Newtown Bee
John Voket, July 17, 2016

There are countless reasons why a young person makes the decision to experiment with drugs or liquor. While a number may continue to occasionally indulge in a recreational puff or two of pot, and many others go on to drink socially through adulthood with no ill effect, those intoxicants have a decidedly different impact on others.

Some graduate to more potent drugs, self-medicating a masked mental or emotional issue, unsuccessfully chasing a greater kick, or keeping their always-looming withdrawal symptoms in check. Others turn to alcohol, or a combination of drugs and alcohol, to quell inner demons that keep them careening down their paths of self-destruction.

For those who have taken that path, Dorrie Carolan and the Newtown Parent Connection (NPC) are there with assistance to help transition addicts into effective in-patient treatment centers.

Read complete article >

July 9, 2016, John Voket

Dr James Gill, Connecticut’s chief medical examiner (ME), logged 729 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2015, and by the end of March, he had already logged 208 more to either heroin, the powerful painkiller fentanyl, or some combination of the two.

If that upward-trending number of overdose deaths continues, the ME believes Connecticut could see well over 800 deaths by year’s end.

And while a nagging stereotype of a destitute individual overdosing on cheap heroin in an urban shooting gallery still persists, the reality is quite the opposite for more and more state residents, including Newtown’s Kovack family.  Read complete article >