On My Mind
Executive editor — issues and opinionsAnother Victim of Drug Overdose
Another fatality due to drug overdose in our community.
Robyn Michelle Zayon became something like the ninth young Jewish adult to needlessly die in the past year.
We bring in our experts. One day it’s a famous rabbi. The next day it’s an author with a moving book.
But we keep attending funerals. And we look around the sanctuary at the funeral home, and we see so many young people we know who are in recovery. And we worry about what they are thinking and where they are going.
Then we are reminded of groups like Eternity, which was formed to offer support for the parents of young people who have over dosed. The last thing Eternity wants is to see its membership ranks increase. Yet, this week in Baltimore that happened.
Goodness knows without the work of organizations such as the Jewish Recovery Houses or Jewish Addiction Services or JACS, the numbers of fatalities would probably be worse.
But we have a real problem on our hands here. We have an insidious disease that cruelly snuffs the life out of our young people.
For the Zayon family and friends and loved ones, we offer our support, our love and our prayers.
For the community, we ask you not to get charged up about this now and then fall into a condition of apathy. Drug addiction doesn’t peak when a person dies. It’s almost as if we only react to a tragedy. But day in and day out, it can be out of our thought process. For us to understand, to help, to offer caring support and programming to those in recovery and their families, we have to see addiction as a day-to-day struggle. It has no grand opening or peak, and for many it’s only got a terrible ending.
But also, many have shown that it can be overcome.
It’s not easy.
It’s gut wrenching hard.
God, we’ve got to help people succeed.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 02/18/08 at 04:17 PM | Comments (2)
