Month: May 2016

President Obama and Macklemore Talk About Addiction

Remarks of President Barack Obama and Macklemore as Prepared for Delivery
Weekly Address
The White House
May 14, 2016

THE PRESIDENT:  Hi, everybody.  I’ve got a special guest with me this week – Macklemore.  For those of you who don’t share the same love[i] for hip-hop, he’s a Grammy-winning artist – but he’s also an advocate who’s giving voice to a disease we too often just whisper about: the disease of addiction.

MACKLEMORE:  Hey, everybody.  I’m here with President Obama because I take this personally.  I abused prescription drugs and battled addiction.  If I hadn’t gotten the help I needed when I needed it, I might not be here today.  And I want to help others facing the same challenges I did. Read More

Plaistow woman to host art show on addiction

572a89fd1f1a7.imagePLAISTOW — A local woman who lost her daughter to heroin will hold an art show in Portsmouth on Mother’s Day to bring attention to the toll of addiction.

Anne Marie Zanfagna of Plaistow began painting in August, almost one year after the death of her 25-year-old daughter, Jackie.

Jackie’s face was the first she painted. She chose an older photo, one where her daughter looked happy and healthy.

“I paint them to bring attention and awareness to the public about heroin because I want to put a face to the number,” she said. “I think showing this through art is really our basic humanity.”

Zanfagna brought Jackie’s portrait — a 12 ½-by-12 ½-inch pink-and-purple piece — to a monthly gathering at a church in Plaistow hosted by activist Doug Griffin of Newton.

She painted a portrait of Griffin’s daughter, Courtney, in December, and then the requests began to pour in. Courtney, 20, died of a heroin overdose in September 2014.

Read more on the Eagle Tribune.