ADDICTION COSTS TEENAGER PLENTY

YOUTH AND DRUGS

HURTING & HEALING

Part 2 of 4

In this four-part series, the North Star examines how drugs and drug abuse
has adversely affected Parry Sounders. We learn that it's not just the users
battle to fight-it's also that of those closest to them. Critics of the
system say that Parry Sound and area addiction programs don't work well
because youths with addiction issues have a hard time opening up to
treatment.

However, in the Parry Sound area, several drug and alcohol treatment centres
offer programs to help those in need of addiction counselling and support.

Today's story focuses on a local mother and her teenaged son-and his battle
with drug addiction. Their names have been changed to protect their
identities.

In next Wednesday's North Star, reporter Stephannie Johnson speaks with a
woman who is determined to stay clean, despite her painful past.

PARRY SOUND - By all accounts, Parry Sound teenager John Smith (not his real
name) was just like any other adolescent. Now 18, he says that he was a
"good kid," who "never really got into much trouble," who always "got good
grades," and who worked hard in school. Of course, John also says that he
was all those things before drugs got their claws into him.

Despite the 'normalcy' of his life and a loving and supportive family, John
found himself more and more curious about the world of drugs. But that
wasn't his first choice when it came to an addictive substance. While still
in elementary school, John drank alcohol for the first time while hanging
out with friends.

"I got very hammered, threw up and passed out. After that I drank, but not
very often," said John.

During the first month of high school, John said, he was introduced to pot
and found himself "toking" regularly for about two years. John then stopped
smoking marijuana after about a year in favour of stronger drugs, such as
Tylenol No. 3, a combination of two different types of pain
medicine-acetaminophen and codeine-that is prescribed for moderate to severe
pain. It differs from regular Tylenol in that it provides feelings of
euphoria and relaxation. It's also addictive, and patients who have been
taking it for more than a week shouldn't stop abruptly, because they could
have painful withdrawal symptoms.

John said he suffered from depression and anxiety. While pot gave him a
high, it didn't curb those anxious and melancholy feelings.

"I heard people talking about taking Tylenol No. 3s, so I just tried it out
of curiosity and it helped my depression," he said. "Then I wanted something
stronger, so I asked the dealer from whom I used to get pot, and he had some
Percocet (a narcotic drug used for the treatment of moderate to severe
pain). He started to see that I liked those, so he got some Oxy(Contin)
somehow, and I just started taking those.

"The Oxy(Contin) doesn't get you high. It just makes you feel really good,
the best you've felt in your life."

OxyContin is a habit-forming, narcotic drug used for the treatment of
moderate to severe pain. When used as prescribed in tablet form, is a
powerful pain reliever. Abusers often crush the tablets and inhale the
powder. It's effects are similar to heroin, and John says it is just as
addictive.

"I went from cutting one 40-milligram pill into four chunks a day, to doing
five to eight 80-milligram pills a day," he said. "The idea of getting high
stopped a long time ago. People who have never been addicted to drugs or
alcohol have no idea of the desperation of needing to do drugs all day,
every day, just to feel normal. It wasn't normal, but I wasn't getting
sick."

For more than a year, John was sniffing his "drug of choice" and quickly
found that the higher his tolerance level, the higher the drug's price tag.

"With my addiction to Oxy(Contin) being very expensive, it cost me hundreds
of dollars every day," he said. "This led me to stealing, selling everything
I owned, selling things my parents owned, and borrowing money from hundreds
of people."

Throughout his struggle, John said, he lost a lot of friends.

"I didn't have many friends, because I was using. Even dealers didn't want
to chill out with me, and that was a bad feeling," he said. "I was always
ripping people off, and even drug users didn't want to hang out with me."

It was John's moods-irritability, and hibernating in his room-that
eventually made his parents suspicious.

"At first I thought, 'he's a teenager, he's irritable,' but then I knew it
was more than that," said Jane Smith (not her real name), John's mother.
"Then he finally said he was really depressed, so we got him help. He was a
lot better for a while, and then I started to notice things missing. His
wardrobe was shrinking, his jewelry missing. I just had suspicions. In
hindsight, I wish I had taken him for drug testing. But being naive about
the whole thing, I didn't."

Ms Smith said she would ask John all the time whether he was on drugs,
searching his room but always coming up empty-handed. However, one morning
while John was in the shower, her instincts told her to look in his wallet.

"I found one and a half pills, and I confronted him. I yelled and screamed
like crazy," she said.

John called Addiction Outreach and received help. For almost a year he was
clean. He went to counselling and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings, as well
as to family counselling with his parents. But he soon started back down the
path of destruction.

"For a good while, he put up a good fight to stay clean and really tried
hard. But he relapsed," Ms Smith said.

John's parents gave him an ultimatum then: Go into a four-day detox
treatment, or get out. John decided enough was enough. He was through with
the roller coaster of highs and lows, so he checked himself into a detox
centre in another town. Parry Sound does not have such a treatment facility.

"The first day I was okay, but the second day it felt like I had the worst
flu of my life. My arms and my legs were in agonizing pain. I was puking and
shaking and had the cold sweats," John said.

Since getting out of detox a month ago, John has been receiving methadone, a
treatment for narcotic withdrawal and dependence. While this treatment is
being provided to him by a clinic in Sudbury, he visits a pharmacy here in
Parry Sound to take it.

"It's a drink that I get from the pharmacist, and it stops the withdrawals
and it keeps you off drugs," he said. "I'm on methadone now. If I were to go
sniff Oxy(Contin), I wouldn't feel anything, it would be a waste. I could be
on methadone for two years or the rest of my life. It's a controlled dose
and it's free, so it's not like I'm spending that money to get my fix."

John has to have a weekly urine test for the next eight months-and be free
of druge-before he can pick up the methadone from the pharmacy and ingest it
at home.

"I'm almost starting to feel like a normal person," he said of being clean
for several weeks now.

John says that most of his friends are happy that he's getting clean, and
that he's even trying to help one who is also struggling with an Oxy(Contin)
addiction.

"I'm offering him rides to the methadone clinic in Sudbury and I've offered
to take him to detox. I'm getting there. I'm working on it," he said with a
smile.

In addition to going to NA weekly, John is keeping himself busy until he
heads to a 21-day program out of town.

"For me, NA is one of the best kinds of counselling. They're all people who
I can relate to and they can relate to me, and they're really nice people,"
he said of the meetings he attends weekly in Parry Sound.

John's mother says that the community organizations have been an amazing
help to both her and her son throughout their ordeal. But because centres
like Community Mental Health and Addiction Outreach are so busy, they often
had to wait days for an appointment.

"The services in the community have been really good, including our family
doctor. As far as the counselling, they're just so busy and overwhelmed that
you couldn't get enough sessions with the counselor," she said. "You'd have
to wait three or four weeks and that's just not enough. When you need help,
you need it now."

While it's been a tough battle, John credits both his parents for not giving
up on him and for being a pillar of support.

"I'm just lucky to have parents who will help me out like that. My parents
have been really helpful and involved," he said, adding that he wishes he
would have been more aware of the dangers of taking drugs. "I just think
there should be something done. People should know that Oxy(Contin) is a
prescription pill and know the dangers of it, and know that it's addictive.
I'm not here to preach not to do drugs, because I was an addict, but I just
want people to hear my story and maybe make a better choice."

As for his parents, Ms Smith said that John's addiction was a family
hardship and a family struggle. She encourages any parent who suspects their
child is involved in drugs to have them tested immediately.

"Right from the beginning, we supported him and wanted to help him. I said I
would fight to do anything to save him. You do take it one day at a time. It
was very hard. A lot of tears, a lot of talking, a lot of fear of him using
again, fear of people saying things to him," she said. "People don't want
our little town to have this big problem, and it's just unbelievable.

"Before being involved in this problem now, I didn't really know how
widespread the drug problem was. But being involved, it's just such an
epidemic in this town that something has to be done about it. There's that
saying that it takes a village to raise a child-well, this village has to do
something."

Cost of an addiction

John figures during his almost two-year stint with drug addiction, that he's
spent well over $30,000 on OxyContin pills

One 40-milligram pill is $10

One 80-milligram pill is $40-$60

The breakdown:

At the beginning, John started by breaking one 40-milligram pill into four
pieces, crushing one of those pieces and sniffing it to get high.

At the height of his addiction, John said he would have to ingest between
five to eight, 80-milligram OxyContin pills just to "feel normal."

Five to eight, 80-milligram pills a day: $50 each

Equals a $400-a-day habit.