THE HELL OF HEROIN: COLLEYVILLE ADDICT WATCHES MORE FRIENDS DIE, RESOLVES
NOT TO BE NEXT

COLLEYVILLE --Tears welled in Austin Copple's eyes as the 17-year-old
heroin addict mourned his former girlfriend, Stephanie Holley, who died this
month of a possible heroin overdose.

His tears continued as he spoke of Kristen Taylor, a friend who was found
dead Tuesday and also may be a victim of heroin.

Three other acquaintances of the teen-ager -- Aaron McGee of Grapevine, and
James Noble and Eric Higgins, both of Bedford -- died last year of heroin
overdoses.

"I'm not going to be the next one," Copple said, wiping away tears. But his
parents, Bob and Tanya Copple, aren't sure how long his resolve will last.

Their youngest son has been clean of heroin for only four weeks. They fear
that the next call in the middle of the night will be from police, telling
them that he is in jail -- or dead.

"I'm scared," Tanya Copple said. "Every morning, I'm thinking I'm going to
pick up the paper and read about how Austin died because of heroin." On
Wednesday, Copple and his parents sat in the living room of their
Colleyville home and talked about how heroin has shattered their lives. Like
the Taylor family of Hurst, the Copples believed that none of their four
children could fall prey to heroin.

Bob Copple, 53, has owned an insurance company for 29 years. Tanya Copple,
46, markets hand-held computer learning systems. Their oldest son has a
lawn-care business in Bedford. One daughter is married and living in El
Paso. Their other daughter is an administrative assistant in Coppell.

Austin Copple was a straight-A student. But that changed when he turned 13
and first smoked marijuana. He moved on to LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms and
amphetamine, he said.

A year after trying marijuana, Copple accepted a needle from a friend and
injected black tar heroin.

Copple said he waited a month before he injected heroin again. His habit
began at $20 a week and peaked this summer at $300 a day.

"I started doing drugs because it was a thing to do," Copple said. "It was
something to try.

"I came back home and did it here. I wasn't scared of the needles or what it
[heroin] might do to me," he said. "Back then, I thought LSD was bad because
I had read where someone had flipped out on it. But I wasn't scared of
heroin."

His parents became suspicious, and in January 1997, Tanya Copple found drug
paraphernalia in his backpack. The couple said they didn't believe that
their son had a serious problem, but repeated drug tests showed traces of
marijuana and opiates in his system.

School officials were constantly calling about problems with him. As his
habit increased, Austin Copple began stealing and pawning household items,
his parents said. He also stole about $15,000 in company checks from his
father, they said.

The teen has been arrested about 10 times and has spent a total of two
months cleaning himself up in a jail or a Tarrant County juvenile facility.
He had an electronic monitor placed on his ankle in January after he was
arrested in Houston in connection with breaking into a vehicle.

But he has been ordered to a drug treatment facility only once, family
members said.

In March, after Copple overdosed on cocaine, his parents placed him in an
outpatient addiction recovery program at Charter Grapevine Behavioral Health
System for three weeks.

"Of all of the children, I couldn't believe this was happening to Austin,"
Bob Copple said. "We thought Austin was smart enough not to get involved
with this."

Their son was clean for three months before he rented an apartment in Euless
in June. Hours after moving, he started shooting up again. His heroin binge
ended when his parents confronted him at his apartment in late summer.

"He was pleading and crying for us not to call the police," Tanya Copple
said. "He was calling us all kinds of names. It was like dealing with the
devil."

But the Copples got him home, where he cleaned up on his own yet again.
These days, they keep close tabs on their son, who has a telemarketing job
in Hurst and is living at home.

Austin Copple said he is staying away from friends who continue to do drugs.

One minute, he is confident about his battle with heroin.

"I've quit before," he said. "I believe I have enough willpower to stop."

In the next breath, he warns other teens about a lifelong struggle. "There's
no turning back once you do it," he said. "The withdrawals are the worst
pain. It's no fun. Your body aches, you have chills, and you can't sleep."

At one point, the teen turned to his parents and assured them of the good
job they've done raising him.

"You couldn't have done anything different to change the way I turned out,"
he said. "No one put a gun to my head to try drugs. I still want to be
successful and get on with my life."

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst