Mom fighting opioid epidemic: ‘We need to bring love to it’

(NewsNation) — Cammie Wolf Rice lost her 32-year-old son Christopher to an overdose in 2016.

His addiction quickly escalated from using prescription pain pills to heroin. In her son’s name, Rice started the Christopher Wolf Crusade Foundation, which hires specialists to coach families through pain management.

“We know so much more about addiction. Recovery is real. It is possible,” Rice said during a Friday appearance on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “We have coaches for everything except for when you’re in a health crisis. The answer’s not always in a pill.”

Rice said it took her two years to admit that her son had overdosed. She wished he’d had a “respectful death.”

“We need, as a country, to embrace this issue and bring love to it and connection, not hide it,” Rice said. “We’ve got to break the stigma.”

Rice’s goal is to pair pain specialists with families in every hospital around the world with the help of her foundation.

“When young people have a sports injury, or a car accident. It’s their first introduction to opioids,” Rice said. “Having that coach there to talk to you about the dangers, how to taper off if you have to be on opioids, and most importantly to provide other pain management solutions that are non-narcotic.”