Overtaken - Grieving Mom Makes Anti-Drug Documentary for Son

Jodi Barber is an Orange County mom who used her grief over the death of her son as a catalyst for activism.  Working with friend Christine Brant, she has done an extraordinary thing - created a documentary that is focused right here in our local area.

"Overtaken" is a 28-minute film that examines the battle of drug addiction through the eyes of those whose lives have been overtaken by drugs.  (See the film Overtaken below)The goal of the documentary is to save lives by educating young people about the risks of prescription drug addiction and the deadly consequences of drug abuse.  In addition to interviews with young people who have abused prescription drugs, the film features commentary from specialists in the fields of medicine and addiction.

Accidental death from prescription drug overdose is now an epidemic in Orange County as well as in other communities across the U.S.  There have been more than 82 deaths in the 15-to-25 age group in the past 3 years in South Orange County alone.  

Read about Southern California Beach Cities See Spike in Opioid Deaths.

Jodi and Christine have waged a campaign against drug abuse following the 2010 death of Jodi's 19-year-old son Jarrod.  Grieving the recent cancer death of a friend, Jarrod overdosed on a combination of

• Seroquel, an anti-psychotic drug,
  
• Clonazepam (more commonly, known as klonopin - which is often prescribed to treat anxiety
• Opana, a powerful narcotic painkiller

 After taking the fatal drug cocktail, Jarrod fell unconscious while watching a late-night movie at his family's home in Laguna Niguel.  It wasn't until hours later that his mother realized that he wasn't sleeping but had instead overdosed.

Jarrod Barber obtained Seroquel. Klonopin, and Clonazepam through prescriptions from Dr. Paul D. Corona, a general practitioner who has been criticized for writing too many prescriptions for mood-stabilizing drugs. Dr. Corona  received 5 years probation from the California state medical board for his illegal use of drug samples as treatment for his own manic disorder. 

In 2007, Sheriff's deputies responding to a call found Corona in the backyard of his Laguna Niguel home having what they called a psychotic episode and threatening suicide.  The officers were forced to taser Corona several times to subdue him and he was subsequently hospitalized for a month for psychiatric observation.  Since then, he has been seeing about 500 patients a month in his two-room suite of offices and writing large quantities of prescriptions for psychotropic drugs.

Jodi and her husband Bill were referred to Dr. Corona in 2009 after they sought treatment for Jarrod's use of marijuana.  In addition to Seroquel and Clonazepam, Corona prescribed the anti-depressants Cymbalta and Pristiq.  Seroquel and Clonazepam are both sedatives and should not be taken in combination.  Commenting on Jarrod's death in the Orange County Register, Corona said he didn't mean for these two drugs to be taken at the same time.  "If they chose to do it anyway, against my advice, look what happens."

Opana, which is a time-release painkiller that is similar to OxyContin, also played a role in Jarrod Baber's death.  He didn't have a prescription for this drug; his mother suspects he obtained Opana from a friend who was a patient of Dr. Lisa Tseng and has since died.  Tseng is a Rowland Heights osteopath who is now under federal and state investigation for her role in the fatal overdose deaths of three Orange County young people.  Tseng's license to prescribe narcotic drugs was revoked after DEA investigators found that over a three-year period she had written in excess of 27,000 prescriptions, mostly for young men who visited her store-front clinic from all over Southern California.  

Jodi Barber and Christine Brant hope that their documentary will be approved by school administers across the country and used as an educational tool in schools and youth organizations.  According to Brant, "It is not just about saying 'no' to drugs.  We need to educate teenagers about what is really out there."

View the film here:

(Update - The Film has been made "private" by the Overtaken team until it appears in the Newport Beach Film Festival, we will post an updated version after when are are aware of it, or follow Overtaken on Facebook for updates.)