Mother makes film to show dangers of counterfeit pills

(WFSB) - Touched by tragedy, a mother is turning her pain into a project, more specifically a movie about the dangers of counterfeit pills.

She hopes the message will hit home with families across the state.

Its raw, its emotional, and for Lisa Deane, “Finding Hope”, the short film she helped produce, write and even act in, is also all too real.

“A lot of these scenes I wrote because this is what went on in this household. I did go through Joe’s room. I did scream and yell and he as well,” Deane said.

Deane started the non-profit Demand Zero not long after her 23-year-old son Joe died from a fentanyl overdose in December of 2018.

“We felt there was a need to help law enforcement with more resources in order to combat drug trafficking,” said Deane.

The group also provides education and awareness campaigns on the dangers of street drugs.

The film is their latest project.

“It had to be done in this very true form and real-life way in order to get the message across,” Deane said.

Deane says that message surrounding the dangers of drugs is needed now more than ever.

“I’ll put it this way, in the jungles of Mexico, the cartels aren’t worried about mixing and measuring properly,” she said.

“For the last few years, we’ve had double digit percentage increases in the state of Connecticut of overdoses or fentanyl poisonings. Right now, we’re looking to exceed last year’s number and that was a little more than 1500,” said Deane.

While the film focuses on a teenage couple and the fallout from taking an unknown pill, she says the film is not just for kids.

“More than that, we’re educating teachers, and coaches and theater directors and band leaders and adults along the way,” Deane said.

Deane says she’d love to get the film into as many schools in Connecticut as she can, and the reason is simple.

“We all have to admit there is a problem in every single one of our communities in CT and I know that’s tough but parents need to have these conversations and they’re tough,” she said.

In addition to being geared to high schools and middle schools, the movie was also recently screened as part of a panel at Post University in Waterbury.

Deane says there are plans to show it at Gateway and Albertus Magnus in New Haven and says she’s even been in talks with Quinnipiac.

“The more we can make people aware of what’s going on with the counterfeit press pills, the problem that we have, the better. Education is the key to hopefully preventing this wildly out of control death rate that Connecticut has seen for the last few years and its only rising again,” she said.

If you are a school or local group that would like to screen the film, Lisa says contact her on Facebook here, or send her an email here.

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