Drug Crisis in Our Backyard

Drug Crisis in Our Backyard was born of anger and grief experienced by two families that lost their sons to opioid overdose. In the spring of 2012, long before people were talking about an opioid epidemic, the Salomone and Christiansen families were burying their 29 and 28 year old sons, Justin and Erik. An article that I started to write when I thought Justin was going to get better was my motivation to inform the community about what was really happening in suburban NY relative to drug use. It appeared in the Mahopac News, a local paper, on June 14.

The Christiansen’s reached out to me the day they buried their son June 14 saying they read the article. We met to compare our experiences and how we could help others who were probably going through the same nightmare. Carol and Lou Christiansen came to our house with so many prescription
containers of oxycontin that had been prescribed to Erik. It was truly unbelievable. They explained to us that they found out about Erik’s issue Nov. of 2011 when he told them he was addicted to painkillers. Erik was a detective, had his own condo in White Plains, and a girlfriend at the time of his passing. Our experience was totally different. We had been living with Justin’s addiction for 8 years. He started using opioids in college and spiraled out of control when he went to rehab. He tried unsuccessfully to stop several times.

What we realized when we met was that so many other families were going through this and Carol said, “This is really a Drug Crisis right in our own Backyard!!” and that is how we coined the name of our organization. We held our first forum in Mahopac on Aug 9, 2012 at the Library and we had 150 people come. We knew we were not the only ones. We continued to do in person presentations until 2020 and today our work continues through the partnership with Alliance for Safe Kids which we finalized in December of 2023. The purpose of this merger is to consolidated services for prevention, treatment, education and recovery supports.

The mission of Drug Crisis in our Backyard is:

• To continue to bring awareness of the dangers of illegal and legal drugs in our community
• To help family members with resources and strategies to influence change in their loved ones behavior through family support groups and one on one coaching
• To support agencies that advocate for better treatment options and supportive housing
• To reduce the stigma associated with addiction by educating and informing the public at large that addiction is a chronic disease and very difficult to overcome.

It has been a long time since the country was blind to opioid abuse in its communities, but now we are aware and the continued use of these drugs is testament to the addictive qualities of opioids. We offer help and support through our organization and that of our parent company. Please read out stories - Saving Justin and Remembering Erik on our website.

For more information contact us at:
ssal@drugcrisisinourbackyard.com
914-582-8384