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Originally Published by The Town Currier – Urbana

Powerful ‘Heroin’s Grip’ Documentary Screens at Urbana High

by Karen O’Keefe • May 31, 2019 • 0 Comments

Photo | Conjostudios, LLC Shannon Stanley’s daughter, Alyssa Mae Honaker, died in Frederick County of an opioid overdose in 2016. Alyssa was 17.

Photo | Conjostudios, LLC
Shannon Stanley’s daughter, Alyssa Mae Honaker, died in Frederick County of an opioid overdose in 2016. Alyssa was 17.

Speaking to a gathering of 150 at Urbana High School at the PTSA-sponsored April 24 screening of his documentary, “Heroin’s Grip,”
the film’s award-winning producer/director Conrad Weaver explained how his Frederick County film studio came to make a movie about something
Weaver once thought had zero to do with him: the heroin and opioid addiction epidemic.

“I wasn’t directly connected to anyone … caught up in addiction. It wasn’t my problem, it was someone else’s problem.” Weaver paused and let
his words sink in.

“Then I began to hear stories, friends’ stories. I heard … about a son who got caught up in it and was in prison.

“I kept seeing it on the news. I live in the Catoctin High School area, in Emmitsburg. Up there, it became a huge issue. Lots of overdose
deaths in that area. I was seeing this over and over.

“I decided to jump into this. For two years I spent time with people I never imagined I would hang out with. … It changed me. It changed my
attitude, my perspective, and it changed my thinking about people in addiction. It gave me an understanding of what addiction is and what it
is not.

“I made this film for people like me, for people who aren’t ‘connected.’ For people, like me, who think it’s someone else’s problem.

“I hope, tonight, you get the essence of this film. It is our problem. It’s our community’s problem,” he stressed.

“Heroin’s Grip” looks at the current health crisis through the lenses of four families touched by addiction, and concerned community members
in health, law enforcement, judges and prosecutors.

One of those concerned individuals is Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins. In the film, as in other places, when he speaks about
the problem, Jenkins is candid and unequivocal. “We are seeing a crisis in the use and abuse of heroin like we have never seen before in my
(29-year) law enforcement career. … There are two ways to deal with it. You either recover or you die. … There is no in-between.”

Shannon Stanley lost her 17-year-old daughter, Alyssa, to an overdose in June 2016. Their story is part of “Heroin’s Grip.” During a
hard-earned period of sobriety that had given hope to both Stanley and Alyssa, after an evening of mother-daughter connection watching
television, Stanley found her lifeless daughter in her bedroom the next morning.

Like Weaver, until Stanley was told by a friend that Alyssa had a problem, she thought the opioid epidemic had nothing to do with her
family. Today, in an unstinting campaign to help others, Stanley shares her family’s gut-wrenching story of ultimate loss at educational events
throughout the community. At Urbana High School, Stanley spoke on a panel at the film’s conclusion.

Stanley told those gathered in the high school auditorium that after Alyssa left rehab, she thought if she moved her family to a new
neighborhood and her daughter to a new high school, where she would have new friends, it would help her conquer her addiction.

“After we moved, we thought, ‘We are in the clear,’” she said. Unfortunately, the family was not out of danger, Stanley explained. It
didn’t take long before Alyssa found “that group of kids. The point is, it does not matter where you go to school. It does not matter what
community you live in. (The problem) is everywhere.

“So, I encourage everybody. When there are events like this one, about awareness and prevention, get involved. … Everybody needs to learn
about this. If you haven’t experienced this in your own family yet, you should consider yourself lucky because as you saw with all the families
in this documentary, we are not crazy, dysfunctional families. We are all normal families.

“I’ve learned so much about recovery and addiction since I lost my daughter, things that I wish I had known before. That’s why I tell my
story and encourage people to reach out.

“Please never think that you are alone. There are so many organizations (helping). There is hope,” she said.

“Heroin’s Grip” is Weaver’s third award-winning documentary, and his first about addiction. The film is nominated for an Impact Award in the
New Jersey Recovery Film Festival, has been honored as an Official Selection of the 2019 Maryland International Film Festival and received
the Award of Excellence from the Accolade Global Film Competition.

Making the film was life-changing for Weaver. “The heroin and opioid epidemic is my problem,” he said. “It’s not a Baltimore City, a
Washington, DC, or a Cincinnati problem. It is our problem. As a community, we are responsible for each other. We are responsible for our
neighbors.”

“Heroin’s Grip” will be shown, free of charge, on June 7 at 7 p.m. at Player’s Fitness & Performance Gym, 4636 Wedgewood Blvd.,
Frederick. For information, contact info@pfpfit.com, 240.341.2921.

For information about “Heroin’s Grip,” contact Conrad Weaver at Conjostudios, LLC: conjostudios.com.