Parents need to keep telling stories about their children' addictions

It is time for every parent who has lost a child to the horrific opioid epidemic to speak out, tell their stories and demand action.

Unfortunately, I became one of those parents on Feb. 3 this year. My beautiful sweetheart, Kristen Marie Ekas Brown, 27, who grew up in Uniontown, tragically lost her 12-year-long battle with addition. She died at UPMC St. Margaret's Hospital in Pittsburgh where she was living.

Despite repeated stints at drug and alcohol rehab and treatment centers, mental health facilities and ongoing Suboxone and Methadone treatments, Kristen simply did not make it.

Since my daughter's death, I have been on a mission to remind everyone that Kristen and other young people who have lost their lives cannot be defined by their additions.

When Kristen was clean, she attended Westmoreland County Community College where she became a member of the honor society and California University of Pennsylvania where she pursued journalism and other interests.

In high school, my daughter organized a rock concert titled "The Mission for the Mission" for her senior project in 2009 when she raised money for the City Mission, a homeless shelter in Uniontown. She followed in her best friend's footsteps, Nathan Gregor, who held the "Mission for the Mission" several years before Kristen and also tragically died of a drug overdose in 2014.

A 2009 graduate of Laurel Highlands Senior High School, Kristen was a talented musician and writer who later worked as a freelance journalist at the Herald-Standard in Uniontown and The Daily Courier.

A member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Uniontown, Kristen was a member of the praise band and the church bell choir. As a child and teenager, she served on the church Altar and attended Summer Bible School, Sunday School and church on a weekly basis.

Kristen was a devout Christian who never lost her faith in God, despite her many struggles.

Because of her religious background and sweet personality, Kristen had an undying love for all humanity, including the sick, the poor and the homeless. She also had a special love for animals, especially dogs.

Kristen, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder several years before she died, began smoking marijuana when she was 15 and quickly progressed to opioid pills manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.

I believe it was her way of trying to deal with mental health issues prior to her dual diagnosis.

By the time she reached 17, Kristen made the mistake of trying heroin one time.

That one mistake changed her life, continued her downhill spiral and eventually resulted in her death.

Since her death, I have been telling Kristen's story to anyone who is willing to listen and I have been posting photos and special stories about my beautiful daughter on my Facebook page. To my surprise, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Earlier this week, I friend sent me a story that had been published in the Washington Post on March 31.

I immediately became captivated by the story and its vivid details. Eli Saslow, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter at the Post, told the story of Susan Stevens of North Carolina who has spent the past 13 months retelling the story of her 22-year-daughter, Toria, who died of a heroin overdose. The mother told her daughter's story to anyone who was willing to listen.

Stevens eventually ended up in the Rose Garden with President Trump. Before she went to the White House, she attended an anti-drug march, a middle school assembly and many other events. She even created a nonprofit organization in her daughter's memory.

According to the newspaper article, Stevens had talked about addiction to the paramedics who tried to save Toria's life, the drug dealers who sold her the heroin, the doctors who failed to help her and to every elected official who answered her phone calls.

In February, Stevens was seated next to Trump in the Oval Office as they talked about how 90 percent of drugs entering the U.S. come across the southern border.

"We have new angel moms," Trump announced, at a news conference, gesturing to Stevens as he declared a national emergency to fund a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. "Stand up, just for a second, and show how beautiful your girl was," he told her, as Stevens held up a photo of Toria.

"It's clear my daughter died because of these drugs coming through our border," Stevens said later during a news conference.

Just think about that for a little while.

It is important to note that the drug epidemic has hit Pennsylvania, Florida and the District of Columbia the hardest, according to a study published recently by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to the study, the two states and the District of Columbia had opioid mortality rates that were at least doubling every two years in research that looked at opioid-related mortality in the U.S. from 1999 to 2016. During that time period, there were more than 44.9 million deaths from opioids among U.S. residents.

The life expectancy lost at age 15 from opioids is now greater than that lost from deaths due to firearms or motor vehicle crashes in most of the United States, the study reported.

In 2017, Pennsylvania's coroners and medical examiners reported a total of 5,456 drug-related overdose deaths, or 43 deaths per 100,000 people, which is nearly twice the national average of 22 deaths per 100,000.

The use of highly potent white heroin from Mexico is common in Pennsylvania and the eastern U.S., and fentanyl is more easily blended into this type of heroin than the brown tar variety typically used out west.

Drug-related overdose deaths in Pennsylvania increased by 65 percent overall between 2015 and 2017, according to the study.

This was largely attributed to fentanyl and related substances, according to a comprehensive assessment of the Commonwealth's opioid crisis by the Drug Enforcement Agency's Philadelphia Field Division, the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy's Program Evaluation Unit and Pennsylvania Opioid Overdose Reduction Technical Assistance Center.

As the opioid epidemic continues, parents need to continue to ask questions.

Why are politicians and the public opposed to funding a border wall that could save many Americans from dying of drug overdoses in the future? As a mother who just lost her daughter to drug addiction, this makes absolutely no sense to me.

Why is "Big Pharma" still permitted to produce massive quantities of opioid pills that are resulting in so many deaths? We know that "Big Pharma" has many lobbyists who wine and dine politicians on the national level. This needs to stop immediately.

Why isn't the government pursuing changes in legislation that would provide stiffer penalties for drug dealers? Drug dealers should be kept in prisons where they cannot hurt other people.

Why is the government not providing additional funding for the drug epidemic, which I believe is the most important issue facing our great nation?

Until theses questions are answered, parents need to continue to share their stories about their children who died of drug addiction to anyone who will listen and hold politicians and government officials accountable for the actions they take or don't take.

We can only hope that one day America will once again become a safe place to raise our children.

Until that day comes, we will keep telling our stories, and we will never give up.

Cindy Ekas is the Daily Courier editor. She can be reached at 724-628-2000, ext. 115, or cekas@dailycourier.com.