Pubdate: Wed, 21 May 2014
Source: News-Item, The (PA)
Copyright: 2014 The News Item
Contact:  http://www.newsitem.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3556
Author: Eric Scicchitano

BEHIND BARS, BUT HOPEFUL

Man Fed Habit With Thefts, Wants to Stay Clean After Jail

Fourth in a series.

Marquese Seger already had a drinking problem and had already left 
rehab once for an addiction to prescription pills when he first tried heroin.

He was 18, he was drunk and he was angry from an earlier argument. A 
friend was getting high. He offered heroin to Marquese. It's the best 
high he could get, he said. It'd take away the anger.

Marquese was scared. The drug made him nervous, and he couldn't use 
the needle on himself. The friend tied off his right arm, inserted 
the needle for him. It was the start of a three-year heroin habit.

"I was higher than I ever was before. Ever. That was the highest I've 
ever been," he said Tuesday during an interview inside Northumberland 
County Prison. Any day he had money, he'd buy heroin, and that was 
most days. He'd wake up and his first thoughts were about how he'd 
get money. He'd ask for it from his parents, or steal it, and he'd 
rifle through unlocked cars for change or anything he could sell. His 
dad, Job, said Marquese stole a Zippo handed down from Job's father. 
Marquese's father had to buy it back from a pawn shop.

By January of this year, Marquese was shooting up 1.5 grams of heroin 
a day. That's 15 bags at about $20 a piece.

"That's not even a lot in Shamokin. People do a lot more than that. 
Some people do 10 bag shots. They'll do five of them a day," said 
Marquese, 21, of Coal Township.

Marquese was 18 months old when he was adopted by Ronda and Job 
Seger. They adopted his two older brothers, too. They wanted to keep 
the three brothers together.

Ronda remembers her son, her baby, as a jokester. Job said the same, 
calls him the life of the party. He recalls Marquese donning a 
wrestling uniform and putting on a show for the family.

"Me, Ronda and his brothers were sitting there and just cracking up 
at the showman that he was," Job said.

Marquese treated his mom well, Job said. He helped around the house, 
cut the grass. His older brothers went off to college, and Ronda 
envisioned this for her youngest son, too.

His dad coached him at football. Job remembers him being eager to 
play, and said he was among the best players early on. But Marquese 
had other interests. He'd taken to alcohol, marijuana and pain 
killers like Oxycontin and Percocet. He'd been held back a year and 
was a 17-year-old sophomore when he quit the team. He dropped out of 
Shamokin Area High School that same year.

It eats at Marquese now. He played linebacker and fullback, said he 
was pretty good. He didn't get along with the coach at the time, his 
grades were slipping and there was talk that student-athletes would 
face drug testing. He knew he wouldn't pass one.

His arms folded, he leans forward in his chair and tilts his head 
downward. "Now, I wish I could go back," Marquese said.

'It was hell'

Marquese doesn't remember the first time he took pills. His dad said 
it happened after the boy injured a knee playing football and was 
given a prescription to numb the pain.

When Job broke an elbow, he kept his pain pills out of sight. Except 
once he didn't, and Marquese capitalized. Job said his son denied it 
for a while.

Ronda remembers finding her son passed out inside their home. That's 
when he confessed to having injected heroin. She'd pick him up once 
at a Williamsport hospital after he overdosed.

This was after she had already put her son in rehab when he was 17. 
He stayed five days before signing himself out.

Marquese once asked his mom to lock him in the attic for a week to 
keep him away from drugs. She thought it over and figured he'd have 
jumped out of a window.

"I pity any parent that has to go through this. I never cried so much 
in my life. It was hell," she said.

"A lot of people want to keep it hush-hush. Everybody wants to keep 
everything quiet. I face it. My kid was an addict. I tried to help 
him. What more can I do?"

Arrested

Job calls himself the disciplinarian. He said he tried the tough love 
approach with his son. That was after needles and heroin were found 
inside one of Marquese's dresser drawers. Job kept him at arms length 
and waited for his son to come to him. He did. About a year before 
his arrest, Marquese started coming to his father's house to cut the 
grass without being asked. Job thought his son turned a corner. He didn't.

When Marquese was 20, he went to rehab with the same friend with whom 
he was doing heroin. Looking back, he said it was a dumb thing to do, 
going with a friend who was an addict. They stayed one day, walked 
out and bought dope.

"A week after that, I was in jail," he said.

That was in 2012. He was busted stealing from cars. He'd meet that 
same fate earlier this year, following a string of thefts between 
Jan. 3 and Jan. 9. Police said he stole from 15 cars, making off with 
a watch, an iPod, money, lottery tickets, birthday cards, gift cards 
and a purse.

A month before that, just two days after Christmas, Marquese stole 
his father's debit card and withdrew more than $500.

When he was jailed in January, a friend was already inside. The 
friend had a drug habit, too, but that friend got bailed out. The 
next week when Job visited, Marquese shared the news: his friend died 
of an overdose.

Asking for help

Marquese pleaded guilty to a slew of theft and related charges 
earlier this month and was sentenced in county court to serve between 
9 months and 23 months.

Marquese said he was approved for drug rehab but a probation detainer 
prevented that. He couldn't get into drug court, either.

Job said his son deserved to be held accountable for his crimes. Job 
refused to drop the charge from the debit card theft, but he said 
sitting in jail is doing Marquese no good. He needs treatment, and he 
hopes the court system is modified to offer drug treatment options 
for people with chemical dependencies.

Marquese agrees he needs help, said he's going to sign up for drug 
and alcohol classes through the county. He wishes he'd been sent to 
rehab instead of prison.

"I want to get help. I still need help, obviously. That's lifelong," 
Marquese said.

Looking forward

Job and Ronda split about four years ago. Their divorce was finalized 
just last year. They alternate weekly jail visits. Job was heading 
there Tuesday night; Ronda will go next week.

Marquese did a lot of bad stuff when he was hooked on drugs and 
alcohol, and the addiction was the cause of it all, Job said. At his 
heart, he's a good kid.

"He's a loving kid. He has a great heart," he said. "He never hangs 
up the phone, leaves my house, leaves anywhere without telling me he 
loves me and gives me a kiss."

Marquese had detoxed in county jail. He slept for four or five days. 
When he was awake, he was in pain. He's feeling better now and has 
gained 30 pounds since he was first incarcerated. He's just recently 
been approved for work release.

When he gets out, he plans to go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. He 
wants to go to a drug treatment facility and get a job. He doesn't 
want to go back to jail.

"Right now, I'm fine. I don't need to do drugs. I'm not gonna. I'm 
too far in to mess it up again," he said.

Marquese is burdened by his addiction. He said he lost a lot of 
friends. His relationship with his mother is solid, he said, but it's 
strained with his father. He worries how he'll be judged in the 
community, but is hopeful that by sharing his story, someone will be 
helped. He hopes it's a kid because he hears a lot of local kids are 
doing drugs.

Marquese has been in jail since his Jan. 9 arrest. He'll celebrate 
his 22nd birthday Saturday, and he'll do so from behind the walls of 
the county prison unsure of what lies ahead when he's likely released this fall.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom