Pubdate: Sun, 20 Feb 2005
Source: Enterprise-Journal, The (MS)
Copyright: 2005 The Enterprise-Journal
Contact:  http://www.enterprise-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/917
Author: Jack Ryan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DRUG STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column urging the circuit judge
appointed to replace Keith Starrett in Pike, Walthall and Lincoln
counties to continue the drug court that is helping a number of former
addicts regain control of their lives.

Good news: Mike Taylor, the Lincoln County attorney appointed this
month as circuit judge, also will take over Starrett's role in charge
of drug court. The district's other judge, Mike Smith, stepped in at
drug court after Starrett departed for a federal judgeship.

In that column, I mentioned a drug court participant, a woman who my
wife and I knew when she was a bright little girl, about 10 years old
with a big smile.

Her story of a long, slow descent into listlessness, followed by a
recovery aided by drug court, will speak more to the benefits of the
program than anything else possibly could. Plus, this is the kind of
stuff that many of us, including me, tend to ignore. But drug
addiction is all around us. It is a very real threat to any family.

This woman, who asked not to be identified, got off track despite an
exceptionally normal childhood. She finished 12th in her high school
graduating class and was active in several extracurriculars.

And yet, "I always felt really socially inept, like I didn't belong
anywhere," she recalled. "That started pushing me toward a group of
kids that wore all black and didn't do as well in school."

She started with serious stuff.

"It was acid first, and I was 13," she said. "That went on for a
couple of months. ... I wanted to feel cool," she said.

After that, she started drinking, recalling the name of the lady in a
trailer on Highway 51 just south of Osyka whom she says would sell
anyone some beer.

"It is scary how easy it is for kids to get alcohol," she
added.

"There was a girl that I was really good friends with, and I
practically lived at her house on weekends, and her parents were a lot
more lenient than mine," she added. "They drank and smoked pot."

She said the parents never gave the kids any drugs or liquor, but
they'd leave the house knowing the girls would have older teens over.

"They knew what we were doing," she said.

She started using crystal methamphetamine during her senior year of
high school, hanging out in a Cherry Street "flophouse," where she met
a drug dealer. She moved in with him after graduation. The meth
quickly knocked 30 pounds off her frame; she says at one point she
weighed only 86.

After high school, she shuttled between junior college and the
University of Southern Mississippi, eventually getting an associate
degree from Southwest Mississippi Community College. She spent a lot
of time in Hammond, La. And the drug use continued, expanding to
injection by needle and even abuse of prescription drugs like Xanax.

She said that a couple of years ago, when she was arrested in
connection with the burglary and theft of drugs from a Pike County
medical office, she didn't really care whether she lived or died.

Drug court, she said, changed that. It was a chance to clean
up.

"Just the thought of having to be so miserable and having to be in
prison, I just couldn't bear that," she said. "It was like I was
already in prison."

She admitted she was terrified of life with drugs. "But I was more
terrified of living without chemicals, in prison."

In drug court, she owes more than $5,000 in fines and is working to
pay them. She is tested for drugs several times a month. The only
thing she misses during stressful moments is Xanax, the anti-anxiety
pill, but each time the urge has gone away.

"I still have the dream of marriage and kids and a career," she
remarked. "Sometimes I feel kind of frantic about it. But most of the
time I feel grateful that I didn't have a kid during all that mess."

So I asked her: What can parents do to steer their kids away from all
this? What should we look for?

"If a parent has any suspicion whatsoever, pull out a drug test on
them," she said. "My parents threatened me with that a couple of
times, but I was so manipulative.

"Even stuff like sleeping all the time or just not talking to you any
more. Going from being pretty involved in the family to not. My mom
used to look at me through tears and say, 'I don't even know you.'
"

I think parents play a big role in preventing drug use, but ultimately
the teenager has to make the choice. Kids demand freedom. They must
use it responsibly.

This shadow world, this culture of addiction, it's scary. Many times
we prefer not to look at it. But the number of people in drug court
says otherwise. It demands attention.

This is one drug story, however, with a happy ending. The bright
little girl who went through hell has finally learned to like herself.

"I have more peace, happiness, motivation, everything," she
said.

I hope more kids find their way to that point without torturing
themselves the way she did.
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MAP posted-by: Derek