'HILLBILLY HEROIN' TAKES ITS TOLL

One Sunday night in late October, Laurie Miller got a phone call from her
son in Thunder Bay. She knew something was wrong. While they had talked
regularly for the past year, Ben hadn't called much lately.

"I knew something was funny with him," she recalled of what kept running
through her mind.

After an hour of catching up on things, it was getting late and she was
ready to hang up. That's when he finally poured out his troubles.

"Mom, I'm addicted to a drug and I can't get off it," she remembers him
saying. "Mom, I'm scared. I'm trying to get off it and I can't."

It was to be their last conversation. Six weeks later, her son took his own
life.

From her son Ben's account and the stories of friends who attended his
funeral -- and even the doctor who ruled his death an "impulse suicide" --
Miller blames her son's death on addiction to the drug OxyContin.

"The fact he couldn't beat it is astonishing," Miller said of her son, a
strapping 29-year-old avid hunter and fisherman. "He was strong-willed, and
he tried and tried but he couldn't break free."

OxyContin is a medically prescribed drug used to control pain in people
suffering from cancer or other debilitating conditions. With a high
reportedly similar to that of heroin when misused, the drug nicknamed
"Oxy," "OC" and "Hillbilly heroin" is being increasingly misused and blamed
for shattering lives.

"At first it seemed like a miracle. You just kept going and going," said
one former abuser, who knew Ben and knew the suffering that OxyContin
addiction was putting him through. "But after a week of doing them, you're
screwed unless you get help."

This former abuser, "Mike," is one of the lucky ones. Along with his
brother, "Tom," the addiction has taken a heavy toll on him but he's
managed to keep going.

The brothers -- who asked that their real names not be used -- got hooked
on the drug a couple of years ago. One used it to keep going at work while
the other turned to it to blot out the pain of personal trauma as well.

"It makes you feel good. It just perks you right up," Mike, who's in his
late 20s, said of the drug's effect.

"It makes you feel invincible."

The problem, Tom said, is that over time the euphoria produced by misusing
the drug -- crushing it and then either snorting it or shooting it with a
needle -- dwindles. The body then craves more just to stay at a minimal level.

The side effects of addiction withdrawal have been compared to the worst
type of flu. The symptoms include light-headedness, headaches, sweating,
nausea, vomiting and constipation.

"It's so bad it'll put you in tears," Mike said gravely.

"People will give up anything to get these things," Tom said. "It's not
because they want them, it's because they need them."

Police are starting to see more of the drug in Thunder Bay and outlying
communities.

"Oxy's the newest and latest trend of drug abuse in the Northwest region,"
said Det. Staff Sgt. Brian Brattengeier, program manager for the
Tri-Force/Kenora Joint Forces Drug Unit.

Brattengeier and his drug unit officers started hearing of OxyContin abuse
locally about a year ago. As the unit made arrests, they started to find
pills such as OxyContin, Percocet, Valium, Demerol and even fentanyl skin
patches among the marijuana and cocaine stashes.

"It's probably very rare now that we do a warrant (for a certain drug) and
find only what we went for," Brattengeier said.

Hand in hand is the increasing use of "drug houses." Like the nondescript
homes where liquor is available after-hours, these pharmaceutical
equivalents of booze cans are places where people go to shoot up drugs.

Brattengeier sees "huge social implications" as the result of increased
instances of robberies and break-ins at pharmacies and the forging of drug
prescriptions.

"We're dealing with desperate people who don't care about being caught by
the police. They just care about the next fix," Brattengeier said.

Also, people addicted to OxyContin and suffering withdrawal are checking
into hospitals and using already burdened medical resources. As well,
people who inject the drug may be using soiled needles, which increases the
risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis.

"It's a growing, substantial problem," Brattengeier said.

Mike said people from all walks of life have become hooked on OxyContin and
it's now a deep-rooted problem.

"From teenagers right up to lawyers" are using it, he said. "It's an epidemic."

That demand is reflected in the black market price of the drug. OxyContin
dispensed at a pharmacy costs about $2.50 for one 40 milligram tablet; on
the street that same pill goes for $40-$50.

A simple step to combat the problem is through education, Brattengeier
said. He suggested speakers could go into schools and talk to kids about
the dangers of drugs. As well, an information campaign aimed at doctors,
nurses, paramedics and social workers could be started.

These efforts wouldn't have helped Ben and didn't help Mike. He conquered
his addiction the hard way: going cold turkey and forcing himself to sleep
for four days straight with the aid of Valium -- which isn't a cure he
recommends.

"For a month, I wasn't normal. Bad pains, in my legs, through my body," he
said. "Damn near almost died doing it, but I did it."

The situation is worse for his brother because there's no immediate help
available. Tom is on the waiting list for the methadone program at the
Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital; he's been told to expect a two to three-year
wait. Meanwhile, people he knows have immediate access to help in Sudbury,
Sault Ste. Marie or Winnipeg.

The issue of unprescribed or addictive use of opiate-based drugs like
OxyContin and Percocet has gotten the attention of the Drug Awareness
Committee of Thunder Bay, which has formed an opiate sub-committee.

Patty Hajdu, the drug awareness committee chairwoman and a health promotion
planner at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, said there are no
statistics on how many people are addicted to these drugs. But she knows
they're out there and that there are no medical detox beds in Thunder Bay
to immediately help them overcome such addictions.

"There's nothing available in Thunder Bay yet. So people are having to go
to other communities to detox or having to tough it out cold turkey," she said.

That issue has become a crusade for Laurie Miller. She has written to
Thunder Bay's elected officials, pushing them on the issue of medical detox
beds for the new regional hospital.

Her son, Ben, had run into the kind of frustrations that Tom and Mike have
experienced. He too was told of lengthy waiting lists in Thunder Bay and
Elliot Lake.

"The fact he could not get help to get off (the OxyContin) killed him,"
Mike stated. "He told me if the doctors didn't help him, that was going to
be it."

As a result of that October call and Ben's cry for help, Miller and her
husband tried to find a place near their southern Ontario home that would
take him. They had succeeded in getting a placement in Toronto, which had
medical detox and a rehab centre, but only beginning Dec. 30.

"We were too late," she said. "I got the call every mother dreads on
Tuesday, Nov. 30 at 8:25 p.m."