Ending the shame: a mother shares the story of her son’s losing battle with addiction
Justin Strand, who died two years ago, was a Model UN student and a member of the Mira Costa football team that came within a field goal of beating Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for a CIF title. Photo courtesy the Strand family Justin Strand was a big, joyously athletic kid. He was a square-jawed, handsome young man, 6’5 and 240 pounds, who played football, baseball, volleyball, and lacrosse at Mira Costa High School and was an avid surfer and outdoorsman. He grew up in what appeared to be a picture-perfect family — he and his sister and parents backpacked, traveled overseas, and made a point to eat breakfast and dinners together almost every day. But something happened to Justin when he was 18 that would eventually undermine every gift his life had given him. He was in car accident in which he was broadsided and injured his back. He was prescribed painkillers that contained opioids. “He liked them very, very much,” recalled his mother, Cyndi Strand.“Unfortunately, doctors at the time — 2003, 2004 — they weren’t worried about people becoming addicted. And he learned how to doctor shop, and did it very well. They just handed them out.” Twelve torturous years later Cyndi Strand received…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com