FOR ADDICTS, PILLS PAVE A PRECARIOUS PATH

Derek Surette was a college freshman who just wanted to party, but after he
chewed his first OxyContin pill, the handsome former East Boston hockey
player became a junkie, terrorizing his family for cash, jewelry - anything
he could sell to feed his $500-a-day habit.

"I was going to Suffolk University," Surette, 23, said in an interview at
the Meridian House residential drug treatment program in East Boston. "I
was doing good in school. That summer, Oxys came around and my friends
started doing them. They were just going to party. Take an Oxy, drink some
beers."

But the addiction took hold quickly, and Surette's life plunged into crisis
as he stole family heirlooms from his father, broke into his grandparents'
house to take money, shoplifted from stores to pay for his next $80 pill.

"My life just started spinning out of control once I did Oxy," Surette
said. "You'll hurt whoever it takes. It doesn't matter. It's crazy. It's ugly."

For Shannon Lundin, 26, of Charlestown, OxyContin addiction quickly
escorted her into heroin use.

"Heroin was cheaper. It was more potent," she said. "For me, the OCs just
weren't cutting it."

As they share their recovery time, Lundin and Surette say they believe
OxyContin has caused an addiction crisis unlike those that hit generations
before them.

"It's a bad era," Surette said. "No one ever asks to be a drug addict. We
were just born into a time - it's like one of the worst drug episodes ever."