In Ruby’s Words: “Teri Kroll Interview”
September 17th, 2022
Ruby Sherman with Teri Kroll
Today I sat down with Teri Kroll, who has been dedicated to promoting awareness and advocacy regarding substance use disorder. On August 29th, 2009, Teri lost her son, Timothy, to a heroin overdose. Teri describes Timothy as “straight-edge”; he didn’t believe in drinking, smoking or drugs throughout high school. After high school, Timothy started suffering from migraines. His “doctor” over-prescribed a variety of medication including the painkillers OxyContin and Percocet to Timothy and he fell into an addictive cycle. When Timothy ran out of options and could not access prescriptions from the doctor, he went to heroin. After being substance-free for nine months, Timothy bought heroin from a dealer and lost his life that day to a drug overdose.
Turning her grief into a mission, Teri began to advocate for abuse prevention, aiming to end the stigma within families and communities regarding substance use disorder. She wanted to make sure that what happened to Timothy would not happen to other moms and families. Eventually, the physician who prescribed Timothy the painkillers was arrested and convicted after he was caught peddling prescriptions for cash. His arrest was “satisfying” says Teri, but she wanted to make sure that this illegal pattern of doctor shopping stopped for good. After taking a class on advocacy and watching a video called “Schoolhouse Rock- How a Bill Becomes a Law” Teri faced lobbyists’ in the state legislature. While she had all these lobbyists against her, Teri won her fight to replace the current prescription monitoring system with a new one called I-STOP. All doctors and pharmacists would now be required to enter and check information every time they prescribe medicine containing controlled substances. Teri emphasized that I-STOP could spare others from the pain of losing a loved one and that’s all she can ask for.
Speaking with someone who made such a change regarding substance use made me think about teenagers' perspective on alcohol and drugs today. I believe that some teenagers view their drug usage as experimental, but in reality, that can turn into a larger problem.
Parents, it’s important to look out for signs: changes in your child’s behavior, mood, etc.
People often use drugs and other substances to mask feelings and pain so talk to your kids.
One thing that Teri touched upon that has really stuck with me is, “if you want to see change, you need to have a solution”. I believe this applies in everything that we do. In Teri’s case, she wanted the rules regarding painkiller/Opiod distribution to be changed, so she came up with a solution. She did her research on advocacy and everything that goes into formulating a law which came with a lot of work but positive results. I know that this phrase applies to me as well. I am quite the procrastinator. This isn’t an ideal habit, but if I want this to change, I need to have a solution. A solution could be creating a schedule of things I need to get done on a daily basis, and check off each task as the day progresses. We all face challenges but by talking about them and not hiding, sharing what is going on we can address any challenges big or small.
Teri’s advocacy has changed many lives and I’m very fortunate that this law was put in place for my generation and the generations to come.
For further information, click on the links below.
Narcan Training – Teri has advocated for the police cars to be equipped with Narcan and Suffolk County PD officers to be trained to respond to an overdose.
FedUp - Teri is involved with a group called FedUp a nationwide advocacy group and has travelled to Washington where she spoke at the Washington Monument at a rally with 3,000 people in attendance.