FED UP! movement continues to grow in Newark

NEWARK - Mark Stone was addicted to heroin, but if he didn't tell you, you wouldn't be able to tell it for yourself.

His family didn't know until he approached his wife and mother, telling them he wanted to quit his addiction and was going to start his recovery.

However, Stone wasn't able to share his story at the second annual FED UP! rally Wednesday evening; instead, his mother, Laura Cash, did for him.

"Mark was recovering from his addiction when he overdosed in 2014," she told the audience gathered at the Canal Market District. "Today, we're here to remember those we've lost and to bring awareness to this issue."

She said her son's death opened her family's eyes to the danger of substance abuse.

"When he was alive, he made a big impact, so we honor his memory by making a big impact with his death," Cash said. "He wanted to help other people like him, so we work to make his dream come true."

Stone didn't die because of an overdose, Cash said, but because of the stigma related to substance abuse and addiction. If people would remember that addicts are people too, recovery would be more attainable for more people suffering from drug addiction.

Other speakers at the event echoed Cash, adding that substance abuse needs to be treated like any other disease because that's what it is.

Event organizers Patricia Perry and Colleen Richards, leaders in the Addict's Parents United organization, said the rally was just one way local addiction support groups have started to collaborate in Newark recently.

"We had more participation from community organizations this year compared to last year, and there are more people here," Perry said. "We'll take what we can get and keep growing each year."

Perry and Richards work with the Newark police in the Newark's Addiction Recovery Initiative that began this summer, driving people seeking help in their recovery to treatment. The FED UP! rally was one way they've worked to raise awareness about avenues of assistance.

"It's important for everyone to learn the distinction between what's assumed about people with addiction and the truth," Richards said. "It's not a choice for these people, and for everyone to say it's a choice, they just don't understand."

Newark Police Chief Barry Connell addressed the people attending the rally, giving a report on NARI and the effect it has had since its initiation.

"Since we've started the program here in Newark, we've had 30 people walk through the department's doors," he said. "While not all of them have been quite ready for change and some haven't qualified, it's a start."

"We aren't quite to 100 percent clean streets, but we are making progress and we are getting attention for the work we've done so far."

Connell said one man who came to the department informed them he had been ready to end his life, but through NARI, this was "one life saved so far for sure."

The rally closed with a short candlelight vigil, a prayer and a balloon release to memorialize the people who had died from substance abuse.

For Cash, getting to speak at the rally made her feel like her son would be proud of her.

"He wanted to help people with their addictions, and if he could be here, he'd have wanted to do this," she said. "I've learned that grief never goes away, you just learn to live with it, but it's still devastating."

"No one without a child can understand that pain, and no one should have to."

blawlis@gannett.com

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Twitter: @BarrettLawlis