Mission Statement
The NØpiates Committee is made up of a dedicated local community members who are committed to raising addiction awareness while providing support and advocate for those who have been affected by the disease. Additionally, they provide educational events that focus on prevention, awareness, and remembering our community members that have been lost to the disease of addiction.
Kim Murdick
Secretary
Kim is a graduate of The College of Saint Rose with a B.S. in Psychology and currently works at the Rensselaer Plateau Alliaince as a Volunteer Coordinator. She volunteers as the Secretary of the NØpiates Committee, along with her husband Tim. Kim experienced first-hand the stigma and shame that is associated with disease of addiction, and how difficult it can be for people to obtain adequate and compassionate treatment in their community. Kim continues to advocate, educate, and provide support to those affected by the disease of addiction. She is committed to shattering the shame and stigma associated with addiction.
Tim Murdick
President
Tim Murdick, is the President of the NØpiates Committee. Tim works as Dedicated Communication Specialist for the Military and Naval Affairs. For more than twenty years Tim has volunteered with various community and charitable organizations. Tim especially enjoyed working with youth in his community through various organization such as Twin Town Little League, Pop Warner Football, High-Five Sports, which is a therapeutic sports program for individuals with special needs. As a parent, Tim experienced first hand the impact that substance use disorders have on loved ones and those who care for them. Tim’s dedication and persistence provides the NØpiates Committee with the support and guidance that will allow the committee to fulfill their goals.
our story
When Kim and Tim Murdick explain the grave dangers of opioid addiction, they speak from experience.
The couple from West Sand Lake, N.Y., lost their 22-year-old son Sean to a heroin overdose in 2015.
Sean spiraled into addiction after he was prescribed an opioid painkiller – oxycodone – for a broken arm he sustained on a construction job. We now know, addiction to prescription opioids greatly increases the risk factor for addiction to heroin, also an opioid, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Kim shares, “We know life is fragile, [but] we don’t expect that when you get a prescription for a broken arm that it’s going to end up with a drug addiction, but that’s what can happen, and did happen to Sean and so many others.”
Sean fought his addiction bravely and tried to get help many times. Kim and Tim helped their son get into a number of different treatment centers for short periods of detox, doing battle with insurance companies in an attempt to win approval for the long-term help he needed. Sean later entered a program at a Florida rehabilitation center and started his journey to recovery. Yet addiction still held something of a grip on him, and he experienced a relapse, which proved fatal.
After their loss, the Murdick's along with other concerned community members formed the NOpiates Committee, a grassroots organization that aims to raise awareness of the opioid epidemic, support and advocate for those affected with substance use disorders. They serve as board members and speak publicly on the subject.
Tim acknowledges, “We’re in this as parents trying to keep this in the forefront, and that’s what we’re asking everybody else to do, too,” he explained. “This problem isn’t going to go away unless we all get behind it.”
By speaking with others, Tim and Kim feel that it allows them to focus some of their energy on something that they feel that Sean would want them to do. Sean was very committed to his friends and family, so they feel this is their way, Sean’s way, of continuing to help our community, neighbors, family and friends.