DEVIL DRUG - YOUNG HEROIN ADDICTS STRUGGLE TO RECLAIM THEIR LIVES

Young Lives Ruined

When she was 12, "Tina" started smoking pot. Before too long, she was using
crack, cocaine and Ecstasy.

When she was 17, she was prescribed OxyContin for pain after a car
accident. She got hooked. But when OxyContin got too expensive, she turned
to heroin.

Now, Tina is 19 and in detox at the Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Center
Township.

"I love getting high. That is my main problem," she said.

But if she knew then what she knows now, she wouldn't have gone near
heroin. "I wouldn't have taken it. I'll be damned if I would have sold it."

Tina is among the new wave of heroin users in western Pennsylvania, teens
and young adults ages 15 to 25.

"That's the frightening part of it," said Beaver County Detective Capt.
Anthony Q. McClure. "When we used to think of heroin addicts, we used to
think of guys in their 40s and 50s. These are young people that are
supposed to be our future.

"What I'm seeing is college opportunities ruined, job opportunities being
ruined, family and social dynamics being turned upside down," McClure said.
"We're seeing typical, normal, good families being affected."

It's a problem McClure said is reflected in every local high school.

Times reporter Julanne Hohbach takes an in-depth look at the heroin problem
in western Pennsylvania in a special report today.

Young heroin addicts struggle to reclaim their live

Parents who think their children would never in a million years use heroin
might want to read this story, and have their kids read it, too.

This story is really the stories of four people, all from Beaver County,
all between 18 and 24 who made a series of bad choices that led them to
heroin addiction. All lost friends and family. Some got arrested. All are
now in Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Center Township trying to pick up
the pieces of their lives before it's too late.

If you walked by any of these young people in a mall or on the street, you
probably wouldn't give them a second glance. They're typical teen-agers and
20-somethings - clean-cut, well-dressed, well-spoken. The girls are petite
and attractive. The guys are attractive and athletic.

But all have a long road ahead as they try to put heroin behind them.

These are their stories. Per Gateway policy, their first names have been
changed to protect their identities. 'We became junkies'

On March 6, Tina, 19, of Hopewell Township and Kristin, 20, also of Beaver
County, were in their second day of heroin detoxification at Gateway.

Though they had never met, their stories about when and how they first got
into drugs, and the dramatic effects drugs have had on their lives are
strikingly similar.

"I lived in Ambridge, and Ambridge has always been very bad," Tina said.
"At first I used OxyContin, and OxyContin started getting too expensive."

Friends introduced her to heroin, and she started going to Pittsburgh's
North Side every day to get her fix. Along the way, she began dealing
heroin and buying stamp bags in bricks of 50 bags.

"If one goes for $10 there and $20 here, I can support my habit," she said.

"We probably bought a brick every other day."

Tina, who began her drug use with marijuana at age 12 and has also used
crack, cocaine and Ecstasy, said she got into OxyContin when it was
prescribed to her after a car accident around age 17. Heroin use began
about a year and a half ago.

She was drawn to drugs even after seeing what her father's drug addiction
did to her family growing up. "I love getting high. That is my main
problem," she said.

She introduced her then-boyfriend to the drug, and soon both were selling
and using. She estimates they made around $600 a day from heroin sales. But
then they began getting addicted to the drug. "We started using more," she
said.

Things got even worse from there. Friends tried to rob them, other people
began cutting in on the sales market - reducing their cash flow - and
police became aware of them because they were moving so much heroin.

"We became junkies. My bank account went to zero. I lost my apartment. I
wrecked my car," she said. She also dropped out of college.

But as bad as things were, Tina hadn't hit bottom yet. The Drug Enforcement
Agency began looking at her, which led her mother to find out about her
addiction.

Tina said if she knew then what she knows now, she wouldn't have gone near
heroin. "I wouldn't have taken it. I'll be damned if I would have sold it
to those people."

'It Just Takes Over'

"There's no other drug like heroin," Tina said. "Heroin, it's a devil drug."

Kristin agreed. "It makes you do things you wouldn't normally do," she said.

For Tina, that included stealing, lying and manipulating other people. "It
just takes over, it really does."

Kristin and Tina both started off snorting heroin, but turned to needles.
"You're snorting them and it's like you don't get high anymore," explained
Kristin, normally a needle-phobe.

For her, the high is best described as a warm, mellow feeling. "It makes
the world look so much happier to me," she said.

"When you're mad, you're sad - it just makes it go away."

Kristin's drug use also began at age 12 with marijuana. After one of her
best friends died, she started in with other drugs. Eventually, they led
her to heroin addiction.

Heroin's physical addiction, she and Tina said, causes stomach cramps,
diarrhea, hot and cold flashes, muscle aches and a horrible, indescribable
feeling that something is crawling under your skin.

"It's like having the flu multiplied by 50," Tina said.

But a new drug Gateway is able to prescribe to patients in heroin detox
could make a dramatic difference for addicts trying to get clean.

Dr. Neil Capretto, medical director at Gateway's Center facility, said
buprenorphine, which helps addicts overcome withdrawal symptoms, became
available commercially only about four weeks ago. He is one of only five
physicians in western Pennsylvania licensed to use it.

Tina and Kristin said while they still have mental cravings, they don't
feel physically sick now that they're not taking heroin. That's an
extremely important factor, because being "dopesick" is the main reason
many patients leave drug treatment. Kristin was one of those who tried
detox but gave up when she came to Gateway eight or nine months ago to get
off heroin and OxyContin.

"You just know when you're so sick, that little bag will make you feel so
much better," she said.

'It's Got To End Sometime'

Kristin, who had been using OxyContin and heroin for about 3 1/2 years,
said that she finally realized she needed to try again to get clean. That's
what brought her to Gateway last week. "It's got to end sometime, before
you die or go to jail," she said.

Kristin had avoided run-ins with the law from her drug use, but Tina wasn't
as lucky.

Both, though, destroyed relationships with friends and family.

"My family turned their back on me. This guy I'm seeing turned his back on
me," Tina said. "People think I'm a piece of shit. It's embarrassing."

Tina's mother is the one who brought her to rehab. Tina said she fought the
idea at first, but the more she listened, the more her mother made sense.
She agreed to come to Gateway, and now her mother is trying to support her
recovery and learn more about the drug that took her daughter.

Kristin and Tina both said addicts can't be forced into treatment unless
they're ready. Not even guilt from family members will have an effect.

"We don't have power over ourselves. Our addiction takes control over
everything, even over us," Tina said.

Though Kristin and Tina have a long way to go in their rehabilitation,
they're already making plans for what they'd like to do with their lives.
To help them stay clean, both plan to take an opioid-blocking drug that
negates the effects of any heroin they may be tempted to take when they leave.

Tina plans to move back in with her mother, keep a job she has now and go
back to school.

"I want to get a job. I want to do something with my life," Kristin said.

More Stories

After Tina and Kristin finish detox, they'll enter the rehab phase of their
treatment, which includes counseling, support meetings and other efforts
aimed at getting them to stay away from drugs.

Capretto said patients treated for heroin have a relapse rate of between 80
percent and 90 percent. Those who stay on opioid-blocking medications and
attend support meetings increase their chance of success to 50 percent, he
said.

Mark, 24, and John, 18, both from Beaver County, are in rehab now. When
they sat down to talk on March 6, John had been there for 16 days, Mark for
more than 20.

John said he sought help because he was "sick of the lifestyle." Mark, who
had overdosed before, put it more bluntly. "I was probably going to die,"
he said.

The stories of how their drug use began and the downward spiral that
followed when heroin came into the picture are similar to those Capretto
hears every day, including from Tina and Kristin.

The men's drug abuse began at age 12 or 13 with marijuana. From there, both
moved on to LSD. John also took pills, including OxyContin and
hallucinogenic mushrooms. Mark also used Ecstasy, cocaine and crystal
methamphetamine.

John started heroin about two years ago in high school, turning to it
because it was cheaper and better than OxyContin. Mark started when
OxyContin became harder to find. Both, introduced to the drug by friends,
started out snorting the drug and turned to injecting it.

Both ruined relationships with family and friends. Mark even took to
skipping out on holidays with his family. "I was embarrassed," he confessed.

Both were enrolled in college but dropped out after addiction kicked in.
John even had straight A's.

Both sold heroin to support their vice. Mark, who also has lived in eastern
Pennsylvania and has seen Philadelphia's heroin scene, went to the North
Side or Butler to buy heroin. Sometimes he went to Philly. Both found that
in Pittsburgh, they could find bundles of 10 bags for $70 or bricks of 50
as cheap as $250 to $300. They could sell it for double that or more.

Not everyone who sells heroin uses the drug, John said. Instead, many are
in it for pure profit. "It's a disgusting amount of money," he said.

The problem was, both John and Mark were using. John averaged 15 bags a
day. Mark said he averaged 10 bags daily, depending on how much he had
money for. "If I've only got the money for six bags, I'm doing six bags."

Capretto said based on those figures, his patients' usage numbers have
doubled over about the last year and a half.

While Mark and John were able to get heroin for $4 to $5 a bag, that still
amounts to a drug habit of $60 to $75 daily for 15 bags. At Beaver County's
going rate of $20 per bag, a 15-bag habit skyrockets to $300.

The most challenging part of rehab, Mark said, is the "constant, constant
cravings." After he gets out, he wants to finish college and move out of
Pennsylvania. "It's just heroin-infested," he said.

"I just keep focused on how I'm going to live my life out of these walls,"
John said. After he leaves, he knows he'll have to stay away from people
who might seek him out and try to get him back into drugs.

A Warning To Others

Mark and John said they would have never touched heroin knowing what they
do now. "It takes your soul," Mark said.

"It's got a happy little smiley face on the bag. It doesn't look like it's
going to kill you or take everything you have."

Both said marketing techniques aimed at younger people have caused a glut
of local heroin.

"Anywhere here in western Pennsylvania, it's easier to get than weed," Mark
said.

"There are more dealers in Beaver County than people realize," John said.

Both said heroin use has become almost acceptable. "It's just not a big
deal anymore," Mark said.

"Kids look at it like trying weed for the first time. It's like, 'Are we
going to try heroin for the first time?' " John said.

Both advised parents to keep their eyes open. "Watch your kids," John said.

John and Mark said danger signs of drug use include stolen checks, missing
money, tiny pupils in the eyes and track marks - not just on the elbows,
where the veins collapse over time, but on forearms, between toes and on
the tops of feet.

Mark said just because someone looks "normal" doesn't preclude heroin use.
In fact, anyone who didn't know he and John were heroin addicts would
likely see them as typical young people - clean-cut, athletic-looking,
well-dressed.

"There are so many kids out there doing it, you'd have no clue," Mark said.

As to what parents can do to keep their kids away from drugs, Mark and John
said pep talks and other efforts may not always work.

"I don't know what they can do about it," John said. "It all just comes
down to the individual.

"I have the best parents in the world, most hardworking, most responsible,"
he said. "Believe me, my parents said all the right things."

"Kids just need to learn to say 'no,' " Mark said.

Heroin Facts

Heroin, derived from opium, comes to the United States from South America,
Mexico and Asia. The drug can be injected, snorted or smoked.

Street names: Smack, thunder, big H, nose drops.

Color: Heroin generally varies in color from white to brown. Black tar
heroin, which can be sticky or hard, is dark brown to black.

Consequences of use:

* May cause depression of the central nervous system, cloudy mental
function and slowed breathing to the point of respiratory failure.

* Chronic use may cause collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and
valves, abscesses, liver disease, heart complications and pneumonia.

* Overdosing can cause slow and shallow breathing, convulsions, coma and death.

According to the Pennsylvania Drug Threat Report from the U.S. Department
of Justice:

* South American heroin is the most widely available in the state.
Philadelphia is the chief distribution center in the state, although some
Beaver Falls traffickers are supplied in part from Detroit and Youngstown.

* Most heroin is transported throughout the state by roadway, including the
Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Source: Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Department of Justice