Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jul 2016
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2016 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Authors: John Somensky and Ann Somensky

HEROIN ADDICTION CAN HIT ANYONE

We are writing to let The Sun know that we are not going to let our 
grandson's death be just another drug-related death. He was just a 
kid who got caught up the heroin-fentanyl epidemic and lost his life.

On June 15, our 18-year-old grandson took heroin laced with fentanyl, 
got sick and died on Mountain Road in Pasadena. His body laid in 
plain sight for two days. Cars and people passed by and no one called 
to report his body. It was his father who found him and called 911.

Our grandson recently finished his fourth stay at a drug 
rehabilitation clinic and lived at a halfway house for three months. 
He worked a steady job. He was working on getting his GED. We thought 
he turned the corner. If we could have kept him in inpatient 
treatment indefinitely, we would have, but he was never a 24/7 user 
of drugs. But even with an "occasional" use of heroin, one plays 
"Russian Roulette" since one never knows exactly what is in the drugs 
bought on the street.

These teenagers and young adults who are dying today didn't start 
with heroin. They progressed from "gateway" drugs like marijuana to 
pills to even harder drugs as if it was a rite of passage. However, 
with each step the landscape changes, becoming much more deadly.

Today, while you are reading your newspaper or scanning social media, 
please don't read headlines about heroin overdoses and think, "not in 
my family." We felt very safe and far removed from the world of 
heroin. We didn't educate ourselves on the issues because we didn't 
think we needed to. But if you're raising children today, you need to 
become educated because the face of today's heroin addict isn't that 
of a homeless soul in an urban back alley. It's the face of the boy 
or girl next door. It was the face of our grandson, and it could be 
the face of a child you love.

We urge you do this in honor of our precious grandson Nicholas, a 
loving, kindhearted, funny, handsome and intelligent young man.

John and Ann Somensky, Odenton
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom