MORE KINDNESS NEEDED –
May 19, 2025 – On May 11, 2015, our 25-year-old son Alex died of a heroin overdose in a vacant lot in Newark. It was every parent‘s worst nightmare, the worst case among many moments in Alex’s addiction. This year, May 11 was Mother’s Day. To mark the 10th anniversary of Alex’s death, we had brunch with friends and walked in DC‘s Rock Creek Park.
Nationally, life-saving strategies such as buprenorphine and naloxone are more common. Libraries, schools, pharmacies, restaurants, and other establishments often stock naloxone. Restrictions on methadone maintenance were reduced during Covid-19, allowing more people to bring their medicine home. Through the bipartisan Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act of 2021, the federal government eliminated the X-waiver, which required DEA approval to prescribe buprenorphine.
