By Ginger Katz

On September 10, 1996, I lost my 20-year-old son, Ian to a drug overdose just before he was going into a rehabilitation program the next day. Ian had used tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana in high school. At one point he was picked up by an officer at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, CT. He was scolded and told to go home. The officer said “If I ever find you in this town again with any drugs, I will arrest you, now go home.” I insisted that Ian go into counseling at that point. I had such high hopes for Ian; I thought we had caught the addiction early. I thought it all went away, until I received the phone call from his biological Dad stating he was snorting heroin in college. My breath was taken away. My life changed.

At first, I was ashamed of his problem. I didn’t want to tell anyone about his problem when he came home from college. He was going to a day treatment program and we thought his problem was being fixed. He didn’t want me to tell his friends in Norwalk who did not know. The ugly truth is, the problem wasn’t fixed. I found him in the morning just before I was going to meet my friend at six am for our morning run. Ian died in his sleep. Neighbors told me my cries for help to 911 that morning were heard two blocks away.

Addiction does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what race you are, how financially sound you are, if your homeless or if you have a family who loves you dearly. It can happen to anyone. Drug addiction not only destroys the person who is using; it also destroys the family. Addiction robs you of your money, it robs you of your spirit, and finally, when you have nothing else left to give…it robs you of your soul. My son Ian was a good kind person who suffered from a terrible disease and we miss him everyday of our lives………..
Please keep up the fight. You are all saving lives one child at a time.

Source: www.CouragetoSpeak.org