SACO, Maine — Jen and Andrew Morrow know firsthand how drugs can shatter a family’s life. Their 21-year-old daughter, Amber, died Jan. 23 in Old Orchard Beach of a fentanyl overdose.
“I’ll never see my daughter again, and it’s devastating,” Jen Morrow said recently. She and her husband spoke to students at an adult education class at Saco Learning Center, where their daughter graduated with honors in 2014.
Fentanyl is an opioid that is cheaper and more lethal than heroin. Unbeknownst to the user, fentanyl is sometimes mixed with heroin or other drugs. Amber Morrow’s autopsy showed she took straight fentanyl, and her parents believe she had no idea she was taking a straight dose of something so lethal.
Andrew Morrow is a longtime firefighter and emergency medical technician, and he spoke about the increasing number of overdoses he has seen.
“It doesn’t discriminate. It’s the honor student, the politician, the soccer mom … the homeless person, the kid struggling, the addict, the non-addict, the first-time user” he said.
He warned students that when people buy illegal drugs, there is no guarantee what they are getting.
“You don’t know what you’re getting, and it’s almost like you’re playing Russian roulette if you go and buy something off the street,” Andrew Morrow said.
Jen Morrow said her daughter Amber, who was transgender, was bullied when she attended Thornton Academy and wanted to drop out of school. She said her daughter switched to the Saco Learning Center and flourished. She found friends, made the honor roll and never missed another day of school.
However, Amber never got over the bullying, it stayed with her forever, Jen Morrow said. Transitioning was a long, hard road, the mother said, and people can be very unkind. She said her daughter was sexually assaulted twice by men who said they wanted to show her what a real man was, and when she went to a therapist, the therapist told her it was her own fault because she was transgender.
“Life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. Life is hard, and it is a little bit harder when you’re transgender,” Jen Morrow said.
Morrow said her daughter wasn’t an addict but may have experimented to try find some solace and push away the pain. “These people selling the drugs, they don’t care about you. They just want your money,” Jen Morrow said.
She said her daughter had traveled to Peru after graduating high school to volunteer in an orphanage and do jungle conservation work. She said her daughter wanted to go back to school, had a boyfriend and planned on getting married and adopting children.
Regarding drug usage, Jen Morrow said: “That one choice can cost you your life. … That’s it. It’s over. There’s no second chance.”
Jen Morrow said Amber leaves behind an older sister, as well as a younger brother who cries for her every day. She said she feels like she’s about to drown and is treading water to try to stay afloat, and the only way to stay afloat is to help others. She and her husband said it’s important to them to get the word out about the dangers of drug use.