Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jul 2013
Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR)
Copyright: 2013 Lee Enterprises
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/HPOp5PfB
Website: http://www.democratherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/7
Author: Kyle Odegard

'IS IT WORTH YOUR LIFE?'

Heroin use is on the rise throughout Oregon; for Kevin Veillux's 
family, the statistics hit close to home

Kevin Veilleux was a talented artist at West Albany High School, but 
a few years after graduating, he was homeless and a heroin addict.

His grandparents took him into their North Albany home, supported him 
and stayed up all night taking care of him as he shook and vomited 
through withdrawals.

Veilleux continued to struggle, so his grandparents put him in a 
residential treatment facility to help him quit his addiction.

He relapsed a week or two after he got out, and went back to a 
homeless camp on the bank of the Willamette River.

A cycle emerged.

His grandparents would track him down and bring him home.

Veilleux would try to kick the addiction and would do well for a 
while. Then he would return to heroin and the woods.

The last time, Veilleux was clean and sober for two months and 
working at a local pizza joint before he spiraled into addiction.

Needle marks covered his arms, said his grandmother Judy Veilleux.

To get drug money, Veilleux sold his guitars, his Xbox and even his car.

Veilleux once wrote in a note to his grandparents that he tried 
heroin for the first time out of curiosity, to see what the high was like.

On Nov. 5, 2011, he was found dead of an overdose at a friend's house 
in North Albany.

Veilleux had choked to death on his own vomit, his grandmother said.

He had just turned 27.

"You wonder how a pretty smart kid with a future ahead of him could 
start using heroin," said his grandfather, Ray Veilleux, a former 
prison instructor.

"I told my grandson, 'You never know what you're getting, and that 
one shot can do you in," he added. "Is a high worth your life?"

The rise of heroin

Methamphetamine is still the hard drug of choice in Linn and Benton 
counties, but heroin use, once relatively rare, has been on the rise 
during the last five years, according to police and health officials.

"Heroin is really starting to blow up," said Detective Stephen 
Fountain of the Lebanon Police Department.

"We are seeing more and more young, middle-class people who are 
addicted to heroin," said Paul Bert, a counselor at Serenity Lane, an 
Albany drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility.

Lt. Cord Wood of the Corvallis Police Department said the trend is 
occurring throughout Oregon and other parts of the nation.

The road to heroin use often starts in the medicine cabinet with 
prescription opiate dependence, which also is on the rise, several 
experts said.

Heroin has a similar impact on the body as opiate pills. Once drug 
prescriptions run out, heroin is cheaper and easier to get from drug 
dealers than procuring pills illegally, said Detective Lt. Brad Liles 
of the Albany Police Department.

"They'll often turn to heroin as a cheaper alternative," said Tony 
Howell, alcohol and drug program manager for Linn County Health Services.

Many times, the heroin also is more potent than prescription pills, Wood said.

"That's the dangerous side of heroin," he added. "The potency is 
really variable."

Accidental overdoses - and deaths - are the result.

Drug-related deaths

In Oregon, heroin was the leading cause of drug-related deaths in 
2012, factoring in 65 percent of the 223 cases, according to data 
from the Oregon State Medical Examiner.

Since 2003, Linn County has averaged four drug-related deaths a year.

Methamphetamine was the leading cause during the last decade, with 80 
percent of the 40 drug-related deaths.

It also was the sole contributor to the lone drug death in Linn County in 2012.

Heroin caused 20 percent of Linn County drug deaths from 2003-2012.

Linn County's one drug-related death in 2012 was its lowest mark 
since 2004, according to state data.

That figure also was a sharp drop from 2010, when there was seven 
such deaths, and 2011, when there was five.

"We're fortunate this year in having a decrease, but it's hard to 
know if that's going to be sustainable or not," Howell said.

Across the Willamette River in Benton County, there have been 14 
drug-related deaths in the last decade.

Like Linn County, methamphetamine was also the leading cause of 
drug-related deaths in Benton County. It was the sole cause of the 
lone drug-related death there in 2012.

In 2007, and 2009, Benton County had no drug-related deaths, 
according to the state medical examiner's figures.

Heroin was a contributing cause in five of Benton County's 
drug-related deaths since 2003.

Other effects of drug use

Liles noted, however, that the statistics have a narrow scope. The 
true impact of controlled substances on mortality is much larger, he said.

For example, if a person died in a car crash, but was driving while 
impaired on methamphetamine, it wouldn't be reflected in the state figures.

He added that long-term health complications can be caused by drug 
abuse, but deaths from those problems aren't easily quantifiable by the state.

And then there are other ways drugs can ruin lives.

Jason Gould, 23, of Albany, died in prison last month after being 
assaulted, allegedly by his cellmate.

He had been incarcerated on attempted robbery and heroin possession 
charges in November. Albany police detectives said they thought he 
was part of a stick-up crew that robbed people to get cash to buy narcotics.

Meth: Easy to score

Tracy Freitag, 50, of Albany, said she's lost a few friends who died 
from drugs during her 30 years as a methamphetamine addict.

But now she wants to live clean for her school-aged son.

It's a struggle. She prays every day and regularly attends meetings.

Freitag has been sober for six months, but nevertheless said she 
could score meth "in a minute."

"There's nothing to it. It's so available it's sad," said Freitag, 
who still faces charges from a December 2011 drug bust.

"My 'friends' out there would be more than willing to get me high. 
They'd think they were doing me a great favor," she said. "If I go 
back out there again, I'll die."

Freitag said that by the time she quit, she was spending $100 to $150 
a day on methamphetamine.

"You lose yourself. You have no rational thoughts. You have no 
feelings that are true," Freitag said. "Everything I did and felt was 
related to meth."

And everything she touched was damaged or hurt, she added.

Four months in an inpatient treatment program in Ontario helped her 
finally quit.

And a big part of that was changing her self-destructive thinking.

Freitag said she realized she could be something more than a meth addict.

"People figure they can't move forward," she said. "Today, I'm OK 
with who I am."

Common problems

Substance abuse problems, of course, also go far beyond heroin, 
methamphetamine and prescription pills in the mid-Willamette Valley.

Drew Silverman, a counselor at Acme Counseling in Corvallis, said 
many of his clients are seeking treatment for marijuana.

And Bert, the drug counselor at Serenity Lane, said the state report 
completely misses another abused substance that is the most-treated 
problem at his facility.

"The big one is always alcohol," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom