To the editor:
As many of you are sadly aware, Central New York, and the entire nation, is in the midst of an unprecedented health epidemic. There is not a community anywhere, including Cazenovia, that has escaped the destruction being caused by the current heroin/opiate epidemic.
We are losing an average of 129 lives daily to drug overdoses. That is nearly 50,000 deaths per year. More people died from drug overdoses last year than in automobile crashes. While so many families are being forever changed due to overdose deaths, an exponentially larger number of families are suffering other changes and struggles due to the active addiction of a family member.
Less than a year ago, a few community members got together to discuss what could be done to help our community deal with the devastation being caused by the epidemic. One of the results of that discussion was the creation of HEAL Madison County. We have been very active on many fronts, but the purpose of this letter is to make the community aware of a weekly support group meeting that we sponsor every Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Cazenovia Public Library. This meeting is intended to lend support to any person who has a friend or family member who is suffering with addiction.
It is important to note that the support group meeting is a safe place for people to come and share their stories, their difficulties, their hope, their feelings and everything in between with other people who have a shared experience. It is the belief of the group that addiction is a disease of the brain and there is no shame in openly discussing the struggle that friends and families experience in dealing with a loved one’s disease of addiction.
HEAL Madison County is committed to erasing the stigma associated with addiction. We look forward to being of service to those in need. We are presently working on a web page but, in the interim, may be contacted via our Facebook page at HEAL Madison County.
Dennis Gregg, Laurie Hunt, Barb Holmes and Tom Usborne
HEAL Madison County
