Pubdate: Mon, 22 Sep 2003
Source: The Patriot Ledger (MA)
Copyright: 2003 The Patriot Ledger
Contact:  http://ledger.southofboston.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1619
Author: Don Conkey

GRIEVING MOTHER WARNS OF DANGER IN TAKING DRUGS

CANTON - June Knochin is burying her 19-year-old son Joshua
tomorrow.

Amid her grief and pain, she is hoping that her son's death can serve
as a meaningful message to other kids.

Using drugs can bring the ultimate price.

"I don't want my son's death to be for nothing," she said this
morning.

"I want kids to know that what parents are telling them is the truth.
Do not take drugs. Do not be your own pharmacist."

June said that Joshua began experimenting with OxyContin for a short
time during the summer.

"It messed up his mind. These children think that they can experiment
with drugs and just walk away from it," she said.

"OxyContin is not something that you can just walk away from. He was
addicted the first time he took it," she said.

When Joshua began feeling ill in June, his parents took him to a
doctor. It was then that Joshua told them about the OxyContin, she
said.

It took three days in a detox facility to rid his body of the
OxyContin, she said.

Joshua began weekly therapy. He began taking the anti-depressant
Prozac in July after it was prescribed for him.

Then, sometime last week, "he got hold of a morphine patch. His mind
was still looking for something to compensate for the OxyContin," she
said.

"Thursday night, in his room, he was unresponsive. I thought he was
dead. He was blue. I breathed life back into him," she said.

A 911 call summoned professional help. Joshua was taken to Norwood
Hospital.

The morphine and the Prozac had caused the condition, she said. He
mixed them on his own and should not have done so, she said.

"He was released from the hospital at about 10:30 Thursday night. He
decided to spend the night at a friend's house, she said.

He was breathing when his friends left for school Friday morning, she
said.

"When they got home that afternoon, they could not wake him up," she
said.

"All he wanted to do was help kids. He loved his friends. He would
have done anything to help them, or anyone," she said.

"Now, his future is gone. I will never be able to see him grow up,
and I always thought that he would be something wonderful.

"He was something wonderful, but now, he is gone. Because of drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake