2016 BEST OF
INSIDE: BREMERTON Kitsap Weekly
Best of Bremerton Kitsap Living
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BREMERTON BAR & GRILL
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Three sections, 56 pages
A SUPPLEMENT OF THE BREMERTON PATRIOT AND CENTRAL KITSAP REPORTER
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016 | Vol. 19, No. 31 | WWW.BREMERTONPATRIOT.COM | 50¢
Opioid addicts present dangerous challenges BY MARK BRIANT KITSAP NEWS GROUP
BREMERTON — While everyone from medical personnel, social workers and public health policymakers struggle to grasp the breadth and threat of the ever-growing opioid epidemic, one particular group has potentially the most to lose. First responders often respond to calls with little or no solid informa-
tion on a patient’s condition and are forced to perform triage on the fly to determine a safe course of action. For addicts using drugs like illicitly-manufactured fentanyl (IMF), which could prove deadly dangerous. Fentanyl is produced in a laboratory, and is 100 times more potent than heroin. It is, however, a legally manufactured drug with legitimate medical purposes, so it is considered a controlled drug. Emergency medical
technicians carry it in their vehicles because, given in tiny micro-doses, it is an effective anesthetic for severe trauma. It is also frequently used by street chemists as filler instead of heroin, simply because it is cheaper than good-quality heroin. Addicts usually have no idea of the true chemical makeup of what they’re sticking into their arm, and there is no such thing as street testing. In the
P.INK HELPS WOMEN RECLAIM THEIR BODIES
case of IMF, that can be fatal. IMF is 100 times more potent than its legally manufactured relative. (Carfentanyl, a street opioid that has no legitimate human application, is 100 times still more potent.) The way that correlates is that a grain of IMF the equivalent in size to a single grain of salt can be fatal if ingested, inhaled or simply transferred through incidental skin contact. If a first responder is trying to treat someone suffering
BY MARK BRIANT
An eerie phenomenon sweeping across the country does not yet appear to have taken a foothold in this region. They’re creepy clowns, and to hear tell, they’re hiding behind every streetlight in America. These are not your jolly Bozos from your favorite Saturday morning kids’ show. Think more of Krusty the Klown’s psychotic brother. Their masks are ghoulish and sinister, and according to the social media fueling the craze, they often target children.
Michelle Beahm / Staff photo
Artists volunteer time, services to tattoo over mastectomy scars BY MICHELLE BEAHM KITSAP NEWS GROUP
SILVERDALE — On Oct. 10, more than 50 women nationwide were given free tattoos to cover mastectomy scars. P.Ink in a national organization that spans the nation. It was started in 2013 in Colorado, and for the first time, studios in Washing-
ton state participated in the volunteer effort to give women tattoos to cover scars. “We actually have 54 women being tattooed this year, which is our biggest amount ever,” said Krystin Jones, who is with Stronghold Tattoo in Silverdale. Jones is a P.Ink board member. Jones was introduced to P.Ink through a friend in New York, whose studio also participated. She then began calling around the area, recruiting Seattle studios Madame Lazonga Tattoo and Under the Needle Tattoo to join in on the volunteer event. “These women don’t feel pretty in their SEE P.INK, A8
SEE ADDICTS, A8
Creepy clown sightings rise as trend spreads nationwide KITSAP NEWS GROUP
Krystin Jones tattoos Jessica Jones with daisies and daffodils, the birth flowers of Jessica Jones’ children, to cover her mastectomy scars at Stronghold Tattoo in Old Town Silverdale.
from an overdose and has to guess at what they’ve taken, it can be deadly. For many years, law enforcement officers and EMTs have donned sterile rubber gloves before handling a sick person. Because of the danger of a glove being pulled off, torn or suffering a cut, many now carry several spare sets. “I usually have three extra pairs in
In several of the more than a dozen states with reported sightings, several of those sightings have caused jumpy school officials to go into lockdown. But not everyone is amused — or concerned. “I really wish you guys would stop writing about it,” said Kitsap County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Wilson. “They would simply go away.” It may not be that simple. Social media, plus a dollop of good, old-fashioned fear of the unknown, is the real driver behind it. Each reported sighting, arrest and even SEE CLOWNS, A8
The day the earth stood still BY MARK BRIANT KITSAP NEWS GROUP
BREMERTON — Where were you the morning the earth stood still? For Americans on the West Coast, the day was just starting, cheerful and sunny. First cups of coffee were being poured and people were trying to focus their eyes to read the morning paper of Sept. 11, 2001. Then telephones started jangling with the same panic-stricken question: “Have you see the TV?” The world was transformed on that fateful day, and we feel it just as strongly today as 15 years ago. For a Navy town like Bremerton, it
may have had something to do with another day of infamy many decades ago, out at Pearl SEE 9/11, A8
NEWS NEWS IN THE NEWS PATRIOT Meet the candidates A4 Playland reopening A9 Free foster youth portraits A6 “I always look forward to getting my Bremerton Patriot.” — Katherine Weigel, Bremerton