He's been clean two years, but Andrew Moskevich is still paying for his OxyContin addiction. Last month he sent a check for $2,550 to his former downstairs neighbor in Peabody, the woman he once robbed to buy drugs. The payment is another step in the recovery process for the 22-year-old former honor student and class treasurer at Peabody High School. Moskevich got hooked on OxyContin in high school and ended up homeless, estranged from his family, and sent to a locked detox unit by the courts. Now he is working for the very agency that helped him recover. He is an administrative assistant for the South Middlesex Opportunity Council in Framingham, helping young addicts get treatment and find housing. "It's good to be on this side," Moskevich said. [continues 1208 words]
PEABODY - OxyContin and heroin addiction are afflicting a new generation of young people, most of them anonymous to the general public. But there's one person on the North Shore whose drug problems have been played out on the front pages of the newspaper and in a national magazine. Jeff Allison was one of the best pitchers ever from this area, named the high school baseball player of the year by Baseball America magazine. He was drafted in the first round by the Florida Marlins and signed to a contract worth $1.85 million. [continues 123 words]
