VT. FILMMAKER CAPTURES THE NIGHTMARE OF HEROIN

ST. JOHNSBURY -- Essence Allen faced the camera in a documentary on heroin
addiction and told viewers the man who fathered her child was a pedophile.

Orphaned at 12, Allen went to live with the man, then in his 20s. She
turned to drinking and drugs, particularly heroin.

She had nowhere else to go and no support network, she said.

She was soon pregnant with the first of four children. Lacking a family,
Allen, now 24, said she tried to create one instead.

She has failed. Her children are wards of the state. Allen was convicted in
Vermont of kidnapping one of her children from state custody.

"I don't know if I can show you their pictures, legally. They're not in my
custody," Essence said of her children, holding a photo album askance so
the filmmaker cannot shoot the photos.

She is among six heroin addicts who tell their stories to filmmaker Bess
O'Brien. The documentary premiered last week in St. Johnsbury. The movie,
made largely with grant money, is available to groups around the state
interested in showing it.

Allen did not attend the premiere. She has been in the Itasca County,
Minn., jail since Friday, arrested for escaping from furlough in Vermont.
Police say she and two other furloughees, one who faces charges for selling
heroin, stole a van in St. Johnsbury and fled for weeks, and hundreds of
miles, before they were caught.

Allen left a legacy in the Northeast Kingdom, though, before she and two
others, including her husband Kenneth N. Allen, 29, disappeared in early April.

Last fall, Allen told her story, on film, to O'Brien. Six individuals and
their families tell their stories on film, intent on awakening other
Vermonters to the ravages of heroin. Most say they have remained
heroin-free since the film though they emphasize their sobriety will always
be day-to-day.

St. Johnsbury, despite its remote location and small-town feel, has not
been immune to the flow of hard drugs into Vermont. Heroin has infiltrated
the Northeast Kingdom's largest town, largely via Interstate 91, which is a
direct line between St. Johnsbury and heroin trafficking centers in
Massachusetts, such as Springfield and Holyoke.

The addicts in the film speak of heroin being easily attainable while
treatment for addiction is hard to come by.

St. Johnsbury residents tired of the opiate claiming the lives of friends
and neighbors. They tired of the code of silence that seemed to surround
the drug.

The local Drug Abuse Resistance Team contacted Kingdom County Productions'
O'Brien to make the movie to raise public awareness about the drug. The
group raised about $9,000 in donations from the community, no small feat in
a town of 7,600, O'Brien said.

The movie, "Here Today," doesn't show junkies injecting heroin with needles
or writhing with the pain of withdrawal. It attempts to humanize the people
caught in the drug's grip, O'Brien said. For the St. Johnsbury audiences,
the individuals in the documentary are friends and neighbors.

"Everybody knows everybody here, but nobody was talking about the problem,"
said Steve Kline, who is featured in the film and whose 21-year-old
daughter Jennifer is a recovering addict.

Kline said he agreed to go public with his daughter's story because he saw
heroin use accelerating. He wanted the drug and its effects brought to the
surface. Kline drove a taxi in St. Johnsbury and said he saw firsthand how
common the drug was. He could tell if someone was using. He could tell if
they needed the ride to pick up their drugs.

The tight-knit community extends to addicts, Kline said.

His daughter, Jennifer, lived in the same apartment building as Margaret
Masure, also featured in the film. Jennifer would baby-sit for Margaret's
young daughter while Masure went seeking heroin for the two women, Kline
said. Masure's brother, Philip "Rusty" Masure, is also an addict. He has
been clean for five years, according to the film.

Jennifer and Masure have said they are now drug-free.

Masure answered questions from the crowd of nearly 300 packed into the St.
Johnsbury Academy auditorium for the film's premiere Thursday. Masure's
9-year-old daughter leaned her head against her mother's shoulder.

Her daughter gives her a reason to fight to stay off heroin, Masure said.
She tries not to feel alone. She tries to provide her daughter with a sense
of family.

When she craves the opiate, Masure said, she tells anybody she can find.
Discussing her addiction has helped her overcome it for the last eight
months though she still struggles to stay clean, she said.

"You've got to talk to anybody that will listen," Masure told the audience.