Into Action –
Oct. 2018 -Soon Cuttaia left her job managing car dealerships to pursue a career in social work so she could help those who, like her son, were stuck in what she called “the hamster wheel” of rehabilitation. Now they both live in South Florida, a sort of ground-zero of the opioid recovery industry—a place where people go to get clean, but often end up on the streets because of lapsed insurance or a lack of space in treatment facilities. The mother-son duo teamed up to create their own activism group, the Fuck Heroin Foundation, to help those in need without bringing hostile, War on Drugs-style attitudes to the table. What started as a Facebook group became a safe haven for families like their own.
Today, Cuttaia’s son Frankie is also co-starring on the VICELAND show Dopesick Nation, a docu-series about the opioid crisis and treatment industry in their area. To learn more about her personal fight, I talked to her about the growing epidemic, the billion-dollar rehabilitation industry’s corruption scandals, and how to support those in your life who are currently struggling with addiction.
