Christy Courville knows the pain of losing a child to an overdose.

Courville said her 22-year-old son, Hunter Clemons died Feb. 10 from a fentanyl overdose after battling addiction since a teen growing up in Lafayette. Drugs offered him an escape from the demons he faced throughout his life, but has made her life hell, she said.

“Drugs destroyed my life and I wasn’t the one doing drugs,” Courville said while sharing her personal testimony Monday during a H sarm Reduction Outreach program in Lake Arthur. “I can’t bring my son back, but I can carry out his legacy and spread the message of hope that you can get clean.”

Courville said she is now suffering the consequences of two people – the person who sold her son the drugs and her son who made that decision to purchase them.

“My life every single day was always positive and outgoing,” she said. “I helped everybody and did everything for everybody, but now it is a struggle to wake up everyday. It is a struggle for me to stay clean every single day, but I made my son a promise before they closed that casket. I would stay clean through this regardless. “

Courville, who overcame her own drug problem, said she openly shares her story in hopes that it will raise awareness about drug use, addiction and suffering.

Courville and her family are not alone, according to Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Harm Reduction program coordinator Peyton Boozer.

The SWLA AHEC Harm Reduction Outreach team and Lake Arthur Councilman Auldon Robinson presented the “We Need to Talk About Overdose” education program Monday at the Lake Arthur Community Center.

Overdose-related deaths in Louisiana rose more rapidly than any other state in the last year and Southwest Louisiana is no exception, Boozer said. Louisiana jumped on national average from the eighth state in overdose related deaths per capita to fourth last year, she said.

The number of overdose deaths in Calcasieu Parish doubled from 50 to 100 in 2021 with 70 percent of the deaths involving fentanyl.

“The pandemic, COVID and two hurricanes in Southwest Louisiana have spurred higher rates of drug use in the area,” Boozer said. “We are all feeling a lot and I think people naturally want to end their discomfort, pain and trauma, so we have to look at the big picture when someone turns to drugs.”

“Most people don’t realize the amount of problems we are having in the community.” Robinson said. “Whether it is a small or large community it is dealing with drug use and drug abuse.”

As a paramedic and sheriff deputy, Robininson said he is tired of telling people that their loved one has died from a drug overdose.

“We are losing people and if you haven’t been affected by somebody who is using drugs or has overdosed, it is going to knock on your door sooner or later,” he said.

People have to get away from the idea that drug use and drug abuse is something that people are choosing to do. It is a disease and drugs are hard to say no to unless you get help, he said.

As a former addict and coordinator for the Hard Reduction Outreach Program, Boozer said communities and families need to have “brutally honest” conversations about drug use and addictions.

“We know addiction doesn’t discriminate and it’s touching every part of every community,” Boozer said. “We know that substance abuse in general, besides addiction, doesn’t discriminate either. People use substances for all kinds of different reasons. It might be curiosity, it might be experimentation, recreational use or addressing pain or trauma.”

As part of the Outreach program, Boozer and her team are responding to the drug problem and helping communities be prepared to identify an opioid overdose and learn how to save a life by administering Narcan.

Overdose reversals using Narcan have saved 114 lives so far this year in Calcasieu Parish, according to Boozer.

“We know that more lives are being saved than being lost and we all can take part in protecting our community and being ready to respond,” Boozer said. “

For more information contact the Harm Reduction Outreach at 337-930-2286.