Former football player's mother describes losing son to prescription drug abuse

Justina McIntyre holds a photo of her son, the late Ronald L. Powell III as Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman looks on Wednesday. Powell was a Fulbright Scholar at Tennessee State University.

Montgomery County, PA - As a standout football player at Souderton Area High School and Fulbright Scholar at Tennessee State University, Ronald Powell III had a lot going for him. But the 19-year-old kept addiction to painkillers a secret, and he died in 2008 of an overdose. The teenager’s parents, Justina and Daniel McIntyre, were devastated by Powell’s death. “Receiving that phone call was the worst day of my life,” Justina McIntyre said.

On Wednesday, the Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman held a press conference to announce a prescription drug collection program scheduled for Saturday. Powell’s road to addiction began not with buying illegal drugs on street, but from a nursing home co-worker who had given him painkillers to try. “As a parent, I truly believe my son did not realize that his choice of taking Vicodin would take him where it did,” McIntyre said.

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