How grieving survivors are helping shape Michigan’s drug policy
1 min read

How grieving survivors are helping shape Michigan’s drug policy

Max Kirkos — a boy she cheered for at football games and who went to law school — died by suicide at age 24, after years of depression and addiction and just two years after their mother also died of complications from addiction.

Those working in this space also face a painful inconsistency.

Difficult choices

It’s “tricky,” said Jonathan Stoltman, who was already working on substance abuse policy when his cousin died of an overdose.

Stoltman, the founder of the national Opioid Policy Institutebased in Grand Rapids, doesn’t always share what happened to his cousin when he presses policy change.

FAMILY:

Listeners can be “blindsided by the family story,” he said. “Sometimes it takes away your expertise. You become – not the expert – but just a family member. That’s not always the story we want.”

But for others, the stories offer an authenticity that degrees and research and titles don’t carry.

“A Fire Beneath Me”

“There was so much pain, but I wouldn’t give that pain back. It gives me meaning,” said Tara Bijarro, 48.

Bijarro, a former user and dealer, was in recovery herself when her sister arrived at her Monroe home in July 2022. The sisters’ brother, Patrick Hoffman, 38, had died of an overdose in a motel room.

“I just fell to my knees,” Bijarro said.