Episode 49 | The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd | "What Is Going On In Mayberry USA?"Episode 49 | The #RecoveryFirst Podcast with Mike Todd | "What Is Going On In Mayberry USA?"
The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast by Freedom Recovery Services of Greenville
Mike Todd highlights a sharp rise in overdoses linked to fentanyl and carfentanil in small-town America and questions the lack of national urgency. He also outlines efforts in South Carolina to strengthen recovery housing and ensure naloxone is widely available and understood.
11:40•4 Nov 2021
Mayberry in Crisis: Fentanyl, Carfentanil and Recovery Housing on the Front Line
Episode Overview
- Overdoses are surging in small towns like Surry County, with reports of 32 overdoses in 48 hours linked to powerful substances such as carfentanil.
- Carfentanil is so strong that reversals have required multiple doses of naloxone or Narcan, raising concerns about whether people are carrying enough.
- The host questions why tens of thousands of overdose deaths each year are still not treated as a major national emergency.
- Recovery housing has evolved from informal shared living to a formal industry, bringing both opportunities and risks of exploitation for a vulnerable population.
- The South Carolina Recovery Housing Association is working to get naloxone into all recovery housing and to train residents in its use as a first standard of care.
“"There has been 32 overdoses in the last 48 hours in Surry County... I mean, when's it going to be like a national, actually a national emergency?"”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This episode of The Recovery First Addiction Recovery Podcast shines a harsh but honest light on how the overdose crisis is hitting even the places many people still think of as "innocent" small-town America. Host Mike Todd shares a message from a friend in Surry County – the real-life inspiration for Mayberry, USA – who reports "there has been 32 overdoses in the last 48 hours".
He talks through the impact of fentanyl and carfentanil, stressing that "fentanyl was responsible for poisoning our drug supply for 99,000 deaths" in 2020 and questioning when this will finally become "a household sitting at the table conversation". You’ll hear Mike lay out, in plain language, what makes carfentanil so frightening and why reversals are taking "four and five and six doses of naloxone".
He raises the big uncomfortable question: if this is happening in a place like Mayberry, what does that say about the rest of the country? The episode also highlights practical work being done in South Carolina, especially through the South Carolina Recovery Housing Association. Mike explains how recovery housing has grown from people "basically living together and keeping each other accountable" into a full-blown industry that now needs standards and support.
A major focus is getting naloxone into all recovery homes and training residents to use it, with help from several advocacy organisations. This one is aimed at anyone in recovery, families who think "that’s not going to happen to my kid", and advocates who want to understand what’s actually happening on the ground. It’s part warning, part rallying cry, and a reminder that small actions – like carrying naloxone – can mean the difference between life and death.
It leaves a clear question hanging: how many more lives have to be lost before this crisis is treated like the emergency it is?
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