HEROIN THE EVIL BEHIND MOTHERS' LOSSES

All Roberta Lojack and Elaine Gohn have are photographs and memories of
their two daughters.

And pain.

It's a deep hurt that the two Allegheny County women don't want other
families to experience.

That is why they are talking to other parents: to save them from the
tragedy of losing their children to heroin.

"I want people to know that this just doesn't happen to poor kids down the
street," Lojack said. "You have to swallow your pride and say, 'Yeah, it
can be my kid.'"

The two Natrona Heights residents will speak about their daughters, Ashley
Elder and Elizabeth Gohn, as well as the pain of heroin addiction, at a
drug summit at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel in New Kensington.

At the forum, which is sponsored by the Alle-Kiski foundation, other
speakers will offer parents tips to spot warning signs of abuse.

"What we want to do is prevent the drug addiction from happening," Gohn
said. "And the only way we can do that is by making more parents aware that
the problem can happen to them, and that they better be looking for it. And
they better be talking to their kids about it."

Heroin has claimed the lives of more than 60 people in Westmoreland and
Allegheny counties alone this year.

Ashley died in October at age 18 from an overdose. Elizabeth died in June
at age 19 because of an infection related to heroin use.

Both were honor students at Highlands High School, from which they
graduated in 2001. Both were model children until they came under the spell
of heroin, their parents said.

"She did everything for me, with me," Lojack said. "She was just a
wonderful daughter. She never did anything wrong. She didn't stay out late.
She didn't miss work, school."

Gohn said she believes her daughter began using heroin late last year,
while Lojack thinks her daughter started early last year.

The two daughters came to heroin through men they loved, their mothers said.

"Everything changed," Gohn said of when her daughter met her boyfriend.

Gohn said she believes that Elizabeth was trying to get her boyfriend off
heroin at first. But instead, Elizabeth got snared.

And the consequences followed: frequent sickness, a lost job and bounced
checks.

Gohn and Elizabeth's stepfather, Rick Shumaker, said they suspected a
problem but were uncertain what it was. Then they learned in March - from
Elizabeth - what the problem was and tried to help.

"I told her I would help her. You do anything you can for your kids," Gohn
said.

The help included letting Elizabeth move back in with her family. The
boyfriend, with whom Elizabeth had been living, came, too.

"She would not stay home unless we helped him, too," Gohn recalled.

Elizabeth went to an outpatient drug facility and hospitals several times,
then left to be with her boyfriend after she started feeling better. But by
that point, the effects of heroin use already had claimed her. Elizabeth
suffered a stroke and then died because of a heroin-related infection, her
mother said.

Like Gohn, Lojack said her daughter was trying to help others get off
heroin before she got hooked.

"In time, they got her to try it," Lojack said. "All it takes is once or
twice."

Ashley began using heroin by smoking it, her mother said. Health and
addiction experts call smoking or snorting the drug a "silent
introduction," since users typically go from snorting or smoking the drug
to injecting it to get "high" faster.

Lojack said that after she learned from her daughter what her problem was,
Ashley went to several in- and outpatient drug centers for as long as the
rehabilitation facilities and the insurance allowed.

But in October, Ashley died after injecting the drug. Lojack discovered her
daughter and tried to revive her.

"Then the paramedics came, but I knew," Lojack recalled.

She said she believes her daughter injected herself with an amount of the
drug equal to what she had been using before going into rehab - and that
concentration killed her.

The two mothers said they have learned about heroin the hard way. They
don't want other parents to become informed through tragedy.

"There was too much I didn't know and too much Elizabeth didn't know," Gohn
said. "Elizabeth was naive. I don't believe she understood how bad the
consequences could be."

"We're all naive," Shumaker added. "It's not a problem until it lands in
our back yard. We can read about it. We can hear it. We can say, 'Oh it
sounds bad.' We always thought it was an inner-city problem, that it did
not cross socio-economic lines. Well, this is very indiscriminate in who it
takes with it."

"Before this, do you know what I was worried about? " Gohn added. "That
Elizabeth would end up pregnant and I would have another child to raise.

"Now I wish I did have another child."