James Rada, Jr.
Emmitsburg citizens and businesses are planning on participating in Recovery Awareness Week, September 11-16, 2017, to call attention to the drug problem in Frederick County.
“In Frederick County, there are drug overdoses every day,” Emmitsburg Mayor Don Briggs said during a business appreciation breakfast in May.
A variety of events and activities are planned for the week, including the viewing of an FBI film called Chasing the Dragon and perhaps a private screening of Conrad Weaver’s newest documentary about the opioid problem in Frederick County. There will also be a 5K run to raise funds for the Up and Out Foundation.
“We are asking for the community and business leaders to get behind this,” said Weaver.
Cory Shorb tried to give the attendees at the breakfast an idea of the personal impact that drug addiction can cause. Shorb grew up in Emmitsburg and was arrested in a 1993 raid, after his father turned him in. He told a story of how his uncle had let him use his grandmother’s car, and someone he owed drug money to shattered the windows and sliced the tires of the car.
He explained that his addiction had him “violating my standards faster than I could lower them.”
Shorb said he was lucky enough to go through drug court, which kept him on a “tight leash” that kept him clean. It allowed him to kick his habit, and he has been clean for nine years.
It is something he works at maintaining. “Recovery doesn’t take breaks,” Shorb said. “My addiction didn’t take breaks, so my recovery doesn’t.”
Weaver said the goal of having a Recovery Awareness Week is to rally the community about the problem and engage them in stopping the sale of heroin in town.
