NEWS

Morris task force aims to keep kids away from ‘that stuff’

LORRAINE ASH @LorraineVAsh

ROCKAWAY – The Morris County Task Force on Opiates hosted two young filmmakers working on an “Epidemic H” documentary at a meeting last week at the Center for Addiction Recovery Education and Success.

“Why this topic? Because all of us have been affected in one way or another by this issue,” said Mike Mee, 24, of Pequannock, one of the filmmakers on the project, which explores, up-close and personal, the havoc that heroin wreaks on lives.

“The main goal of this project,” he added, “is to make people think, ‘I don’t ever want to go near that stuff. I don’t want my family member to have to go through this.’ We want to get people talking about it, and confronting it, in the early stages.”

Mee and his partner, Ken Spooner, 25, of River Vale, say 14- to 15-year-olds, who may not even have heard of heroin, are their target audience.

“We want to get this film into every high school in the country,” Spooner said.

The two are spreading word of the project’s $40,000 online fundraising campaign — www.gofundme.com/EpidemicH — to advocacy and activist groups statewide.

Their project is rooted in New Jersey because it’s here in their home state, the young men said, where the purest form of heroin in the country is being produced and distributed.

Two months into filming, the documentary team already has shot footage of Jesse Morella, a victim of heroin who has been living as a quadriplegic since 2004. That was the year the drug caused Morella, then a 16-year-old Pequannock High School junior, to aspirate on his own vomit, which deprived his brain of oxygen. Ever since, the young man and his mother, Maureen Morella, have committed themselves to educating youth on the dangers of heroin.

“Maureen is a powerful voice, and Jesse is a powerful image,” said Mee, who recalled Morella’s story since the two had been living in the same township. Mee was an eighth-grader when tragedy struck Morella.

The film, whose target rollout date is April/May 2016, also will feature Ocean County Prosecutor Joe Coronato, Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale, and other New Jersey people. The filmmakers are seeking a person who is currently a heroin addict as well as another individual who has recovered from the addiction.

“We’re not bashing drug addicts,” Mee said. “It’s not to put them down. It’s to put everybody on one level and see this, all together, as human beings. The addict’s voice is important. We want to show the different stages of heroin and what it can do.”

Jack Elsmore of the Rockaway Township Substance Abuse Alliance, a task force member whose child was killed by heroin, encouraged the team.

“You’ll never get to really know how many kids you’re saving, but know, deep down inside, you are saving lives,” he told Mee and Spooner.

Fall events planned

In other business, the task force coordinated, planned, and promoted a variety of local events aimed at raising awareness, reducing stigma, and educating everyone from youth to parents to EMTs about heroin. These include another Do No Harm Symposium, set for Sept. 16 at Bethel Church of Morristown, aimed at reaching clergy to whom some people, who are addicted to prescription drugs, turn for help. (See accompanying box.)

“With the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, we’ve decided to offer a Do No Harm symposium for faith-based leaders,” said Barbara Kauffman, Morris County coordinator of the Community Coalition for a Safe and Healthy Morris, told the group.

“In the 20 years I’ve been in this field,” she added, “I’ve gotten calls from clergy saying that someone with an addiction problem has approached them and asking where they can direct these individuals. Angelo Valente, executive director of the Partnership, calls clergy first responders. Very often, they are.”

The first such event, which took place in Newark, drew 80 people. This time, the goal, she said, is to attract 300.

Also, Beth Jacobson, Morris County addiction services administrator, announced preliminary plans for an annual substance abuse prevention conference, to take place Nov. 4 at the Morris Museum. David Sheff, a journalist known for his books “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction” and “Clean,” will be the keynote speaker.

“A lot of us advocates read those books and they empowered us to get out there and do a lot of good things,” said Denise Mariano of Roxbury, another task force member and a parent coach with Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. Her son is in recovery.

“We’re so fortunate he’s coming to the East Coast,” she said.

For more information on the task force and its agendas, visit www.morrishumanservices.org/behavioral/workgroups.asp .

Lorraine Ash: 973-428-6660; lash@dailyrecord.com

Learn more

MORRIS COUNTY COMMUNITY RESOURCE FAIR

WHAT: An event presenting local resources to help addicts and stop addiction, sponsored by NCADD-NJ Somerset/Morris Team and Morris County Task Force on Opiates

WHEN: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 12

WHERE: Parsippany PAL, 33 Baldwin Rd., Parsippany

MORE INFORMATION: Barb Kauffman, BKauffman@mcpik.org or Denise Mariano, marianod@optonline.net

DO NO HARM

WHAT: A symposium on addiction for faith-based leaders

WHEN: 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Sept. 16

WHERE: Bethel Church of Morristown, 59 Spring St., Morristown

MORE INFORMATION: 973-467-2100; http://safehealthymorris.org/event-directory

UNITE TO FACE ADDICTION

WHAT: A rally to demand solutions and celebrate recovery

WHEN: Oct. 4

WHERE: The National Mall, Washington, D.C.

MORE INFORMATION: For a seat on buses traveling from Morris County to the rally, marianod@optonline.net

SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION CONFERENCE

WHAT: A Morris County Task Force on Opiates event featuring speaker David Sheff, New York Times best-selling author of “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction” and “Clean”

WHEN: Nov. 4

WHERE: Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Rd., Morris Township

MORE INFORMATION: Barb Kauffman, BKauffman@mcpik.org