Despite ‘living his best life,’ James Succumbed to Addiction

AND NEVER KNEW THE FUTURE –

July 20, 2024 – On July 13, more than 300 people filled the Calvary Chapel to celebrate his life, which had ended suddenly, unexpectedly less than a month earlier.

He was dearly loved by family and friends who spoke about him at the service. Even acquaintances responded to an undeniable charisma he dispensed with a “light-up-the-room” smile. Sadly, James Labbe, 35, who grew up in Baltic, was a statistic, too, one of the hundreds and thousands of people in Connecticut and across the country who have continued to succumb to opioid overdoses. The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner attributed his June 20 death to “acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl and cocaine.” His mother, Linda Labbe, is one of the founding members of Community Speaks Out, the Groton-based nonprofit that over the past decade has provided assistance to scores of individuals and families struggling with addiction.

She is not the first founding member to lose a son.

Tammy de la Cruz and her husband, former state Rep. Joe de la Cruz of Groton, helped found Community Speaks Out after their teenage son, Joey Gingerella, became addicted to prescription painkillers. Amid his recovery, Gingerella was shot and killed while trying to stop an assault outside a Groton bar in 2016.