It is a subject few wish to discuss openly. How drugs are affecting the tax and finance community. There are many very hard working tax and finance professionals with family members with addiction issues, I want to speak out for them today. In full disclosure, drug addiction affected one of my family members so I have a very up close and personal view of having an addict in the family.  The goal of this post is to help save lives of anyone you know who is afflicted with addiction.

First if all, you can be in the tax profession or any profession and be the best parent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, boss, colleague of an individual with drug addiction. Drugs can affect anyone, anywhere, anytime. In fact, if you ask around it is easy to learn about someone you know who has been affected by heroin or someone you know who knows someone who has died from a heroin overdose.  It does not matter what state you reside or the size of the village or city you live in, what is your profession; the heroin epidemic has penetrated every community.

As a trusted counselor, tax and financial professionals share a lot of private information with me.  More so these days, I am hearing about heroin affecting many families in the tax and financial profession. If telling these stories saves one life it is my intention; and if it saves many lives it is my mission. Here are three real life stories shared with me privately.

Story #1 A Tax Professional Family

This true story is of a Tax Practitioner who is held in high regard by the business community. He is the head of a big family, leads a very successful tax practice, client’s trust his tax expertise,he believes in something far greater than himself, and is a generous donor of time and money in the business community. His family would be characterized as the perfect family. However, what few people know is that this tax practitioner has a son who struggled with heroin addiction. He and his wife struggled with their son for many years in and out of recovery centers.  However, they never gave up on him and stayed the course through multiple recovery programs which is often what is needed. They kept at it each time he relapsed; they got him back in and eventually the lights kicked on and he finished college and went on to earn his Master Degree. His eldest son was hired in a new job in tax and finance last year.

His son was 31 years old and well on his way to a successful tax career when he received his first real bonus. He was on top of the world with success! For some reason, he decided to celebrate his first big bonus (years after being clean) with heroin. He died on the spot from the drug overdose which often happens to those who have been clean for years and decide to visit the drug one more time. When the policeman came to talk to the tax practitioner father, the father immediately assumed it was his youngest son since he was also an addict as well but he was living on the streets. This tax practitioner had not one but two sons addicted to heroin; the one son who was living on the streets and another who had successfully navigated addiction. He thought it was surely the son  living on the street who had overdosed but as the policeman delivered the bad news he told him it was his eldest son who had just died of a drug overdose. Yes, the one son who had earned a Master Degree.

Story #2   A Tax Professional Family

This is another true story is of a retired Big Four Partner. He and his wife have one son who is very gifted in the area of finance. He was doing part-time research while in college. He had been in recovery and was doing great for over a year. Just a mere few weeks ago, he had invited a friend to spend the night and for whatever reason he relapsed and decided to do drugs with another young man. While they were using heroin, both of these young men were really messed up. The Tax Partner’s son was videotaping with his cell phone the other boy falling asleep on the floor laughing thinking he has fallen asleep. It turned out he was not sleeping but what he was doing was videotaping this young man taking his last breath overdosing from heroin.

The parents are the best of parents, the son was highly educated but they were no match for the power of heroin coming into their path. This is life or death business folks impacting entire families.

Story #3   A Tax Professional Family

Yet another story is of a seasoned tax executive in a corporation. I know the mother well and she provides a stable family life with her husband, they are a wonderful family unit for any young person to grow up in today. Their son is an addict and he started doing drugs in middle school where the pressure is high to experiment with drugs. These kids are also pressured in high school and college to be cool. The drugs coming at a new generation of youth in social groups is relentless, no matter what they may tell you about the new friends they meet! The drugs are coming at them everywhere.

The son of this tax executive had been experimenting with drugs since middle school. By the time their son arrived to college he flunked out due to drugs which escalated to heroin. While under the influence of drugs, he shot a man in the leg and attacked him. This young man now serves in a State Prison for the next twenty years all due to his drug addiction. There is no shortage of drug addiction in the best of families, even in the tax community. It is just it is a silent secret no one wants to talk about these days.

How You Can Help Save Lives

My goal is to be a voice for the families who are afraid to come forward to tell their stories. There is a very special recovery group in San Diego, CA who is changing the lives of many people affected by drug addiction. Genesis Recovery in San Diego, CA is having a very special event being held on Saturday May 4^th 2019 at their Recovery Center in honor of those we have already lost to addiction.

The special event will include a 5 Mile Memory Walk that honors with a PHOTO and STORY of the lives of young men and women who have died of a drug overdose on the walk. If you know someone who has died from drug overdose and would like to have them honored on this beautiful 5 Mile Memory Walk on Saturday May 4th 2019 hosted by the Genesis Recovery Program 7373 University Avenue, 113, La Mesa, CA 91942, please send a photo, story of their life and a contribution to help scholarship another person through this program. Their Photo and story will be attached to a stake planted throughout this 5 Mile Memory Walk that honors the lives of those taken down by drugs.

More importantly, please, please, please make a contribution to Genesis Recovery so we can raise funds to pay for scholarships for those who cannot afford a drug recovery program. All donations go to scholarship funding for those who do not have the financial resources to recover from the drugs streaming into our country and killing thousand of our promising young adults each year. The work this recovery center is doing is amazing, they are saving lives. They completely turned my family member’s life around as he is now living a very productive life.

Start A Movement Against The Drugs Coming Into This Country Harming Families Everywhere. Forward This Message On To Increase Donations To Help Fund Scholarships That Save Lives!

You Can Make An Immediate Contribution Here!