Taking ‘bout My Generation –
March 22, 2019 – It’s been a tortuous journey. At one point, the 55-year-old drove to five treatment centers in New Jersey to find one that would take her insurance—or at least take her teenage son. But he didn’t have enough drugs in his system to be admitted to one, and too much for another, and yet another wouldn’t have room for him for at least three months. She says that seemingly empathetic go-betweens turned out to be more interested in a referral fee than her struggle. “I had nowhere to turn. My support system was Google. Knowing what I know now, I would have looked differently—asked the right questions and known they were preying on me,” says Mariano, who now volunteers as a parent coach for nonprofit Partnership for Drug-Free Kids.
