Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jan 2001
Source: Gary Post-Tribune, The (IN)
Copyright: 2001 Post-Tribune Publishing
Contact:  1065 Broadway, Gary IN 46402-2998
Fax: (219) 881-3234
Website: http://www.post-trib.com/
Author: Rick A. Richards
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN CAN STRIKE EVEN 'NORMAL' FAMILIES

Plain Jane lives in Kouts. That's not her real name, but she's a real person.

I'll call her PJ. She's 41, works in Gary in steel sales, grew up in Crown 
Point, describes herself as shy in high school and someone who married too 
young. Typical suburban mom wouldn't be an inaccurate description.

She works hard and while she says she's not a particularly religious 
person, she is thankful for one thing - that her son's in prison. If he 
wasn't, he'd probably be dead.

Glenn is 23 and one year into a six-year prison sentence at Otter Creek 
Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, Ky. He was busted on a federal charge 
(he forged some checks to buy drugs), but this isn't his first time behind 
bars. He's already spent five years in various jails and prisons in 
Indiana. He's doing life on the installment plan.

PJ's son is a junkie. He has been for almost three years. In 1998, he and 
two friends from Porter County drove to Chicago; each scored a dime bag of 
heroin, drove back to Porter County and prepared their fix in the front 
seat of the pickup. Glenn went first.

Before he could get the needle out of his arm, he was out. In a panic, one 
friend ran and the other drove around for several minutes before calling an 
ambulance from a pay phone in Kouts. By the time it arrived , Glenn was 
essentially dead. He survived, but heroin's been a part of his life ever since.

PJ said she figures her son got involved with drugs when he was about 14 or 
15. It was about that time he got involved with a gang.

At the time, PJ was a single mom. She worked and when Glenn got home from 
school, he was alone. It depressed him and he started looking for 
companionship. (PJ said Glenn is a follower, not a leader). He fell in with 
a gang, which told him what he wanted to hear.

Sure, PJ says she could have spent more time at home - hindsight is a 
wonderful thing, she says - but if she didn't work, no one else was going 
to put food on the table and clothes on Glenn's back. Besides, she wasn't 
doing anything differently than thousands of other single moms and working 
families across the region.

"I was divorced when he was young," said PJ. "And he had other problems. He 
was diagnosed as ADD. He struggled to trust in himself, in his own judgment."

And when she learned her son was involved with a gang and drugs?

"Anger and denial," she said. "I felt this can't be happening. We're normal 
people."

And that's the message PJ is delivering today. Normal people can have 
children who are addicted to drugs - even heroin.

Consider a couple of numbers: According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, 
the number of juveniles busted for illegal drugs has soared from 93,000 in 
1970 to 194,600 in 1999.

Department of Justice surveys show one-third of all high school seniors say 
it's easy for them to buy heroin, quite possibly at school.

"You want to deny it when you find out," said PJ.

She neither asks for nor seeks sympathy. She has learned to deal with her 
son's addiction and its impact on her and the rest of her family. But she 
does have a question: "Why are our kids killing themselves for a few 
minutes of being high?"

It's a question she's asked Glenn, but he can't answer it, either. "I told 
him a year ago when he went to prison this time that I can't stop him from 
this life. But I also told him I don't need to send him money in prison to 
buy his toiletries and other things. The only things I've sent him are 
sweat shirts and sweat pants."

PJ has decided she's no longer going to be an enabler, no matter how much 
she loves her son.

She gets one call a month from her son (it has to be collect) and she's 
told him she won't pay for more.

"I recently sent a letter to my son, asking him why should I stand behind 
him this time? What's going to change?

"My son was a junkie when he went into prison and he's going to be a junkie 
when he gets out. I don't expect him to be different, but I hope and pray 
that he is."

For a long time, PJ felt alone. But she knows there are other parents in 
Northwest Indiana going through the same thing. When Mindy Self of 
Chesterton died of a heroin overdose a couple of weeks ago, PJ cried even 
though she never met Self or her family.

So PJ, this self-described high school wallflower, started an Internet club 
on Yahoo! for parents of heroin addicts. (Go to www.yahoo.com and click on 
clubs. In the search box, type "NWI Parents Against Heroin" and click search.)

You need to join to enter the chat room, but the only thing it costs is an 
e-mail address. In less than two weeks, more than 500 people have visited 
the site.

"I feel we are losing the battle against drugs," said PJ. "I've mumbled all 
the standard answers, but with my club and talking to the newspaper, I 
wanted to say what I feel in my heart."

The ache will never go away, but by talking with others, maybe the burden 
will be easier to handle.
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MAP posted-by: GD