FAMILY FEARS MISSING GIRL LOST TO HEROIN

Hammond: Pain Medication Precursor To Heroin Addiction, They Say

HAMMOND -- When Dawn Allen went missing for two weeks in November,
her mother tried not giving into her fears, firmly convinced the
22-year-old would return home for the holidays.

Her mother, Deborah Allen of Cedar Lake, turned out to be right.

But two days after Christmas, Dawn Allen left her Hammond home
again, this time not returning, not even for her little boy's third
birthday Jan. 12.

This time, her mother is frantic and desperate to find the girl, who
she says in a matter of months has become addicted to heroin.

"I've called all the hospitals. I've called all the jails," Deborah Allen said.

"That's not my daughter," she said of the changes in the girl.
"That's the addiction I'm trying to save her from. I want her to know
we're there ... somebody to call and tell me she's OK."

Deborah Allen estimates her daughter's heroin use at between six to
nine months.

According to Allen and her daughter's long-term boyfriend, who asked
to be identified only as Jason, the springboard to heroin was a
severe addiction to the prescription pain medication, Vicodin, first
administered following a Cesarean section to deliver the couple's son.

They said she continued to obtain Vicodin through a Purdue University
Calumet classmate when doctors would no longer prescribe the
medication. The same classmate is reported to have more recently
introduced her to heroin.

Joanna Zoltay, public information officer for the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration in Chicago, said given the addictive
nature of Vicodin and heroin, it's possible to see the connection.

"Because of the morphine properties in both, obviously you can get
the reaction you're looking for from one or the other," she said.
"It's not that great of jump to go from illegally obtained Vicodin to
illegally obtained heroin."

But for Dawn Allen's boyfriend, learning of the step-up to heroin
came as a shock.

"I didn't know, but I worked a lot, sometimes 12, 14 hours a day," he said.

The couple has been together for six years.

He described the girl as a caring, articulate young woman who was so
good at her telemarketing job she won a trip to Hawaii.

"She helped me to be a better person," he said. "She helped me get
the job I have right now. We stayed together. We helped each other."

He was helping to send her to college, part of a plan in which they
would help each other obtain college degrees, he said.

It hasn't turned out that way.

"I can't understand what's so appealing about putting a needle in
your arm," he said. "I couldn't believe it when I first saw it. I
thought I was in a movie."

When he learned of the heroin use, Jason said he took her to a
methadone clinic in Gary.

"I did that for two months," he said.

Besides it draining their bank account, that was all of the clinic he
said he could stand.

"It's the saddest thing you'll ever see in your life, mine, anyway."
he said. "I gave her the keys to my car to go."

Instead, she got arrested.

"They took her to jail and took my car," he said.

Hammond Police Department spokesman Michael Jorden confirmed an
arrest for drunken driving during which an empty needle was
discovered in the car. She has been charged only with a DUI but is
known to be a heroin addict, he said.

During her first disappearance in November, the family said they
contacted police but were told there wasn't much the police could do
because the girl is an adult.

The family insists a missing person's report was filed in November,
but only one, filed on Feb. 1, is on record, according to Jorden.

Jorden said the department doesn't refuse to accept missing person's reports.

If a missing adult is located and not in harm's way, police will
ascertain if the person has left of his free will and assist them
only if they request it, Jorden said.

"We can't force her to stay in contact with her family or to not
associate with certain people," Jorden said of the Allen case.

But as it has done in other cases, Jorden said police will assist
Allen's family with posting fliers in public buildings and, if
located, she will be asked to contact her mother.

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Extras

Hydrocodone, a component of Vicodin, is a semi-synthetic narcotics,
as is heroin. They are derived from morphine or codeine.

Hydrocodone is structurally related to codeine, but more closely
related to morphine in its pharmacological profile. It is most
frequently prescribed in combination with acetaminophen as in
Vicodin, but is also marketed in prescriptive products with aspirin.

Hydrocodone products are associated with significant drug abuse and
ranked sixth among all controlled substances in the 2002 Drug Abuse
Warning Network (DAWN) emergency department data..

Source: U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration