At age 5, Brick Township High School senior Cameron Cohen found his father overdosed in the bathroom. At age 12, he had to administer CPR on his 20-year-old brother, Dylan, who died three years later of an overdose.

Trish Holder woke up at 6:30 a.m. to find her son in his bed, with blood coming from his mouth. It was too late to do CPR. Christopher had taken fentanyl, which is multiple times more potent than heroin. They had to force her to leave the bedroom, and she remembers them taking him out in a body bag.

This is just a snippet of the stories told to nearly 600 people during a recent forum presented by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, according to a recent article “Surviving Family Drug Addiction, One NJ Teen Tells His Story,” on Patch.com. The forum aims to educate students and adults on the dangers of substance abuse and the importance of getting help. While there’s a big emphasis on opioids and the current heroin and fentanyl crisis, alcohol abuse was also discussed at the event, according to Patch.com.

“(Substance abuse) steals from us each and every day,” said Dennis Filippone, acting superintendent of the Brick schools, who was the emcee for the night. Filippone urged the teens to “have the courage it takes to be that kid who is different,” and to say no thanks when offered a drink or drug, according to the article.

He also pleaded with parents to take a close look at their attitudes toward both alcohol and marijuana: “Parents and coaches have to say it’s not OK to go out and drink on Saturday after the game,” Filippone said. “And we have to stop saying, ‘Oh, thank God it’s only marijuana,’ when a kid fails a drug test. I’ve heard that way too many times. We have to stop thinking that’s OK.”

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