DEATH FROM A METHADONE OVERDOSE

Grieving Father Warns Teens Against Drugs After Police Pinpoint Cause
Of Death

Arlene Velasquez did not know much about methadone.

Certainly, the 18 year old did not suspect it would hurt her. Try
this, her friends apparently urged -- it's legal, it'll make you high.

Police say she was not a drug user, only young and impressionable. She
tried what was offered. The powerful narcotic painkiller -- the
world's most popular and successful treatment for recovering drug
addicts -- killed Ms. Velasquez almost instantly.

She died on Jan. 12, a Saturday afternoon. Her family said Ms.
Velasquez had accompanied a close female friend to a Medhurst Drive
basement apartment. They had been staying there for two days.

The apartment is rented by a man known to Ms. Velasquez's friend and
to Ottawa police.

As far as her family knows, Ms. Velasquez had not visited the
apartment before.

The top two floors of the two-storey townhouse in west Ottawa are
rented by a single woman who police said has a prescription for methadone.

The man renting the basement apartment called 911 to report finding
Ms. Velasquez's lifeless body around 2:45 p.m. on Jan. 12.

Over the telephone, emergency dispatchers could hear screams in the
background. Paramedics worked for more than 30 minutes to revive Ms.
Velasquez but she was pronounced dead on arrival at the Ottawa
Hospital Civic campus.

Police said the female resident had a bottle of methadone in the home
the day Ms. Velasquez died. The bottle contained an unusually large
amount of the clear liquid drug, they said.

It is not clear how Ms. Velasquez obtained the drug, but toxicology
tests revealed the presence of the drug in her system.

Based on those preliminary findings from the RCMP's laboratory, Ottawa
police major crime detectives have ruled an accidental methadone
overdose likely caused the young woman's death.

Police are saying the young woman was experimenting with the drug and
foul play is not suspected and criminal charges, at this point, are
not expected.

All police can hope is that people will learn from Ms.
Velasquez's tragic death. Police said methadone is not commonly sold
nor used for recreational purposes in Ottawa. Death from a methadone
overdose is especially rare.

But when the drug falls into the wrong hands or is used improperly,
the results are often fatal. An addict's daily dose of between 50 and
100 milligrams can kill an adult unaccustomed to its effects. Just 10
or 20 milligrams can be fatal to a child.

Miguel Velasquez said he prays his daughter's death will not be in
vain.

"People must learn," he said. "Our message is that teenagers must
thing hard and very clearly before they act, especially when they are
dealing with drugs. It is dangerous and people get killed. My daughter
was beautiful -- now she is dead."

He is searching for answers.

"I want to know who gave my daughter this drug," Mr. Velasquez said.
"I want to know why and how these kids were able to get their hands on
this stuff. Why did this woman have such a big bottle?"

Mr. Velasquez said he and his wife, Elida, have tried to speak to the
people who live where their daughter died.

"They do not talk to us," he said.

"They slam the door."

Even their daughter's friend will not speak of what happened that day,
Mr. Velasquez said.

Their daughter's purse, winter jacket, and gold and diamond necklace
- -- a gift from her mother -- were left behind in the Medhurst Drive
basement.

Mr. Velasquez said he has unsuccessfully tried to reclaim her
belongings.

He wanted her to have the necklace she loved for her funeral, Mr.
Velasquez said, standing in the living room of his family's Walkley
Road home. He pointed to a picture on the wall, taken at Ms.
Velasquez's baptism two years ago.

"That is Arlene. She was a nice girl, pretty. Every week she went to
church with me. She had a wonderful life coming."

In eight months, he said, she would have earned her diploma in
hairstyling and makeup art. The eldest of three daughters and two
sons, Ms. Velasquez loved her dog, a gentle pitbull called Princess,
and to draw.

Her funeral took place Jan. 18 in Ottawa and she is buried at the
Woodlawn Garden of Memories in Houston, Texas, where she was born.

The family had returned from a two-week Christmas vacation with
relatives in Houston only a week before her death.

"It was a happy time," Mr. Velasquez said.