Casey's Law

I met an amazing woman last Friday. Her name, Charlotte Wethington.

How do you recover from the death of your son, your only child? As if his death isn't bad enough, it came from a disease that is treatable. The disease of chemical dependence. Her 23 year old son Casey died of an overdose of heroin. And the sad thing is this, she had taken her son to the emergency room for an overdose...2 previous times! After his first ER visit...for an overdose of heroin...he was discharged because he refused to enter treatment. Why? Because there was no law that allowed the parents of a child over the age of 18 to mandate treatment. Even though an addict is incapable of making a rational decision when it comes to the use of drugs, they still can't have him admitted. And consider this. Casey was "recovering" from an overdose. Common sense tells you this person is OBVIOUSLY incapable of making a rational decision regarding treatment for drug addiction!

Ahhhh yes...this is the land where a land owner can lose control over what they do with their land if an endangered flea is found on their property. But intervene when a human is suffering from a treatable disease that renders them incapable of making a rational decision. Ohhhh no.....we wouldn't want to do that!

This country has lost it's mind!

The second ER visit within less than a year was for another heroin overdose. OK. Second OD in less than a year. Doesn't it seem "logical" that the person has demonstrated an inability to make rational decisions regarding the use of a potentially fatal drug? But again, we can't interfere with an irrational decision that might cause a death, but we WILL interfere with a terminally ill person's right to die with dignity. We WILL intervene if someone with severe, chronic, unrelenting pain that can't be cured seems to be taking "too much" pain medication. Even though it has been prescribed by a board certified pain specialist. Oh my! We wouldn't want this person who has no hope of a cure for their pain to become addicted! But it IS OK to let an already addicted individual die from their disease once it's already happened because we can't mandate them to treatment which is life saving!

What the hell is wrong with this picture?

When they were getting ready to discharge Casey, a nurse in the ER told his mother that her son hadn't lived long enough yet, he was too young to have "hit bottom" yet. He hadn't "lost enough". She said to the nurse, "What happens if never grows "old enough"? What happens if his "bottom" is death?" She had no idea she was predicting the future. Her son died several weeks later from one last overdose.

Charlotte, not willing to simply grieve the loss of her son, decided to make a difference. She began to research how to get a law passed. When she was told she would never succeed, she kept on plugging away. When more people told her it would take nothing less than 5 years to accomplish the passage of a bill. She did it in 2 years! As she told me in our discussion, rather than give up when a door would close in her face, she would find another and walk through that one.

I told her she was my hero for having the guts to do what needed to be done regardless of who it ticked off and who didn't like it.

I guess that's the power that a wounded mother is capable of, even if the wound was a fatal one...for her only child.