Page 4 - Addiction and Overdose: Confronting an American Crisis

Chapter One
Addiction and Overdose

in AmericA

unday, May 10, 2015, was a perfect Mother’s Day for Donna Kull of
SHillsborough, New Jersey. “The four of us had dinner together on the
deck: my husband Brian, our son Adam, and his older sister,” she says. “It
was so pleasant—just what every mother hopes for—her grown children
together and seemingly happy, everyone enjoying just being together for
a meal.”
Three days later, she was at her desk in the office where she worked as
the secretary for a group of busy high school guidance counselors. “The call
that changed our family’s lives forever
came into the office at 7:45 a.m.,” she
“OvERDOSE DEATHS, says. The mother of one of her son’s friends
was on the phone. “She was nervous, even
PARTICuLARLy FROM a bit hysterical. It seemed like I had to pull

the words out of her. ‘Donna, these kids,’
PREScRIPTION DRUgS AND she said. ‘I just don’t know. He’s gone.’
‘Who?’ I screamed. ‘Who’s gone?’ ‘Adam,’
HEROIN, HAvE REAcHED she said. ‘He’s dead at his apartment.’ I

EPIDEMIC LEvELS.” yelled, ‘NO! No, not Adam!”’
Kull’s coworkers heard her anguished
cry and gathered around her. “I said that
—Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator, US
Drug Enforcement Administration, 2015 my son had died and I needed to go. They

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