Parents Speak Out

Prescription Drug Abuse

Narconon students are lucky.  They are given another chance at life.  With some, their drug abuse was so severe; they have been literally taken from the jaws of death and are now free to live drug free and productive lives.

Not all abusers are so lucky and some of their families are affected tragically.  Unfortunately, with prescription drug abuse reaching epidemic proportions, too many parents like the Katz’s have lost their children.

The statistics of prescription drug abuse deaths are alarming but can’t speak to parents and their children as loudly as someone like the Katz’s can. They have devoted their lives to educating teens and parents about the lethal dangers of prescription drug abuse.

With prescription drug sales in the billions, and Oxycontin sales alone at one billion a year, there are a lot of parents and their children that need to hear what the Katz’s have to say.

Hopefully, more parents will take heed, and will insist that their children, no matter the age, participate in effective drug treatment.

“David and Gail Katz thought their 25-year-old son Daniel had finally turned the corner on his addiction to prescription painkillers after a year and a half of sobriety.

Then, over a two-week period in 2007, Daniel’s drug use suddenly “spiraled out of control,” his parents said.

On June 15, 2007, Daniel, a well-liked former hockey player, died at his best friend’s house after overdosing on OxyContin and cocaine.

“We heard that he had told his girlfriend that he wanted to start again and turn his life around and that night, he overdosed,” Gail Katz said.

Some think it’s harmless

The Katzes think Daniel started abusing painkillers in college after experimenting with marijuana and alcohol in high school. Though they sought treatment for him several times, Daniel “just couldn’t stay sober,” Gail Katz said.

The Highland Park couple has since made a full-time job of educating teens and their parents about prescription drug abuse, the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States.”

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