Pubdate: Mon, 07 Sep 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Dan Sewell, Associated Press

PARENTS WIN PRAISE AFTER TYING DEATH OF DAUGHTER WITH HEROIN

MIDDLETOWN, OHIO (AP) - Confronted with the sudden death of their 
18-year-old daughter, Fred and Dorothy McIntosh Shuemake recently 
made a defiant decision: They would not worry about any 
finger-pointing, whispers or family stigma.

They directed the funeral home to begin Alison Shuemake's obituary by 
stating flatly that she died "of a heroin overdose." They aren't the 
first grieving American parents to cite heroin in an obituary as such 
deaths nearly quadrupled nationally over a decade, but it's rare, 
even in a southwestern Ohio community headed toward another record 
year in heroin-related deaths.

"There was no hesitation," Dorothy McIntosh Shuemake said. "We've 
seen other deaths when it's heroin, and the families don't talk about 
it because they're ashamed or they feel guilty. Shame doesn't matter 
right now."

"What really matters is keeping some other person, especially a 
child, from trying this. ... We didn't want anybody else to feel the 
same agony and wretchedness that we're left with," she said.

She and her husband, a retired Middletown police detective who 
investigated crimes against children, want to promote a potentially 
preventive dialogue about what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention calls an epidemic. In Butler County, where the 
Shuemakes live, the coroner's statistics show heroin-related deaths 
jumped in two years from 30 to 103 in 2014, with 86 recorded already 
through the first six months of this year.

Their decision has drawn a wide outpouring of support, both locally 
and on social media, with online comments and emails from around the world.

Scott Gehring, who heads the Sojourner Recovery Services addiction 
treatment nonprofit in Butler County, praised the Shuemakes' 
"strength and foresight" to draw attention to heroin's role.

A search of "heroin" on the Legacy.com site with obituaries from more 
than 1,500 newspapers found only a handful in the last month. One was 
from the Ventura County Star in California, describing Cameron Kean 
Crawford's talent in art and technology and his placid demeanor until 
"heroin unraveled his life, causing his shocking demise from an 
overdose on ... his 34th birthday."

Alison Shuemake had recently got a job at a salon after being 
recruited by a manager who admired the way she did her hair and 
makeup. She and her boyfriend both had two jobs and moved into an 
apartment together a few weeks ago.

Although she had been in rehabilitation months earlier for alcohol 
and marijuana abuse, she seemed happy, her parents said.
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