YOUNG, RECOVERING DRUG ABUSER HOPES FUNDS FOR AID DON'T DRY UP

Denver Mayor Seeks $512,000 To Keep Services Coming

Dylan Anderson says he was abusing alcohol at 7, started shooting heroin at
11, and was living on the streets a few years after that.

"I was doing about 5 grams of heroin a day last summer," Anderson, now 17,
said. "I probably had about two weeks left in my life span."

What saved him, he says, was an overdose that landed him at Denver Health
Medical Center and awakened him to his own mortality.

He stopped rejecting offers of help from Urban Peaks, the nonprofit agency
that works with Denver's homeless youths.

Jamie VanLeeuwan, outreach coordinator for Urban Peaks, found Anderson a
subsidized apartment, with the catch that he had to attend therapy
sessions, Narcotics Anonymous and group meetings to keep living there.

"I love it, compared to sleeping behind a dumpster," Anderson said of his
one-bedroom apartment near the University of Denver.

The problem is, he'll turn 18 in two weeks and could be cut loose from
services, likely ending up on the streets again.

But not if Mayor Wellington Webb has his way.

This week, Webb announced that he'll ask City Council for $512,000 in
supplemental funds to plug that gap so drug-abusing youths such as Anderson
can keep getting services until they're 24 if need be.

"We think we have the support from the majority of the City Council," he said.

The vote on the funding will come April 16.

Urban Peaks served 800 homeless youths last year, VanLeeuwan said.

Also supporting Webb's initiative were the Colorado Department of Public
Health and Environment, Denver Public Schools, Arapahoe House and the
Colorado Association of Alcohol and Drug Services Providers.

The $512,000 also would help build a unique, comprehensive drug- and
alcohol-treatment center. Dr. Edward Casper, chief of psychiatry at Denver
Health, envisions a public-private partnership supported by foundations,
equal in quality to the Betty Ford Center in California.

Some $150,000 would be spent in the Denver Public Schools to spread the
word that the norm among teens is not abusing drugs and alcohol, and to
identify younger at-risk students.

If the supplemental money kicks in in time, Anderson can battle his drug
problem in the one-room apartment rather than outdoors, says VanLeeuwan.

His only explanation for his early and excessive fall into drug abuse is
that, "I've always been a my-way-or-no-way person. I'm not ignorant, I'm
just one of those guys who thinks he's always right.

"But after last July, I knew that . . . I have a drug problem."

Anderson isn't sure how he'll do.

"I want to be one of those fire dancers at Casa Bonita," said Anderson, who
sports jewelry on his tongue and lip.

His longer-term goal is to enroll in massage-therapy school.

"You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," he said. "But I've been
off every mind-boggling drug for 92 days!"