Joseph William Pori

It was very difficult to find a recent picture of Joe where he was not high. He struggled with addiction for more than 10 years. He was in Drug Court and on probation, clean and sober when the Covid-19 hit. Courts were closed, there were no meetings and no counseling sessions. What would an addict do? Best I could tell, he had not been using his drug of choice during that time due to the threat of eviction from my home, but he was using. He was using Kratom and then Tiana. So far I don't have the tox reports back yet, but that day, June 2, he bought 7 Xanax bars. I know because I was able to get into his Facebook and saw the whole thing go down. Needless to say, the outcome is the same.

Joe is dead.

There was a super cool guy underneath all of his pain. He and I shared a real sarcastic sense of humor. We loved to watch movies together, especially Star Wars and comedy movies. He had so many friends that loved him. None of us could love him clean or happy.

A close friend of mine lost her son to fentanyl a couple of years back and she was the person I reached for. No one can know but another mother. No mother should ever know. She invited me to a support group on Facebook with more than 4000 members worldwide who have lost sons and daughters to a drug overdose. NOT ONE MORE! Please join us on Overdose Awareness Day, August 31, and urge your local and state representative to fly flags at half staff. Drug addicts lives matter.