WOMAN STRUGGLES AGAINST DRUG

Jennifer Drigger Lost The Important Things In Her Life After Getting Addicted
To "Ice"

There was a time when Jennifer Drigger would do anything to get her next hit of
"ice."

Shoplift. Sleep with guys. Forge and cash stolen checks.

But in just five years she lost her son, a good-paying job she enjoyed, the man
she loved and the real Jennifer, she said, all because of crystal
methamphetamine.

Now, she said, she detests anything to do with ice and what it's made her
become.

"I don't like it," she said. "Before, I loved the drug. I hate it now."

Released from a Maui jail a little more than a month ago, Drigger, 31, is
trying rehab so she can be a mom again to her 11-year-old son.

Three months in jail hasn't weaned her body off the drug. She has difficulty
getting through each day without thoughts of lighting up. She's resisted so
far. She knows if she gives in, it will mean a longer separation from her son,
Cody, whom she raised since birth. Cody is now in the care of his father.

"It sucks waking up every day and wanting to go back to sleep because I don't
care what happens to me," she said one day before she was to leave for drug
treatment in Alaska, where she has family.

She's torn about leaving because she doesn't want to leave her son. "I'm not
looking forward to it, but I know I have to do this for myself and my son," she
said.

Raised in a middle-class family that didn't do drugs, Drigger experimented with
cocaine, marijuana and LSD when she was 15 -- about the time she began living
on the streets. Growing up in Kihei, she was constantly around friends and
other people who did drugs, but she never got heavily into it, she said. She
quit when she was 17 after giving birth to her son.

But five years ago, while visiting her brother and his friends, the Baldwin
High graduate walked into a room where they were manufacturing and smoking ice,
and was invited to join them.

"I started freaking out, and they told me calm down, just try it once, just see
how it feels, then you'll know," she said.

Crystal methamphetamine use on Maui started getting "real heavy" about five
years ago, she said, and people she knew who were smoking it began acting
weird.

"I would tell people, 'How can you guys use that stuff? Look at how you guys
look, look at the way you act,'" she said. "It's terrible, it's poison."

Despite her initial protests, "I smoked one hit and got addicted for two
years," she recalled. "I'm talking every single day, 24 hours a day."

Smoking ice made her feel alive and hyper, ready to take on anything. It made
her problems disappear but also magnified them.

Eventually, she couldn't get high off one hit, and all she could think about
was getting the next hit, she said.

After a while, Drigger would stay in her house and leave the curtains closed.
She wouldn't answer the door for her own friends, believing everyone was a Drug
Enforcement Administration agent trying to arrest her.

She'd ask herself, "Why am I doing this?" but in the same breath she'd say, "I
need another hit."

When she smoked, she rarely ate. "You can put a piece of food in your mouth,
even if it's a muffin, and you can chew on the same piece for two hours," she
said. "You're so dehydrated you can't swallow."

At 5-foot-6, Drigger went from a size 9 weighing about 140 pounds to size zero
while on ice, weighing 97 pounds at her lowest.

She lost four teeth in the back of her mouth -- one of the effects of ice use.
Other ice users she knows have no teeth.

Drigger said she met up with Tre, whom she had grown up with, and they fell in
love. They promised to quit doing drugs and moved in together. Life was good,
she said.

She was making $900 every two weeks cleaning condos at Kihei hotels. "I was
their No. 1 worker," she said.

She was making payments on a car and was team mom for her son's basketball
team.

"I was just starting my life over. I was so happy, I was in love," she said
with a sigh.

The couple were together, drug-free, for 2 1/2 years before the relationship
started falling apart. One day, she got so mad that she went to friends next
door and bought a $50 "paper" -- a small bag of ice -- and started smoking
again. Her boyfriend found out three months later and made her leave.

Drigger dropped her son off at his father's house, and for the next nine
months, she was living "in the bushes" with homeless people.

"I just got lost, got so lost I didn't want help from anybody -- I just wanted
to get high," she said.

Initially, it would take her two days to smoke a $50 paper. Eventually she
would smoke the whole thing by herself in just two hits.

High on ice, Drigger would be obsessive about her appearance. She would dress
up every day and put on makeup so she wouldn't look homeless. She said she
changed clothes about 10 times a day.

She bit her nails, then sat for hours gluing on press-on nails, painting them,
then biting them off again and starting all over.

For Drigger, getting ice was not a problem.

A self-described accomplished "clipper" -- shoplifter -- she'd call up one of
her drug-dealer friends and write down an order for whatever they wanted.

"Any store you can think of, even exclusive malls, I'd go in there, and within
five minutes I'd be out with anything you want. ... I did that for drugs," she
said.

When she was still cleaning condos, she had found a bunch of checks left behind
by a visiting family. For five days straight, she wrote checks out to cash --
$200 to $300 apiece -- and cashed them at her bank.

And Drigger was so high on ice that when police arrested her on a warrant Feb.
13 while she was smoking dope with a friend behind a supermarket, she couldn't
figure out why she was being thrown in jail.

"I was so fried out by this time, I totally forgot about forging those checks,"
she said.

She was charged with four counts of second-degree forgery and second-degree
theft and was accepted into Drug Court, which works to rehabilitate offenders.
Released to a homeless shelter, Drigger went to the nearest pay phone, called a
friend and proceeded to get high for two weeks, she said.

She pleaded guilty to five counts of forgery and theft and was placed on five
years' probation. She was released July 22 and put on a plane to Oahu to stay
with a friend of her mother.

She's never gone through treatment before and doesn't know what to expect. But
she desperately wants to succeed, she said.

Her public defender, Gregory Ball, has one wish for her: "I hope she gets
control of her bloodstream."

"Her body is her body. She should be in charge of what enters her body," he
said. "A woman on drugs is like turning her bloodstream into an open sewer."

Drigger said if she doesn't seek help now, she'll end up dead. "That's my next
step, dead," she said. "I'm lucky I have a few brain cells left."

[Sidebar]

Getting help

Seek help from your doctor to fight the addiction. For treatment referrals,
call ASK-2000, 808-275-2000. Treatment centers also offer help. Here is a
partial statewide list, courtesy of the Coalition for a Drug-Free Hawaii; call
545-3228 or interisland at 808-845-1946 for more information.

Support Groups

ALANON/ALATEEN:

Oahu: 593-3977

Maui: 242-0296

Kauai: 246-1116

Big Island: 935-0971

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS:

Oahu: 946-1438

Maui: 244-9673

Molokai: 558-8383

Big Island: 961-6133 or 329-1212

Kauai: 245-6677

NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS:

Oahu: 734-4357

Maui: 242-6404

Big Island: 969-6644

Kauai: 828-1674

OAHU:

Assessments of Hawaii: 843-1499, drug/alcohol assessments and educational
classes

Bobby Benson Center: 293-7555, residential treatment for adolescents

Castle Medical Center: 263-5356, addiction assessment, inpatient and outpatient
treatment, detoxification, family services and intervention for adolescents
ages 13 to 18

Drug Addiction Services of Hawaii Inc. (DASH): 538-0704, outpatient
treatment

Fresh Start Inc.: 678-0660, structured supportive living skills program

Habilitat: 235-3691, 800-872-2525, residential treatment facility for youths 15
years or older and adults

Hale Na'au Pono: 696-4211, outpatient care and educational groups

Hawaii Alcoholism Foundation Sand Island Treatment Center: 841-2319, day
treatment, partial hospitalization, residential and outpatient counseling, dual
diagnosis, transitional living and after-care for adults

Hawaii Counseling & Education Center: 254-6484, outpatient treatment and family
counseling for adults and youths ages 4 to 19

Hina Mauka Recovery Center: 236-2600, 671-6900, school-based outpatient
services, evaluation, treatment, education, and referral, individual and family
counseling, skills-building and support groups

Ho'omau Ke Ola: 696-4266, inpatient and outpatient treatment

Institute of Human Services: 845-7150, 537-2724, emergency homeless shelter
including outpatient counseling, case management, referral and support groups

Kalihi YMCA: 848-2494, outpatient and school-based outpatient treatment for
adolescents

New Horizons: 484-1000, 696-2668, outpatient counseling, education, prevention
and treatment seminars

Oxford House: 957-0324, recovery group homes and early sobriety house

Po'ailani Inc.: 262-2799, residential and outpatient for dual diagnosis

The Queen's Medical Center: 547-4352, outpatient, day treatment and partial
hospitalization for substance abuse and dual diagnosis

Salvation Army: 595-6371, social detoxification, residential, partial day,
outpatient and after-care for inmates of correctional facilities

Family Treatment Services: 732-2802, clean and sober housing for women, life
skills, parenting, relapse prevention and job readiness

Adult Rehabilitation Center: 522-8400, support program for adult men

Teen Challenge of Hawaii: 637-0700, one-year residential Christian life school

Turning The Tide: 637-0700, one-year residential program

Victory Ohana Prison Fellowship: 853-2213, prison-to-community transitional
program including substance abuse and prevention education, vocational training
and community and youth outreach

Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center: 696-7081, 668-2277, intensive
outpatient treatment and intervention, outreach and support for pregnant women,
mothers and families

MILITARY

Adolescent Substance Abuse Counseling Service: 655-9944, education and
counseling services for Army family members

Army Substance Abuse Program: 433-8700, 433-8702, referral, evaluation and
outpatient treatment for Army, Department of Army and National Guard personnel
and retired and family members

Drug Demand Reduction/Mental Health Services: 449-5892, substance abuse
evaluation, education and rehabilitation for Air Force personnel and
active-duty military

Substance Abuse Counseling Center: 257-8910, substance abuse intervention,
assessment, outpatient, intensive outpatient and referrals for Marine Corps,
dependents and some Department of Defense employees

MAUI

Aloha House: 579-9584, adult residential, day treatment, outpatient and
education classes; outpatient services also available for adolescents

Hina Mauka: 242-9733, assessments and outpatient substance abuse for adults,
adolescents and dual diagnosis

Malama Family Recovery Center: 877-7117, intervention, outreach, support and
pre-treatment for pregnant and postpartum women

Maui Youth & Family Services: 579-8414, ext. 29, adolescent residential and
outpatient services

MOLOKAI

Hale Ho'okupa'a: 553-3231, adult and adolescent drug treatment

Hale Pomaika'i Clean & Sober Transitional/Supported Living Program: 553-3251,
transitional living program for recovering addicts

BIG ISLAND

Big Island Substance Abuse Council: 935-4927, adult outpatient and therapeutic
living, and adolescent outpatient and school-based programs

Bridge House Supportive Living and Vocational Skill Building Program: 322-3305,
residential treatment

Ohana Counseling Services Inc.: 935-4412, substance abuse counseling and
individual and group therapy

KAUAI

Child and Family Service Safety Net Program: 245-5914, outreach, early
intervention and treatment for pregnant and parenting women

Hina Mauka Recovery Center: 245-8883, evaluation, education, treatment and
referral services for families

Ke Ala Pono Recovery Centers: 246-0663, outpatient, assessment, social
detoxification, family, individual and group therapy

Department of Veterans Affairs, Kauai Veterans Center: 246-1163, outpatient,
individual, group and family counseling