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What may be most remarkable about Turina James' story is not that she got hooked on heroin as a teenager, but the fact that she managed to get off of it. She did so with little support from family, and after a traumatic childhood that included sexual violence, homelessness and unplanned pregnancy. James grew up in Yakima, where she says she was kicked out of her house and on the streets by age 12. By 15 she was pregnant, and soon moved in with an older man who was not her child's father. He had

To understand why opioids exert such a powerful pull on human beings, you want to look first to our brains’ natural “happy juice”: endorphins. So says Charles Chavkin, a professor in the University of Washington’s Pharmacology Department. Chavkin explains that there is a whole series of neural receptors designed specifically to detect endorphins. “They’re there as kind of antennas,” he says. “They’re very specific. They’re tuned to one frequency. The one frequency is the chemical they’re evolved

Over a three month period last year, one emergency room in Everett, Washington treated 253 people who had overdosed. And in 2016, which is the most recent data available from the state, Snohomish County had one of the highest opioid death rates in Washington. Everett is trying new ways to manage this problem and to prevent it from getting worse. One institution that could see this storm brewing years ago, was the library. The two libraries that make up the Everett Public Library System have been

The City of Everett is trying to get creative with people suffering from addiction. For those who have decided that they really need help, and are serious about getting it, the City of Everett wants to give it to them, in the form of a scholarship. On the 10th floor of the Wall Street Building in Everett, in a very quiet conference room with a beautiful view of the Puget Sound, I meet Kaitlyn Dowd. She’s a social worker embedded with the Everett Police Department, and this isn’t where she

You could make a pretty good case that the epicenter of the opioid crisis in all of North America is British Columbia. Just five years ago overdose deaths there had been holding steady at under 300 a year -- about the same as car crashes. Then it spiked -- last year 1,422 people in British Columbia died of a drug overdose. The crisis in Vancouver has given rise to some radical solutions. Nearly 15 years ago the city opened up North America’s first legal supervised injection site, called Insite .

This show originally aired on September 2, 2017. This week on Sound Effect, we hear stories of royalty in all different forms. The Princess Bride You may have seen the pictures online, or on the Today Show or wherever. The headline is usually something like, “ Little Girl Mistakes Bride for Princess from her Favorite Storybook.” And we joined the bride, the mother and the daughter for a little reunion, in front of the Hotel Ballard. Purple Mane Robbie Luna is a carpenter in Seattle, but by night

This story originally aired on September 2, 2017. Weddings are one of the few events in our lives that are planned with precision and detail. They can be logistical challenges involving food, entertaining guests, making time to take photographs and figuring out which music to play that will coax people onto the dance floor. On the day Shandance Robertson got married in February, something completely unexpected happened that was not part of the plan. Shandance was posing for photos in Seattle’s

This story originally aired on September 2, 2017. Robbie Luna is a man of many hats, a Seattle area carpenter by day, and by night he fronts two bands, one of which is a Prince cover band called " Purple Mane ." With Prince's 2016 death the band suddenly found themselves carrying the weight of being both a fun sexy party band, while also being a respectful tribute to a beloved musical genius. No one is better suited for that challenge than Robbie. His performance as Prince is impeccable, he even

This story originally aired on September 2, 2017. For many in the Seattle area, Royal Brougham might be little more than a regal sounding street near Safeco Field. But Royal Brougham was actually one of the longest tenured reporters in U.S. newspaper history, working 68 years, primarily as a sports columnist and editor, for the Seattle Post Intelligencer. He was also an advocate for the city of Seattle, looking for ways to put it on the map well before the likes of Amazon and Starbucks came

This story originally aired on September 2, 2017. In the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle, tucked among the bungalows sits an ornate yellow and red building. On one side flies the American flag, and on the other flies what’s called the Dharma Flag. This monastery is one of the most important sites in the world for one of the four major traditions of Tibetan Buddhism -- the Sakya school. And it houses a genuine princess: Her Eminence Dagmo Kusho Sakya is one of the most prominent female lamas in