Lucynda Storey-Erotic Romance Writer

This comes from Doreen Orsini who lost her daughter right before her high school graduation this past spring.

Lucynda

My daughter, Natalie, passed away this past June from a heroin overdose.  A year ago, we discovered that she took drugs.  In May, she survived her first overdose and we discovered that she was snorting heroin.  Our struggle to save her started long before that but, sadly, once she turned 18, the law slammed one door after another in our faces.  According to our laws, an 18 year old cannot buy cigarettes or alcohol, but can refuse treatment for drug addiction.  Drug addiction controls and distorts the mind.  Drug related deaths are second only those from auto accidents (many of which are drug related).  Drug addicts are always one high away from overdose or killing someone in an accident.  Drug addiction breeds crime.  Yet, we have no recourse to save our addicted children once they turn 18.  To make this law even more uncanny, the law also states that parents are responsible for their children until they reach the age of 21.  Yes, if your addicted child gets behind the wheel of a car and kills someone, you are responsible.  BUT you have no power to stop them!

Unless you’ve lost a child, you will NEVER understand the pain.  It is the ultimate pain, the all-consuming pain.  It is a pain too many parents of addicts will feel in the future.  When you lose a child from an overdose or other drug related death, you examine every move, every decision to uncover where you might have erred in your battle to save your child.  When you lose a child who has reached the Age of Maturity, your search reveals that you might have succeeded if your hands were not tied by the law, if one door after another did not slam in your face, if you had the right as a parent to do whatever you could to save you child. 

Natalie needed help, but felt she could kick the habit on her own. Natalie’s friends said that she was the one they would go to if they were in the midst of some teenage tragedy or if they needed advice.  They all said that she dropped everything to help a friend.  For her, for our teenagers, for every parent and future parent, we must regain the right to save our kids.
Join the nationwide Natalie Ciappa Not My Child Walk on March 16, 2009.  This is too important to be just another walk on Washington.  The Natalie Ciappa Not My Child Walk will hit every major city in the nation!  Contact every friend and relative across the nation and ask them to join the walk in their city.  Email everyone in your contact lists.  Tell them to go to www.groups.yahoo.com/group/NatalieCiappaNotMyChildWalk  and join to get details about the walk and information regarding petitions, etc.  And when the government says our eighteen to twenty year olds have the right to say no to rehab, yell as loud as you can, “Not My Child!”

My daughter once had a 113 GPA, was a cheerleader, sang the Nation Anthem at school sports events, made the National Honor Society, sang in the All County Choir, and coached young cheerleaders.  Old Westbury College accepted Natalie into their College of Honors.  She dreamt of becoming a criminal profiler.  Now, she only lives in my dreams.  I can no longer save Natalie, but with your help, I can save others.

Doreen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Lucynda Storey, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.