In a heart-wrenching open letter this weekend, one mother shared the story of losing her son to heroin addiction. Like many, she thought of heroin as a skid row drug… until her college-educated son died with a needle by his side. Please read this excerpt from her first-hand account of the heroin epidemic in the U.S., then click through for the full article. And if you, or someone you know, is struggling with Heroin addiction– or if you feel like things might be headed that way– please consider calling us today.
Today would have been my son’s 32nd birthday. Instead of celebrating with him and his younger brother, I will be visiting his grave. We all have heard of and seen countless tragedies in which someone dies a needless death. I am sure this letter won’t mean much to some of you, but I feel compelled to share a bit of my son’s story so that it might stop just one person, convince one young soul, to seek help or provide the encouragement to a friend to speak up and help.
We hear so much about violent death and destruction, most of which relates to open hostility and violence acts, shootings and stabbings, even rape, but too little is spoken of another killer and that murderous substance is heroin.
As a woman of the 60’s and 70’s, my generation thought of heroin addicts as skid-row street bums, toothless, homeless vagabond, drooling on street corners, selling their bodies to get the next fix. That stereotype could not be any further from the truth. Today, heroin is available in Wal-Mart parking lots, in neighbor’s kitchen cupboards, and is being used by teachers, business executives, and is rampant in colleges. It is cheap to buy, easy to find and is more potent than ever before.
I want you to know my son’s story. My son loved his family, hated injustice and had a heart bigger than he could express. He was a graduate of Georgia State and worked at a law firm in Atlanta. Any girl would have considered him a great catch. He was fun to be around and extremely intelligent. He loved his family, and he loved my dog.
After college he became addicted to Oxycontin, and then because it was cheaper and easier to find, he started using heroin. Not liking the direction his life was heading he white-knuckled it and became “clean” for two and a half years. I do not know why, but he relapsed in October 2013. And he relapsed big time. He was openly miserable. But heroin was in control. Cunning, baffling and all powerful, the drug took control. Addiction cannot be minimized; the physical and emotion toll it takes is incredible. It needs to stop, before another mother loses a son.
Read the full story at the Ledger-Enquirer here.