Pubdate: Sat, 12 Aug 2006
Source: Bristol Press (CT)
Copyright: 2006, The Bristol Press
Contact:  http://www.bristolpress.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/569
Author: Lisa Backus
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN: A SMACK OF DEATH

FARMINGTON - When a police officer showed up on Mark Luebeck's East 
Farms doorstep the night of May 31, he presumed the police wanted to 
speak to his eldest son Chris again.

"They had been here about two weeks prior to that," Mark Luebeck 
recalls. "I didn't know if they wanted to shake him down again or 
what. I tried not to let (the officer) in, but when he insisted I 
knew something was wrong."

The Farmington police officer assigned to visit the Luebecks' home 
came to deliver devastating news. Chris had been found dead a short 
while before in Batterson Park.

Police believed he died of a heroin overdose. He was 22.

After watching his son for nearly five years repeat the cycle of 
losing job after job, steal from his family, get arrested and attempt 
to regain control of his life, Luebeck didn't question the cause of death.

"It did surprise me that my son was dead from heroin. I wanted to 
think that part of him would come out of it," he said.

Luebeck said his son freely admitted he was part of a group of about 
30 youths from Farmington and surrounding towns who used heroin on a 
regular basis.

Chris Luebeck was well known to police. In March 2005, he and a 
friend, Ryan Nordgren, 21, of Burlington, burglarized a Brickyard 
Road business in Farmington to grab tools to pawn for drug money. 
Nordgren was also arrested for possession of narcotics when police 
found a needle full of heroin as they served the warrant for the 
burglary arrest. (Nordgren died of a suspected heroin overdose July 
27. He was 21. Nordgren had completed a month-long drug 
rehabilitation program on June 29.)

Another one of Chris Luebeck's friends, Christopher Knibbs, 22, was 
caught shooting up heroin in the bathroom of the Unionville 
McDonald's just days before Luebeck died. A third friend, Craig 
MacDonald, 21, was also arrested in the bathroom incident. About a 
month after Luebeck's death, MacDonald was arrested for holding up a 
Route 4 gas station at knifepoint.

Mark Luebeck said he moved his family to Farmington when his son was 
in his early teens. He said they brought their three sons up to play 
sports and encouraged healthy activities.

Their 21-year son Michael is on the dean's list at Keene State 
College in New Hampshire. Their youngest son Keith, 18, graduated 
from Farmington High School June 23.

Mark Luebeck said by the time Chris Luebeck attended middle school in 
Plainville, he was getting into minor scrapes with authorities. He 
was caught shoplifting, but expressed extreme remorse and promised 
not to do it again.

The Beginning To An End

His son finally dropped out of Farmington High School at 16 after an 
incident that led to the lockdown of the school.

"Once he dropped out, that was it," his father explains. "You have a 
16-year-old kid with nothing to do, that's dangerous."

Mark Luebeck said that although his son was a hard worker, his 
addiction would eventually get the better of him every time.

"I don't think heroin knows the difference between an 'A' student and 
a drop out," Luebeck said. "Every employer he worked for had such 
praise for him. But every time he could get his hands on money, or 
something he could steal to get money, he'd get fired."

A Father's Advice

Luebeck said the family now realizes that his son had been exhibiting 
signs of drug addiction well before they knew what was happening.

"The number-one thing I would tell parents is, pay attention to your 
possessions," Luebeck said. "The first time something's missing, you 
think you just misplaced it. But the second time, you need to 
understand your kid is stealing items from your home to sell them for drugs."

Luebeck said his son would use any method to get a "head rush" - a 
temporary feeling of disorientation or a quick euphoric high - 
including bending over repeatedly to make the blood rush to and from his head.

"I found hundreds of spent lighters in his room," he said. "He was 
inhaling the Butane, I even found him stealing pain medication I had 
for a back injury. He'd get high on sulfur. This was a true physical 
addiction."

As Chris Luebeck made his decent into hell, his father said the 
family fought hard to support him, including taking him back into the 
house even when they knew the chances for his recovery seemed slim.

"We would say to him, 'we know you came home so you could steal from 
us,'" Luebeck said. "It was a constant fight. My wife caught him with 
a needle in his arm. They tell you what you want to hear and it 
sounds good, because you really do want to hear it. We gave him so 
many chances."

In the weeks leading up to his death, Chris Luebeck had a span of 
eight days in early May when he was arrested by three different law 
enforcement agencies. The West Hartford and Farmington police 
departments charged him with possession of narcotics. The University 
of Connecticut Health Center police charged him with third-degree 
larceny. Luebeck said his son had just done a stint living in the 
woods in Unionville. But he had come home. As in the past, the family 
was loving, but leery. The night he died, Chris Luebeck was about two 
blocks from their East Farms' house.

Luebeck said his son was due in court June 2 and he would have likely 
been sentenced to four or five years in jail. Six weeks after his 
death, an autopsy conducted by the office of the state Chief Medical 
Examiner would list the cause of death as heroin toxicity. The report 
does not indicate whether it was the quantity or the quality of the 
drug that killed him.

"I'm not bitter, I'm terribly hurt," Mark said. "I am bitter that 
this drug took his life and right now I'm mad. Nothing compares to 
losing a child. I had always hoped that Chris and I would be best 
friends. I knew we were going to be that way, but Chris and I never 
had a chance."
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