REALITY TOUR GIVES FAMILIES SPIN THROUGH SHORT LIFE OF A HEROIN ADDICT

Babs Stewart of Butler doesn't need a tour of the county jail to know the
harsh realities of a drug arrest. She doesn't need an explanation of the
booking process, the strip searches, the delousing.

Stewart needs only to look to her immediate family.

Stewart's 19-year old son is addicted; he's doing his second stint in jail
for violating probation. And she's the one who put him there. She knew he
was using again after being in jail once, and called to have him picked up
by his probation officer.

Having your child arrested is something most parents would lament, but
Stewart is not sitting around feeling sorry for herself. Instead she's
trying to show other families what really happens when someone makes the
choice to use drugs.

She's a volunteer guide on the Reality Tour.

The Reality Tour is the brainstorm of Norma Norris and other members of
Butler County Against Heroin, a community group working to inform young
people of the horrors of addiction. It's a 90-minute walk through the life
of "Michael," a fictional addict created by the group.

Michael is a regular kid, not a troublemaker by any stretch, but he succumbs
to peer pressure and tries heroin at a party. From there, his life takes a
steep plunge into oblivion.

Stewart hopes those on the tour will see what happens to Michael and avoid
using any kind of drug.

"My son was an average kid. He played Little League and did OK in school,"
she said. "I never thought this would happen."

Stewart likens her son's struggle to having a family member with a deadly
illness.

"We wouldn't walk away from him if he had cancer. This is a sickness and
we're going to be there for him, no matter what."

Stewart's real-life story is what Butler County Against Heroin is trying to
help families avoid by staging the Reality Tour.

The tour focuses on what happens to a person after he or she makes the
decision to use drugs and how that decision affects the people around them.

"I don't think kids realize how dangerous heroin and other drugs are," Carol
Achezinski, a group board member and another tour volunteer said.

The inaugural reality tour started with an addiction -- every participant
was assigned one and given a profile spelling out what the drug does to the
body and mind, how it can disrupt the user's life and the lives of family
and friends.

Then participants were divided into groups, and the first group left the
YWCA, headed across the street for a tour of the Butler County Prison.

As the tour cut through the parking garage on Cunningham Street, though, a
young man darted out from between two parked cars and ran toward the exit. A
police cruiser pulled into the garage, and an officer jumped from the car
and tackled him.

The officer cuffed the shouting young man, searched him, and found heroin.
Then the officer looked up at the gawking tour group, and asked it to keep
moving.

At the prison, the group learned that the young man was the fictional
Michael. Then they heard his voice -- actually that of Butler Township
police Officer Ron Pate -- on tape describing the arrest, how it felt to be
handcuffed and locked in the back of a police car.

Michael's voice would follow the group, providing insight into his life.
During the prison visit, Michael talked about trying to fit in at school,
and how being invited to a party, the party at which he first tried heroin,
made him feel included and liked.

But he also talked about being taken to jail, and about going through
withdrawal there.

At the jail, counselor Justin Baptiste explained the booking process. He
showed tour participants the standard issue blanket, pillow and uniform
every inmate receives and he gave them a peek into holding cells where some
addicts experience the first pangs of withdrawal.

While Baptiste has seen heroin addicts in their 50s and 60s come through the
jail, the majority are just a little older than the teens on the tour.

"The average junkie we book in here is about 19 or 20 years old, and if it's
his or her first time they are pretty shaken," he said.

Unfortunately, that fear can't stand up to the desire for drugs, and they
end up making repeat visits.

Back at the YWCA, the tour group found Michael on an emergency room table,
dying from an overdose.

Then his family bursts into the room and learned of his overdose from the
doctors.

Like many parents of addicts, Michael's parents denied that their son could
be using drugs.

The scene brought a few parents on the tour to tears, and a look of shock to
the faces of most of the young people.

"I'm glad to see the emotion from the parents," Achezinski said later. "I
hope the kids are getting something out of this, too."

The final destination on the Reality Tour was the funeral home, where
Michael's friends and family gathered to say goodbye to him.

The funeral director, played by Achezinski, asked participants to pay their
respects to the family and write something about Michael in the guest book.

Participants then gathered at the YWCA to watch a film about the dangers of
heroin. They could also buy copies of the movie, Reality Tour T-shirts,
drug-testing kits and other literature regarding drug abuse prevention.

The tour got high marks from Jane Taylor, of Saxonburg.

Taylor, 42, and her daughters Abbey, 13, and Emily, 15, took the tour out of
a sense of duty: Taylor's mother is on the group's board.

But at the end, they were glad they did.

"I never thought [drug addiction] would be something that could happen to
me," Abbey said. "This made it more real to me. The jail freaked me out."

Jane Taylor will be spreading the word to other parents. "I can't believe
how realistic the family scenes were," she said. "I would definitely tell
other parents to take their kids through this."

Standing outside the YWCA after the tour, Stewart admitted that the event
was an emotional 90 minutes for her. She thinks of her own son's struggles,
and knows he will spend a lifetime battling the addiction because of one
choice.

"I thought it was as simple as putting him in rehab and then he'd be cured.
Like it was the chickenpox," she said. "We will be fighting this for the
rest of our lives."