It’s a problem affecting so many people, it’s considered an epidemic in the Tri-State — drug addiction.

Heroin, methamphetamines, prescription pain pills. Many in the Tri-State have a family member, loved one or friend who has been addicted to drugs.

And that’s the idea behind a new social networking site called Touch Together.

Started by a local Army recruiter and a couple of young web developers, TouchTogether.org is a way for addicts and family and friends affected by addicts to reach out for support and share encouragement with the ever-growing number of residents who find themselves wondering where to turn.

Eddie Dugas, Sgt. First Class, said the idea for the site began brewing about five months ago. As a recruiter for the U.S. Army in Ashland, Ky., Dugas said community service is a large part of what the recruiting office does.

Dugas knew the Army couldn’t affiliate its name with the site, so he set out on his own to develop what he thought could help those in need.

“I know a couple of recovering addicts,” Dugas said. “I talked to four different ones. Then I talked to three or four people who had been affected by addiction, and asked them what they thought about a social networking site. Would it be useful to them?”

The site would be anonymous, free and open to anyone who just wanted to share his or her feelings on addiction without being in the spotlight of a group meeting.

“They liked it,” Dugas said. “Sometimes paying money to drive to an AA meeting can be difficult. And as far as Al-Anon and Narc-Anon go, sometimes, I know this from personal experience, I didn’t really feel embarrassed, but I know some people do. Or you don’t want to have to drive to the meetings, things like that.”

In mid-September, Dugas started shopping for web developers to help with the site. Knowing this was his project, not the Army’s, he was prepared to use his own funds.

“I had called several web developers,” Dugas said. “No. 1, it was very pricey. And I was using my own money. I wanted to keep it in a reasonable budget. Most couldn’t start for several weeks.”

But Dugas couldn’t wait several weeks. He had to get the website online as soon as possible.

It was a simple Craigslist ad that officially got the ball rolling on the website.

Jesse Basham, 24, of Portsmouth, had advertised on Craigslist to get web developing jobs.

A Daymar College student, Basham had recently designed the website for Solace, a Portsmouth based organization that has worked to increase public awareness and prevention strategies of the substance abuse problem in the Tri-State. As a result, Basham also became a volunteer with the organization.

Within a day of contacting Basham, plans for the website began to be developed. Basham contacted friend and fellow web developer, Alex Jones, 22, of Portsmouth, to help with the project.

Basham and Jones worked on the site, for free, for a little more than a week, at the same time creating a business partnership, called DockWave Media.

The site, TouchTogether.org, features several pages that people can use as a forum to discuss their addictions, past or present, anonymously.

The Get it Off Your Chest page allows users to vent frustrations.

“If you’re having a hard time and you can’t just run out to a meeting, you can go right there and write it down, because writing it down is somewhat therapeutic,” Dugas said.

There are pages called What Worked and What Didn’t Work where users can give the benefit of their experience to those who may need it.

“If you have someone who has been in recovery successfully for six months or a year, or somebody who has been successfully dealing with an addiction, they can say, ‘This is what worked for me,’” Dugas said.

There is also an Inspiration page where users can post inspirational photos, poems, dedicate a song to someone or just simply write one word. The idea is like painting on a blank canvas, Dugas said.

Although the site is anonymous, users can choose to register an account.

“Anybody who comes to the page, being a guest, they don’t have to register to do anything on any of the pages,” Jones said. “The only thing they get extra when they register is they are able to private message. I understand a lot of people who are suffering from an issue, ‘Oh I don’t want to register then tell about my issue.’ So we are trying to make it as easy as possible for people, as soon as they interact with the site, they can immediately start communicating with each other and post stories.”

People who register can also have their own page.

“They can have their own page, sort of like Facebook, to tell their story,” Dugas said. “That’s the whole thing, to get people to share successful information. And if they want to post things on their own page they can.”

There will also be a page for users to give feedback on what they want to see added or changed in the site.

“What we’re really trying to do is give this site to the community, if they want it,” Dugas said. “If people go on it and seem to like it, we would like them to take ownership of it, figurative speaking.”

Dugas also said local schools have gotten in on the project by helping design the art for the site. The seventh and eighth graders at Vinson Middle School in Huntington, W.Va., have an art project to help design the site, as well as art students at Fairview in Kentucky. Dugas said he is still contacting schools to get more support.

In the early stages of the site, and as feedback comes through, the site may continue to change, but one thing will stay the same, Dugas said.

“It is completely non-profit,” Dugas said. “No one is profiting on someone else’s misfortune. That was a very important theme to this. If it is something enough people get involved with, and they do want it, there is nobody who is going to profit at all from it.”

And the end result of the site, hopefully, will be change, Jones said.

“I hope to see a change in the community,” Jones said. “I hope to see a lot of people getting involved in it. Try to get as many people involved as possible and funnel the right kind of traffic to the site. It’s for anyone. Anyone can go to the site and express themselves. Maybe they don’t have a drug addiction. Maybe they just have another problem. It’s just a site to help people, no matter what.”