By Ginger Katz

We also started a support group for family members who have lost someone to drugs. Since 2002, we have twenty-three families in our support group that meet regularly. Many other parents and siblings have called me but do not have the strength to come to a meeting. They are still under the covers, some of them for years. My organization has received a lot of media attention in our town, state and now nationally. I receive phone calls from parents in Connecticut and throughout the country who have lost a child to drugs. I also receive calls from parents who children are currently using drugs and refer them for help and treatment. This has become a full time job for me. Drug addiction is a disease that effects the entire family, which is devastating.

My son Ian was a beautiful boy and he developed into a handsome young man. He was bright and very sensitive. He was and is my champion. In high school he was the third highest scorer on the lacrosse team. He was on the baseball team and had a black belt in Karate. He ran road races with me when he was in middle school. He was voted the most popular boy in the middle school and won an award in the 5th grade in academic achievement and athletes.

The semester before he died he received honors from the University of Hartford. And that is were Ian was exposed to the drugs that took his life. Parents send their children away to college not knowing that their child maybe at the mercy of a drug dealers. One year after Ian’s death, I read in the Hartford Courant that a ring of Colombian drug dealers were arrested for supplying drugs to the local community, which included the University of Hartford. The dealers were located five blocks from Ian’s school.

Ian was exposed to heroin by a college student named Mike who was a heroin addict, as was his father. Mike gave three boys heroin to snort, one of the boys got sick, one got scared and Ian got hooked. Within five months, Ian called home crying and begging for help because he said he could not stop. He went into rehab and came home and started working on his recovery. He transferred to UConn in Stamford and started his junior year. He wanted to stay close to home and commute to school. He never wanted to go back to the University of Hartford.

Shortly after school started he went to Hartford to return his stereo equipment. He met up with Mike again. He gave Ian heroin for the last time. Ian died in his sleep that night. At 6 am I found him just before I was to go out for a run. He relapsed the night before and he told me he wanted to going to a rehab program the next day. He didn’t have a second chance.

After Ian died, with the help of Ian’s karate teacher Mingo, it took six months to find Mike. I searched relentlessly, not knowing what I would do once I found him. I was determined to get him. One day, Mike called me and said, “I heard you were looking for me.” I asked him did you give Ian the drug that killed him and he denied it. He said he was sorry for introducing him to heroin and told me his life was miserable and that his dad died from drugs two months before Ian died. After we hung up, I was able to trace the call. Mingo and I called the Hartford police and they arrested Mike for drug possession. Mike was given the choice of rehab or jail. He opted for rehabilitation. Mingo and I did what we had to do. We took responsibility even after people turned us down to help us find Mike. We got him off the streets. I tell you this because I would have never rested until I found him. I would have never been able to do the job I am doing with the with the children and the Courage to Speak Foundation. I couldn’t take another step in my life until he was taken out of society.

First and foremost the Drug Dealer Liability Act will help parents get retribution just by getting the drug dealer off the streets.

It will ensure our community that if you deal drugs you will pay for your crime.

By incorporating the Drug Dealer Liability Act, a person will think twice about selling drugs for the fear of loosing their personal assets. This will help reduce the drug trafficking in our communities and keep our children safe.

Ian’s sister Candace, who has Downs Syndrome and lives in a group home is still grieving. She visits us once a week and sleeps in Ian’s room. She takes the pillows from his couch and puts a blanket over it and she say’s; “Ian come down from the clouds and sleeps there.” I cannot begin to tell you of the devastation what drugs did to our family. Candace misses her brother everyday of her life. For the last six years Candace has been going to counseling for her grief. Her heart is broken.

Please help us get the drug dealer off the streets so other families like all of us here today will not have to suffer what we have suffered at the hands of unscrupulous people.

Sincerely,

Ginger Katz /s/

Author: Ginger Katz
Source: Northwest Center for Health & Safety