A Newport Beach tech entrepreneur-turned-film producer has mounted a Kickstarter campaign to raise $45,000 for a feature-length documentary on an “epidemic” of drug-related deaths of children and young adults.
Mark Rapparport says he was inspired to make Enough Is Enough after meeting parents in his community who had lost children to drug abuse.
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Rapparport founded a company called Xtendis that brought laptop charging capabilities “in-flight.” But it's a software application he's developing called ePreventions that brought him into the addiction field. His research informed him that 24 percent of high school students in the U.S. use prescription drugs recreationally and that America consumes 80 percent of the global supply of opioid pain medications yet only represents 5 percent of the global population.
“We are programming a generation of kids to become addicts, setting them up to be in and out of rehabilitation facilities for the rest of their lives,” Rapparport says in his Kickstarter announcement. “We need to stop this culture of rampant drug use that has spilled over into our schools.”
Enough is Enough will follow two families that experienced heavy tolls due to drug use by young members and how they struggled to overcome tragedy. Rapparport intends to complete his project by February, but he confides he needs “financial support to reach that goal.” Go here if you want to give: Kickstarter.com.
“Kickstarter is an amazing way to connect with your base of supporters and exponentially extend your reach,” observes Rapparport, who also mentions donors will get rewards ranging from inexpensive pledge wristbands, copies of the film and upward to film credits and more.
Fore more on his movie, visit enoughisenoughthemovie.com.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.