Around Town
Meet Geoff Mahoney, Teen Challenge Student Raising Money on Elm Street
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Last month, NewCanaanite.com ran a three-part series on heroin addiction and our town. Experts told us that heroin abuse for New Canaan teens typically begins at home, when kids start using opioids and painkillers they find in their parents’ medicine cabinets. (Next weekend, on Saturday April 26, New Canaan is participating in National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, and people can bring unused drugs to Walgreens.) When addiction sets in, the teens turn to heroin as a less expensive alternative as a form of morphine, and can become addicted. The problem often is exacerbated by many individuals’ and families’ reluctance to reach out for help. Today on Elm Street, we ran into a table set up in front of Dunkin Donuts, a fundraiser for the New Haven-based Teen Challenge Program, an interdenominational Christian residential drug rehab program that’s part of a network with 10 centers in New England and New Jersey.