Pubdate: Wed, 23 Oct 2002
Source: The Dominion Post (WV)
Copyright: 2002 The Dominion Post
Contact:  http://www.dominionpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1426
Author: Katie Long

GRIEVING DAD SEEKS ANSWERS AFTER SON'S HEROIN OVERDOSE

Twenty-two-year-old Gabe Friedberg may have read Hunter S. Thompson, but his
personality couldn't have been more different from the wild, crazy
journalist known for his outrageous antics and vast drug experimentation.

Gabe was quiet -- a writer, like Thompson -- but deep and introspective
rather than brash and boisterous. His father, WVU law professor Jim
Friedberg, said Gabe was an artistic, developing writer who identified with
beat poets like Jack Kerouac and lyricis ts like Bob Dylan.

And maybe that identification, that desire to look inside himself, inside of
life, led to his decision to try heroin.

And maybe it didn't, Friedberg said. No one will know just what drove Gabe
- -- a successful full-time employee at Chestnut Ridge Hospital and graduate
of Tulane University in New Orleans -- to try the drug. Because the drug
ultimately killed him.

Gabe was found dead in his parents' Simpson Street home on Sept. 3. An
autopsy and toxicology tests revealed he succumbed to an overdose of heroin.

Friedberg is, by his own admission, a grieving, not-so-objective parent.
Emotions traveled across his face as he talked about Gabe -- who, photos
reveal, looked quite like his dad.

Friedberg is grieving, he is sad, he is confused, hurt and angry. His son is
gone. And that won't change.

But he feels that there is more that can be done to confront the drug
problem in Morgantown. More that WVU, police, parents and even students can
do to avoid this kind of tragedy happening again.

"I think the university and the police, in some quiet ways, by forming task
forces, providing counselors, are trying to do something," he said, sitting
before stacks and stacks of condolence letters the family received following
Gabe's death. "However, I think that perhaps the city and the university are
of two minds: trying to deal with the problem and not wanting the problem to
be publicized."

Friedberg said that everyone knows the first step in the 12-step Alcoholics
Anonymous program is recognizing that there is a problem.

"Certainly in my last month, month-and-a-half of grieving, I've not had time
to do a comprehensive social survey on drug use in Morgantown," he said. But
he has, in his talks with people since his son's death, gotten the feeling
that heroin use in Morgantown, while not widespread, is not as isolated as
police and university officials may portray it.

"To imply Gabe's situation was isolated is not helpful for anyone," he said.
"Both the city and the university would be better off if they appear to be
hitting the problem head-on."

Friedberg also said that heroin is not an island unto itself in the sea of
drug and alcohol use.

"I suspect it is not totally unrelated to the atmosphere prevalent among the
20-somethings in the city," he said. "The binge drinking, the tone of High
Street, Pleasant Street, Walnut Street any Thursday night at midnight."

He suggests that any city official who has not done so tour that block
between 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. on a Wednesday or Thursday. No, he is not
suggesting that all of them are experimenting with heroin and other hard
drugs, he said. But there is an atmosphere of nonseriousness,
irresponsibility, that can be a breeding ground for worse things than
alcohol.

But pointing the finger outward is not going to solve it all, Friedberg
said. Parents and students alike must take responsibility for their actions.
His son made a bad decision, and it had a tragic ending.

"I believe people like me, parents, have more of a responsibility, from
adolescence on, to figure out what's going on with their children," he said.
"It's hard, because even the the best of teen-agers can be uncommunicative."

This generation, the 19- 25-year-olds, also need to figure out what's going
on with themselves, he said, to "search their souls" and figure out if
college is really supposed to be a non-stop party or if there are better
life decisions to be made.

Since Gabe's death, he said, he's had the opportunity to speak with a lot of
20-somethings -- 20-somethings who act blase about the problem and have a
'What're you gonna do?' attitude about it.

"For young people, it's not hip to be shocked," he said. "But you should be
shocked, you should be bothered."
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MAP posted-by: Josh