With drug overdoses on rise, mother speaks out about son's death in Mankato

Apr. 22—MANKATO — Judy Greske spent many years not telling people about her son's opioid addiction.

When she would talk about it, judgmental reactions made her feel like a failure as a mother. Her son, Jason Dobosenski, used to tell her he felt similar judgment from people when he talked about it, like they saw him more as an addict than a human being.

About seven months after Jason died of a heroin overdose at age 36 in Mankato, Greske is now speaking up about his life in the hopes it humanizes people with addictions.

"I just want people to know that people with addictions, it's an illness," she said. "Just like cancer where we would not turn our backs on someone that has cancer, we should not be turning our backs on people with addiction problems."

Greske made the statement during a Mayo Clinic media briefing Wednesday on how drug overdoses are on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed opioids contributed to a 32.6% increase in overdoses in Minnesota during the year ending in September 2020.

Across the country, the one-year period ended with 87,000 Americans dying of drug overdoses. Jason was one of the 87,000, Greske said.

She'd seen overdoses firsthand during her 23 years as a paramedic. She works for Mayo Clinic Ambulance in the Duluth area, where Jason was from.

Her son's first experience with opioids was the Percocet prescribed to him after a car accident in his late teens. This initial exposure plus struggles with mental illness led him down a path of drug abuse and eventually an addiction to heroin.

Knowing about overdoses from her job, Greske would often worry about him. In the last year of his life, which included a period in rehab, he told her he was careful not to take anything with fentanyl — a highly potent synthetic opioid.

Greske's worst fear came true on Sept. 12, 2020. Jason died after unknowingly ingesting a drug laced with fentanyl — a murder investigation is reportedly ongoing.

Drug abuse of all kinds seems to be on the rise these days, said Dr. Teresa Rummans, a psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic. The difference between other drugs and opioids, though, is opioids are being lethally laced.

"People don't realize they're dying from drugs laced with fentanyl," Rummans said.

Fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than morphine, said Dr. Halena Gazelka, chair of Mayo Clinic's Opioid Stewardship Program. It's commonly used to sedate patients in medical settings, but its potency makes it extremely dangerous on the street.

With many people developing opioid addictions from prescribed medications in recent decades, the medical field has had to monitor and adjust its prescription practices. Medical and law enforcement officials also advise people to throw out any extra medications so it stays out of the wrong hands.

Many law enforcement agencies have regular drop-off boxes along with drug take-back days. Rather than flushing drugs down the toilet, people can also buy disposal bags from pharmacies to properly throw drugs away.

Another way to help combat the opioid epidemic, said Rummans, is to humanize the people experiencing it.

"The more we can put faces on this, the more I think everybody will start working together," she said.

Wanting to put a face on the issue is what inspired Greske to share her son's story. He wasn't perfect, she noted, pointing out he spent time in jail.

But he was smart, warm and compassionate, she said.

Interested particularly in politics and world history, he read as much as he could.

He'd also carry around the overdose reversal drug Narcan so he could help others with addictions. At his small memorial service in Mankato, Greske heard about times when her son used it.

"People came out to say Jason saved their lives, things he hadn't told me," she said. "That was all really interesting and powerful."

She wants people to realize how much words matter when talking about addiction.

Treating addiction like a moral failure, rather than the disease it is, doesn't help the people experiencing it get the help they need.

By talking about her son, Greske hopes she can help at least one person who is struggling.

"I just wanted to take this opportunity today to put a more human face on people with addictions, and that they have families and people who love them," she said. " ... I thought this was an opportunity to take all those years where I was silent and now speak about it."

Follow Brian Arola @BrianArola