‘We are losing a generation of our children’: Maine reporter writes on 5-year anniversary of his son’s overdose death
Stephen Betts shared the story of his son, Jonathan, who died at the age of 26.
A Maine reporter says it will take “the collective will of the people and our elected leaders” to take action on the opioid epidemic.Stephen Betts, a reporter for the Courier-Gazette in Rockland, Maine, wrote about his own experience with the crisis, sharing in a post on Facebook Thursday that his son Jonathan died from an overdose five years ago this week at the age of 26. He also shared his son’s story in an opinion piece for the Bangor Daily News.“A parent’s worst nightmare is the loss of a child,” Betts wrote. ”Even before the child is born, you begin to worry. When they are babies and asleep, you go into their rooms regularly to make sure they are safe. As they become wandering, adventurous toddlers who show no fear, you must keep an ever watchful eye on them. As they grow up, foremost, you want them to be happy.”His son, he said, was a happy child — a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who played with Legos and later excelled in sports.It was after he started college, Betts wrote, that his son became “entangled in the dark world of addiction.”“This coincided with his mother being diagnosed with cancer,” Betts said. “He turned to drugs to ease the pain he was feeling. He struggled mightily over the next several years. He often showed that buoyant Jon of earlier years but also a more subdued young man. He saw counselors, he had been hospitalized twice, and he exercised obsessively to try to keep his body and mind healthy.”Five years ago this week, Betts said he broke down the door to his son’s apartment, concerned when he couldn’t be reached, and found the young man slumped over a desk and “cold to the touch.”Betts described how he “desperately” called 911 even though he knew it was too late.In Maine last year,418 people died from drug overdoses.“In the five years since Jon died, the state has done little to effectively deal with this greatest crisis of our time,” the father wrote. “We are losing a generation of our children.”Read his Facebook post, below:
https://www.facebook.com/stephen.betts.7/posts/10215889838749739
