Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 Source: Parry Sound North Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2005, Parry Sound North Star Contact: http://www.parrysoundnorthstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1618 Author: Stephannie Johnson Series: Other articles in this series may be found at http://www.mapinc.org/source/Parry+Sound+North+Star ADDICTION COSTS TEENAGER PLENTY YOUTH AND DRUGS HURTING & HEALING Part 2 of 4 In this four-part series, the North Star examines how drugs and drug abuse has adversely affected Parry Sounders. We learn that it's not just the users battle to fight-it's also that of those closest to them. Critics of the system say that Parry Sound and area addiction programs don't work well because youths with addiction issues have a hard time opening up to treatment. However, in the Parry Sound area, several drug and alcohol treatment centres offer programs to help those in need of addiction counselling and support. Today's story focuses on a local mother and her teenaged son-and his battle with drug addiction. Their names have been changed to protect their identities. In next Wednesday's North Star, reporter Stephannie Johnson speaks with a woman who is determined to stay clean, despite her painful past. PARRY SOUND - By all accounts, Parry Sound teenager John Smith (not his real name) was just like any other adolescent. Now 18, he says that he was a "good kid," who "never really got into much trouble," who always "got good grades," and who worked hard in school. Of course, John also says that he was all those things before drugs got their claws into him. Despite the 'normalcy' of his life and a loving and supportive family, John found himself more and more curious about the world of drugs. But that wasn't his first choice when it came to an addictive substance. While still in elementary school, John drank alcohol for the first time while hanging out with friends. "I got very hammered, threw up and passed out. After that I drank, but not very often," said John. During the first month of high school, John said, he was introduced to pot and found himself "toking" regularly for about two years. John then stopped smoking marijuana after about a year in favour of stronger drugs, such as Tylenol No. 3, a combination of two different types of pain medicine-acetaminophen and codeine-that is prescribed for moderate to severe pain. It differs from regular Tylenol in that it provides feelings of euphoria and relaxation. It's also addictive, and patients who have been taking it for more than a week shouldn't stop abruptly, because they could have painful withdrawal symptoms. John said he suffered from depression and anxiety. While pot gave him a high, it didn't curb those anxious and melancholy feelings. "I heard people talking about taking Tylenol No. 3s, so I just tried it out of curiosity and it helped my depression," he said. "Then I wanted something stronger, so I asked the dealer from whom I used to get pot, and he had some Percocet (a narcotic drug used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain). He started to see that I liked those, so he got some Oxy(Contin) somehow, and I just started taking those. "The Oxy(Contin) doesn't get you high. It just makes you feel really good, the best you've felt in your life." OxyContin is a habit-forming, narcotic drug used for the treatment of moderate to severe pain. When used as prescribed in tablet form, is a powerful pain reliever. Abusers often crush the tablets and inhale the powder. It's effects are similar to heroin, and John says it is just as addictive. "I went from cutting one 40-milligram pill into four chunks a day, to doing five to eight 80-milligram pills a day," he said. "The idea of getting high stopped a long time ago. People who have never been addicted to drugs or alcohol have no idea of the desperation of needing to do drugs all day, every day, just to feel normal. It wasn't normal, but I wasn't getting sick." For more than a year, John was sniffing his "drug of choice" and quickly found that the higher his tolerance level, the higher the drug's price tag. "With my addiction to Oxy(Contin) being very expensive, it cost me hundreds of dollars every day," he said. "This led me to stealing, selling everything I owned, selling things my parents owned, and borrowing money from hundreds of people." Throughout his struggle, John said, he lost a lot of friends. "I didn't have many friends, because I was using. Even dealers didn't want to chill out with me, and that was a bad feeling," he said. "I was always ripping people off, and even drug users didn't want to hang out with me." It was John's moods-irritability, and hibernating in his room-that eventually made his parents suspicious. "At first I thought, 'he's a teenager, he's irritable,' but then I knew it was more than that," said Jane Smith (not her real name), John's mother. "Then he finally said he was really depressed, so we got him help. He was a lot better for a while, and then I started to notice things missing. His wardrobe was shrinking, his jewelry missing. I just had suspicions. In hindsight, I wish I had taken him for drug testing. But being naive about the whole thing, I didn't." Ms Smith said she would ask John all the time whether he was on drugs, searching his room but always coming up empty-handed. However, one morning while John was in the shower, her instincts told her to look in his wallet. "I found one and a half pills, and I confronted him. I yelled and screamed like crazy," she said. John called Addiction Outreach and received help. For almost a year he was clean. He went to counselling and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings, as well as to family counselling with his parents. But he soon started back down the path of destruction. "For a good while, he put up a good fight to stay clean and really tried hard. But he relapsed," Ms Smith said. John's parents gave him an ultimatum then: Go into a four-day detox treatment, or get out. John decided enough was enough. He was through with the roller coaster of highs and lows, so he checked himself into a detox centre in another town. Parry Sound does not have such a treatment facility. "The first day I was okay, but the second day it felt like I had the worst flu of my life. My arms and my legs were in agonizing pain. I was puking and shaking and had the cold sweats," John said. Since getting out of detox a month ago, John has been receiving methadone, a treatment for narcotic withdrawal and dependence. While this treatment is being provided to him by a clinic in Sudbury, he visits a pharmacy here in Parry Sound to take it. "It's a drink that I get from the pharmacist, and it stops the withdrawals and it keeps you off drugs," he said. "I'm on methadone now. If I were to go sniff Oxy(Contin), I wouldn't feel anything, it would be a waste. I could be on methadone for two years or the rest of my life. It's a controlled dose and it's free, so it's not like I'm spending that money to get my fix." John has to have a weekly urine test for the next eight months-and be free of druge-before he can pick up the methadone from the pharmacy and ingest it at home. "I'm almost starting to feel like a normal person," he said of being clean for several weeks now. John says that most of his friends are happy that he's getting clean, and that he's even trying to help one who is also struggling with an Oxy(Contin) addiction. "I'm offering him rides to the methadone clinic in Sudbury and I've offered to take him to detox. I'm getting there. I'm working on it," he said with a smile. In addition to going to NA weekly, John is keeping himself busy until he heads to a 21-day program out of town. "For me, NA is one of the best kinds of counselling. They're all people who I can relate to and they can relate to me, and they're really nice people," he said of the meetings he attends weekly in Parry Sound. John's mother says that the community organizations have been an amazing help to both her and her son throughout their ordeal. But because centres like Community Mental Health and Addiction Outreach are so busy, they often had to wait days for an appointment. "The services in the community have been really good, including our family doctor. As far as the counselling, they're just so busy and overwhelmed that you couldn't get enough sessions with the counselor," she said. "You'd have to wait three or four weeks and that's just not enough. When you need help, you need it now." While it's been a tough battle, John credits both his parents for not giving up on him and for being a pillar of support. "I'm just lucky to have parents who will help me out like that. My parents have been really helpful and involved," he said, adding that he wishes he would have been more aware of the dangers of taking drugs. "I just think there should be something done. People should know that Oxy(Contin) is a prescription pill and know the dangers of it, and know that it's addictive. I'm not here to preach not to do drugs, because I was an addict, but I just want people to hear my story and maybe make a better choice." As for his parents, Ms Smith said that John's addiction was a family hardship and a family struggle. She encourages any parent who suspects their child is involved in drugs to have them tested immediately. "Right from the beginning, we supported him and wanted to help him. I said I would fight to do anything to save him. You do take it one day at a time. It was very hard. A lot of tears, a lot of talking, a lot of fear of him using again, fear of people saying things to him," she said. "People don't want our little town to have this big problem, and it's just unbelievable. "Before being involved in this problem now, I didn't really know how widespread the drug problem was. But being involved, it's just such an epidemic in this town that something has to be done about it. There's that saying that it takes a village to raise a child-well, this village has to do something." Cost of an addiction John figures during his almost two-year stint with drug addiction, that he's spent well over $30,000 on OxyContin pills One 40-milligram pill is $10 One 80-milligram pill is $40-$60 The breakdown: At the beginning, John started by breaking one 40-milligram pill into four pieces, crushing one of those pieces and sniffing it to get high. At the height of his addiction, John said he would have to ingest between five to eight, 80-milligram OxyContin pills just to "feel normal." Five to eight, 80-milligram pills a day: $50 each Equals a $400-a-day habit. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh