When Addiction Inspires Advocacy

Starts at 0:53

Mim, 64, sits on her couch looking through old photos of her son Jarrod about 20 years ago. One photo is of him in his soccer uniform; another as an early teenager outside of a rave. The photos hold a special significance for Mim. Her son’s heroin addiction threatens to take him away from her at any time.

For family members of those suffering from opiate addiction, the feeling of helplessness is all too common. Few are able to channel that into advocacy, but this is exactly what Mim has done.

“This is not how I planned to spend my retirement,” said Mim. “I’m just advocating. I just talk to different groups. I attend different meetings. I’m trying to be part of the solution.”

She has seen the repercussions of the lack of solution to the heroin epidemic too many times.

Jarrod was sent into residential treatment four times. “He was in therapy, individual therapy, group therapy… he was in a study for people with bipolar disorder.He was out on the street. He was out on the loose. “He was in jail,” Mim recalls. “Every time he went to one of these places [rehabilitation centers], I was kind of hoping it was going to be the end and it never was,” Mim said.

Mim started the organization Ohio C.A.N (Change Addiction Now) of Portage County. It’s an organization of family and friends of heroin users who want to remove the stigma of the addiction and create open dialogue with the public about the disease. She goes around the state advocating for awareness and funding for rehabilitation centers at conferences, meetings and other events. For the last three years, she has marched in Washington in attempts to provide more resources and assistance for opiate addicts.

Mim believes that the money needs to go to good treatment of the addiction and for patients in recovery to have places to live while getting assistance. She believes education would have helped her earlier see the warning signs of heroin.

Mim never expected for her son to develop an addiction to heroin. As a child, Jarrod had many health issues including, asthma, diabetes, and attention-deficit-disorder. Modern medicine allowed him to lead a relatively normal life.

“He was used to medicine it was a way of life, it cured all of his problems, it kept him healthy, it kept him feeling good,” said Mim. “And I guess because I wasn’t educated enough and he wasn’t educated enough we missed the early signs that he was dabbling in drugs.”

“We just didn’t notice anything, he graduated high school, he was working full time, he had a beautiful new car he was doing great,” said Mim. “He was still living with us while saving money to get out on his own. Then, all of the sudden, one day he was passed out on the couch. We thought, ‘oh gosh, his blood sugar is low.’” She rushed him to the hospital. Test results at the hospital revealed that Jarrod was suffering from something much more serious than low blood sugar.

“The social worker did all of the tests and she brought me into the emergency room where he was and she said to me, ‘Mim, your son has something to tell you,’” she said. “By then he was awake and that’s how we found out. He started crying and said, ‘Mom, I’m addicted to heroin.’”

Jarrod’s addiction caused a drastic change in his behavior. He stole family heirlooms for money and destroyed his mother’s trust.

“Lying seems to come natural to people when they’re using,” she said. “They’ll do anything, they’ll say anything, like I said earlier, to get what they need.”

Jarrod’s drug use had transformed him so much that Mim did not even trust him in the bathroom alone.

“He’ll go into the bathroom know and if he’s in there too long, I start thinking ‘Oh gee, what’s he doing in there. Is he using?’ ” she said.

Addiction has changed the relationship between mother and son, possibly permanently.

“I don’t know I’ll ever trust my son again,” said Mim. “I want to, I want to trust him desperately. I’ve been lied to for so long, I’m really cautious. That’s the kind of thing that’s going to take a long time to get over. It’s a two way street here. He’s got to learn to be honest and we have to learn to trust him.”

With the stunning increase in deaths from opiate overdose, Mim is very aware of the fact that this addiction could end her son’s life.

“My son and I have talked about it a lot, it’s not in their head when they are using,” said Mim. “They have tunnel vision, they have been taken over. Their brain has been altered and their brain knows what it needs. And the only thing they can focus on is getting heroin. They’ll do anything to get it because it’s survival.”

As heroin users develop addiction, they begin to physically need the drug. The brutal, flu-like sickness that comes with withdrawal deters many from getting clean.

“They don’t even consider it being killed by the drug,” said Mim. “Maybe it’s like that for some people, but from our personal experience and what my son has told me, it doesn’t even enter the thought process. He just knows he’s got to get what his body needs.”

Mim’s organization, Ohio CAN, is putting together blessing bags for homeless opiate addicts in Portage county. The blessing bags will consist of hygiene products, gloves, scarves, cereal bars, tissues, Band-Aids and any non-perishable food items. The blessing bags are going to be passed out at the Portage County residential treatment programs.

As street heroin becomes more like to be cut with lethal drugs like fentanyl and Carfentanil, the risk of death by overdose is higher than ever. As opiate addiction skyrockets, Mim has a message for new opiate users to dissuade them from continuing.

“To people who just started using heroin: get help early before it kills you. You don’t know what’s in heroin, what’s on the streets now.”

Mim’s dedication to drug addiction advocacy is unwavering. Jarrod has now been clean for a year now and Mim desires other families to see their children out of addiction and into recovery.

“He was home and he is home and he’s going to stay home,” Mim said. “As a family we’re going to beat it.”

Graph of CDC Statistics Showing the Rise of Heroin Addiction Over 11 Years (2002-2013)

Map of Addiction Recovery Centers in Portage County, Ohio.

“Their brain has been altered and their brain knows what it needs.” -CAN founder on addiction #JMCRPP

— carolyn bessette (@LoveTaylorXOXO) November 11, 2016

“When Addiction Inspires Advocacy.” Look into Mim’s story of turning her distress from her son’s heroin addiction into advocacy. #JMCRPP

— Dara Sander (@DaraSander1) November 11, 2016

Heroin effects more than just the person using it. Find out
how one women turned her tragedy into advocacy in our #JMCRPP
story.

— Kristen Anzuini (@kanzuini) November
11, 2016