Pubdate: Thu, 30 Aug 2007
Source: Flint Journal (MI)
Copyright: 2007 Flint Journal
Contact:  http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/836
Note: Prefers to print letters from people in the area of The Flint Journal
Author: Kim Crawford
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

'JAIL, INSTITUTIONS AND DEATH'

Journal Series Sparks Users, Survivors To Tell Of Their Heroin Hell

Their stories - of the rise in heroin addiction, the pain it brings 
and sometimes the deaths of loved ones that result - resonated with 
Flint Journal readers.

After a series about heroin addiction among young people appeared 
earlier this month, others wanted to share their experiences.

Their stories are dramatic, heartbreaking, hopeful. Among them:

"My husband and I have been through hell and back trying to help my 
son, and we have taken him in on numerous occasions, only to be 
slapped in the face for doing it," his mother said.

"I have gone through many losses of close friends that have passed 
from this disease called addiction," she wrote. "I just want to let 
people know who are going through it that there is help, and you can 
get though it all."

"He had methadone and OxyContin," said his mother. "His death isn't 
counted as an overdose, but it's clear that he did overdose."

"She gives us the typical heroin user's line," said her father. "She 
says she doesn't have a problem, she isn't addicted."

The Journal stories outlined how area suburbanites, many of them 
teenagers, in recent years have been driving the local heroin market 
and changing the demographic of those seeking help for addiction.

The articles detailed the rise in the number of local people who 
report heroin as their primary drug and are seeking treatment for 
drug abuse. In 2006, more than 800 people, or 14 percent of those in 
publicly funded treatment, said they were addicted to heroin. Several 
years ago, heroin addicts made up only a small percentage of the 
total number of people seeking treatment.

The stories also reported that the abuse of such prescription 
pain-killing drugs as OxyContin and Vicodin has led hundreds of area 
residents to become heroin users over the past several years and 
recounted the story of the deaths of young local heroin addicts.

Genesee County Health Department records show that 24 people from the 
Flint area died in 2006 from overdoses caused by heroin and a deadly 
painkiller called fentanyl that has been mixed with heroin coming 
into southeastern Michigan from Mexico in recent years.

But some readers told The Journal they believed the death rate from 
heroin and fentanyl is higher than county records reflect.

"My brother was a heroin addict and is he on that list? No," said a 
woman named Nicole about her 33-year-old sibling, who died at his 
home on Flint's east side last November.

Others echoed that comment. Most responses were from parents of young 
heroin users, telling of the difficulty of getting their children, 
typically in their 20s, into treatment, and how addicts often pretend 
to go along with treatment only to keep using.

"My son was in a group of athletes from Goodrich High School," said 
Michielle, his mother. "They were all friends, good kids from good 
homes when they first tried it back in 1998 or 1999.

"One of them urged the rest of them to try heroin. I know he was 
given Vicodin when he suffered sports injuries in high school, and he 
loved it, and sometimes I think back to that, that it was the beginning of it."

It was the start of a 10-year nightmare, she said. Her son has stolen 
from her and other relatives, and they saw him change from a 
handsome, popular student-athlete to a liar and thief with no future 
and no prospects. Although he claimed at times to have given up 
heroin, his mother said he hasn't, and she no longer can allow him 
into her home.

"It is a horrible way to have to think about your own son, but I 
cannot handle this anymore," she said.

Some readers wanted others to know there are success stories in the 
struggle with heroin addiction. Courtney, 20, told how typical high 
school experimentation with drugs and alcohol three years ago led her 
to OxyContin and heroin addiction.

"I used all my open house money that I had saved and kept coming up 
with excuses to tell my parents when they asked where it was going," 
she wrote of the cash she was given when she graduated from Swartz 
Creek High School. "Nearly $2,000 gone in one week. None of that went 
to what I told people it was going to go to. It all was spent on heroin."

She eventually was caught stealing from family members and went into 
treatment, though, like many other addicts, she didn't want to give 
up the drug. She overdosed, survived and continued to steal and use 
until she crashed her car when she blacked out.

Earlier this year, Courtney went back into treatment and served a 
stint in jail for larceny. She said she knew then that she had to 
change her life.

"It is a very hard thing to go through, but you have to accept the 
fact that you have an addiction. But it can be treated if you choose 
to, and only you can choose," she wrote. "Jails, institutions and 
death: I think and thank God every day that I've have only hit two 
out of the three."

Dan of Swartz Creek told of paying tens of thousands of dollars to 
put his teenage son into a long-term residential treatment program 
called Pathways in Southfield, while his own health insurance 
probably will cover little, if any, of the cost.

The treatment may bankrupt him, but Dan said he has to try to help his son.

His son also had a close call with an overdose, stole from his family 
to buy heroin and had been in and out of local substance-abuse 
treatment centers over the past three or four years.

"My son turned 18 while in treatment," said Dan. "Heroin is a lot 
worse problem here than people think it is. When I think about what's 
happened, I would not believe it."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman