Displaying items by tag: Karine Montayne, Eve Cascone, RAIS, Maureen Provost, Karen Heggen, Paul Tonko, heroin, addiction

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Nearly 100 area residents congregated in Congress Park before sunset last Thursday to remember the victims of drug overdose. They listened intently to the personal experiences of surviving family members.

“Many of us feel we lost our loved ones long before they left this Earth,” said Karine Montanye, whose brother died nearly 30 years ago from a heroin overdose. More recently, Montayne’s son Nico also passed away, even as he was in the midst of addiction treatment. She said her daughter is currently in treatment.

“It’s been my life,” Montayne confessed to those gathered near a weeping willow tree and the Spirit of Life fountain. “One of the biggest things…when we’re dealing with addiction is that it’s very isolating. As a family member who’s trying to help, you never know if you’re making the right decisions.”

“You’re being ignorant if you say that will never happen to my child,” concluded Eve Cascone, who lost her 30-year-old daughter Katie three years ago to a heroin overdose. She explained that Katie had struggled first with an addiction to prescription painkillers.

“One day, Katie went to her dealer and he didn’t have pills. He offered her heroin,” Cascone said. “She promised me that was the only time she was ever going to use.”

Cascone proceeded to read a graphic poem written, she said, by the author “Heroin.”  

The group Recovery Advocacy in Saratoga (RAIS-OurVoice!) had organized the Aug. 31 event in conjunction with the Healing Springs Recovery and Outreach Center and the Prevention Council of Saratoga.

It was preceded by a Narcan training session at Saratoga Springs Public Library. Similar events were held in communities nationwide to mark Overdose Awareness Day.

Maureen Provost, a spokeswoman for RAIS who emceed the Congress Park gathering, indicated that it may become an annual occasion.  

As darkness fell and candles were being lit, even in a steady breeze, Provost invited any of the attendees to speak briefly about those they have lost. The microphone was passed from one individual to the next, and people said “this is for” friends, cousins, ex-boyfriends, brothers and many others who succumbed to overdoses.

Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen was also in attendance along with U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-Amsterdam) and other elected officials. Tonko said communities across the whole nation are dealing with an “epidemic” of drug addiction.

“This epidemic is destroying our families,” he said. “We need to respond in epidemic proportions.”