Breaking the stigma of addiction in New London
Aug. 31—NEW LONDON — Lori Forbes, pain etched across her face, walked slowly through a small crowd at Williams Park on Thursday gripping a black and white photo of her son, dead now for nearly four years.
Harry Dumond, 27, was found dead inside a sober house room on Nov. 13, 2019, a heartbreaking end to his decade-long struggle with heroin that left his mother adrift and his three young children fatherless.
"His last message was a posted picture of his 5-month-old daughter saying, 'Isn't she beautiful?'" said Forbes, of Oakdale. "What hurts the most is the stigma, the idea that he purposely injected himself with poison knowing what would happen."
Forbes was one of several attendees at an International Overdose Awareness Day event hosted by the New London County CARES group that sought to dispel addiction misconceptions, promote life-saving options and offer comfort to the grieving.
And grief was never far away on Thursday.
Shannon Santini, NLC CARES director, recalled her son, Andrew, with a mix of affection and pain.
"He was so loving, and a smart ass," she said. "He died of an overdose eight years ago at the age of 23. As a parent, you get told to try tough love, to kick them out the house, to just not support or enable an addict. But your child is not a bad person and should not be punished; they need love and support."
Jennifer Muggeo, director of health at Ledge Light Health District, said the labels typically attached to addicts, that they're all dangerous, weak or unsalvageable, are not only unfair, but potentially fatal.
"Those are the kinds of stigmas, the judgments that make a person less likely to disclose their drug use and keeps them from getting help," Muggeo said. "And if someone is overdosing, every second counts."
Near a statue of Nathan Hale at the park, banners highlighted the symptoms of an opioid overdose next to tables filled with paper bags containing fentanyl tests strips and directions on how to administer Narcan, the opioid-reversing medication recently approved for over-the-counter sales.
"We've been making Narcan widely available in distribution boxes across southeastern Connecticut for the last few years," Muggeo said. "The more of that that's out there, the better."
Muggeo said a big part of her job is puncturing common misconceptions about addiction and treatments.
"Narcan is nothing to be scared of and there's no risk in administering it — you're not going to cause harm by giving it," she said. "And you're not going to overdose yourself just by coming in contact with someone suffering a fentanyl overdose. Dispelling these misconceptions leads to more complex conversations and allows people to feel safe, ask questions and get access to help."
Overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. and the fourth-leading cause of death overall in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The center identified synthetic opioids as the main drivers of the overdose deaths, with nearly 88% of opioid-involved overdose deaths involving the synthetic versions.
In Connecticut, there were 1,452 accidental drug intoxication deaths in 2022, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Of those deaths, 92%, or 1,339, involved opioid use with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, listed as the top fatal contributor.
The state's opioid death tally has been steadily rising since 2012, when 298 accidental overdoses were recorded, though the number of such fatalities dropped slightly from 2021 at 1,413 to 2022 with 1,339.
As of the first week of July, there were already 692 reported overdose-related deaths in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Public Health. Approximately 82% of those cases involved fentanyl.
New London Fire Chief Thomas Curcio said overdoses in the city seem to be down this year with fewer doses of Narcan being administered.
"I attribute that to events like these and the work these groups are doing," he said.
For Forbes, the New London ceremony was the third such event she'd attended on Thursday. She planned to head next to Hartford with a collage festooned with dozens of pictures of her son, his smiles frozen in time.
"I do this because it's my therapy," she said. "And I'll go to as many today as I can fit in."
