses, bartenders. computer programmers, mental health professionals, hospital employees, car dealership owners, real estate agents, hotel workers, foresters, taxi drivers, and several law enforcement professionals. Nobody is immune from being touched, whether they realize it or not.

Family medicine physician Ira Mandel treats 100 addicts per month, more than 1,000 per year in Midcoast Maine; yet, the numbers of area residents he turns away remains high. Until recently, when fellow physician Brian Pierce became licensed to subscribe Suboxone, Mandel was the only medical practitioner in the area with either the ability, the education or the willingness to treat what some classify as a brain or chemical disease.

Mandel’s 100-patient-per-month cap is set by legislation, in order to keep tabs on the Suboxone drug found to be necessary, at least initially, to a person’s recovery, according to Mandel.

“Less than 10 percent will succeed without medication,” Mandel said.

For a community already bombarded by taxes, cost-effective solutions are needed to deter a local drug epidemic from growing higher.

Dr. Ira Mandel will be the guest on The Chris Wolf Show on Friday, Feb. 11.  At a Feb. 4 meeting, area residents packed into Rockland’s City Hall, hungry for answers to the heroin problem in Knox County.  This show will be a continuation of that conversation.  The show should be of interest to hospital nurses, guidance counselors, former addicts, relatives of addicts, religious spiritual supporters, law enforcement, first responders, and members of the public. The heroin epidemic is real, it’s here and we are all at risk of the broader impact it is having on our community.

Listen in or watch, or if you have any questions or comments on the day of broadcast, call between 8 and 9 a.m. at 207-594-0013, or email Chris Wolf before or during the show at TheChrisWolfShow@gmail.com.  If you request, you can remain anonymous.

For more information, read: About heroin in Knox County: A conversation citizens want to continue.

The show will be broadcast on WRFR Community Radio, Channel 7 Time Warner Maine Coast TV, and streamed live from 8 to 9 a.m. EST.

VIDEO: To watch the show via live stream, go to MaineCoast.tv/streaming or on Channel 7. Maine Coast TV is located on Time Warner Channel 7 on converter boxes and set top boxes and on Channel 121-7 on digital TVs without set top boxes. The broadcast is available to all Time Warner subscribers in Knox County, including the islands of North Haven and Vinalhaven. The recorded show will be available afterwards on the MaineCoast.tv web site.

AUDIO: To listen to the show, WRFR 99.3 FM Camden or 93.3 FM Rockland, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday shows with news from PenBayPilot.com. Or stream the audio live WRFR.org or TuneIn.com at http://tunein.com/radio/Radio-Free-Rockland-933-s14055/ or on the TuneIn app or your iPhone or Android.

The Chris Wolf Show is a joint project of Penobscot Bay Pilot and PenBayPilot.com, WRFR FM Community Radio and Maine Coast TV Community Television.