Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2006
Source: Times, The  (Munster IN)
Copyright: 2006 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.nwitimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: Elizabeth Holmes

A 20-YEAR TALKS ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES WITH HEROIN

Jeff Copeland, 20, is one of the few who was able to use heroin 
sparingly. When he started snorting, he could go a few days between 
$10 bags. Drinking sustained his downer cravings. But three weeks 
before his arrest last February, the Portage man started shooting 
heroin. The high from the needle was much more intense and snared him 
right away.

The night he was arrested, cops tested his dope and found it was 
laced with the deadly pain killer fentanyl. Luckily, Copeland had 
only shot half the bag.

"I could have died that night," he said.

Copeland escaped alive, but he's by no means safe. Life after jail, 
with no car and no place to live, is a frightening unknown.

"I guess I'll have to save a lot of money, get an apartment. I can't 
go back to the same life," he said. "I just come here or die."
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