Heroin treatment can start, stop many times for struggling users
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Information about heroin and drug abuse is available online at:
www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/heroin.html
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Bob Gibson is AODA Specialist with Rock County Human Services Department. He helps people with addictions get into treatment programs.
JANESVILLE — Melissa lost her future on heroin time.
She ignored the discarded needles at her feet.
She looked past the bloodstains on the wall from shooting heroin directly into her veins.
She lived all day, every day, for the intense and all consuming purpose of getting high.
Being an addict was a long way from being a straight-A student in a Catholic grade school. Melissa’s freefall began when the Janesville woman started drinking and doing drugs with her peers in high school. She snorted cocaine off the bathroom floor on prom night. She feared going to class Monday morning because she could not remember what she had done over the weekend.
After high school, Melissa bought opiate painkillers off the street with grant money she was supposed to use for college. She crushed the pills to bypass their time-release element and to get a rush. Later, she switched to heroin, which was cheaper than prescription pills and easier to get. She used heroin in combination with cocaine, spending $300 a day on illegal drugs.
By the time she was 23, drugs ruled Melissa’s life.
“I would rather die than live without them,” she explains. “I had no dreams, no goals. It was a revolving door. Every day, my only motivation was to get up and do drugs. I did not care if I overdosed because I was so in love with the feeling.”
Melissa wishes to remain anonymous, but her story is real.
She sought help last year for the third time at Janesville’s AlcoCare, a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. A range of treatments exists for heroin addiction, including medications and behavior therapies.
Melissa’s mother threatened to put her on the street if she didn’t return to AlcoCare.
“I never would have done it myself,” Melissa says. “I was forced to go in.”
She had been through several kinds of programs, including one intensive residential treatment out of town.
But always she returned to using.
Once, her first act after getting out of treatment was to buy heroin, a highly addictive, dangerous and illegal drug.
The good news is 24-year-old Melissa appears to have turned a corner. She celebrated nine months of sobriety in March. She thanks intensive behavior therapy in combination with Suboxone, a medication that suppresses the opiate craving in her brain.
Opiates are a class of drugs that include heroin, morphine, codeine and prescription painkillers, including OxyContin and Percocet.
Melissa’s mother attended family programs at AlcoCare to understand how she was enabling her daughter’s behavior.
“I knew I needed help as much as she did,” the mother says.
“You know you are living in hell when you find stashes of needles in your daughter’s room and blood stains on your daughter’s jeans. I had to accept the fact that I might bury my child.”
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Dr. Adedapo Oduwole hangs up the phone after talking with another doctor about how to treat a heroin-overdose victim at Mercy Hospital’s emergency room.
“The man is lucky,” Oduwole says. “His sister found him.”
Oduwole specializes in addiction psychiatry with Janesville’s Mercy Options. He sees two to three new opiate-addicted patients a week.
“Heroin is the fastest-growing addiction,” Oduwole says. “The newest users are as young as 15 and up to 25. This is a very big problem, but people are underplaying it. I think it is an epidemic in Rock County.”
Oduwole tries to stabilize patients and prevent them from using again.
He is one of a handful of Janesville doctors licensed to prescribe buprenorphine (BYOO-pre-NOR-feen), sold under the trade name of Suboxone. In the late 1990s, he helped pioneer use of the medicine, which takes away the craving for heroin and other opiates.
But before Oduwole prescribes it, he requires patients to go into treatment.
“They need to learn how to live life away from opiates,” he says. “I tell my patients they are on the road to death, and they will die if they continue on it.”
The goal is to eventually wean people off of Suboxone.
“But some are so messed up, they will be on it the rest of their lives to stay sober,” Oduwole says. “Others are not candidates for it because they will abuse it.”
He almost stopped prescribing buprenorphine to opiate-addicted people because some were selling it on the street. Then he looked at his list of patients who have successfully gotten off of heroin with the help of the drug and continued to prescribe it.
Oduwole first became interested in addictions while in his native Nigeria. He did a fellowship in addiction while in residency training in the Bronx. Ironically, he left New York to practice in Janesville because he wanted to raise his family in a city without a drug problem.
He has heard local young people describe heroin parties, where one person, known as “the lifesaver,” refrains from using. The lifesaver stands ready with a shot of Narcan, an antidote to heroin, if someone overdoses.
Oduwole says some drug users start by crushing and snorting prescription painkillers, then move on to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to use. Fear of infection with the virus that causes AIDS once kept people from shooting up with heroin.
“But people are not so afraid of it anymore,” he says. “AIDS is no longer a death sentence.”
Sharing of needles also can lead to infection with hepatitis B and C and a host of other blood-borne viruses.
Heroin is highly addictive because it rapidly enters the brain. As a person takes more and more of the drug, larger amounts are needed to get the same effects. Eventually, users need the drug just to keep from getting “dope sick” with withdrawal symptoms.
“No addict wants withdrawal symptoms,” Oduwole says. “You wish you were dead, but you will not die. Withdrawal will not kill you, but shooting heroin will.”
Overdose occurs when someone takes too much heroin, and it suppresses breathing. A tolerable dose for an addict can be fatal to a first-time user.
Oduwole says methadone is a treatment option for those who are not candidates for Suboxone.
“Methadone is a replacement program that makes your habit legal,” Oduwole says. “It is not good alone but can be beneficial with counseling.”
Janesville’s closest methadone clinic is Quality Addiction Management in Beloit. Methadone does not produce the same high as heroin, but it does prevent withdrawal and the craving to use opiates.
“The ideal thing is not to get hooked in the first place,” Oduwole says. “People need to be aware and to talk to their kids. This drug problem is going to sweep this community away. Young people are dying, and they are supposed to be this community’s future.”
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Guy Onwiler is program director of AlcoCare, Janesville’s only licensed residential treatment center for alcohol and drug abuse. He has watched the number of clients seeking treatment for heroin addiction spike in recent years.
“Two to three years ago, we rarely saw it,” Onwiler says.
Now almost half of AlcoCare’s clients are addicted to heroin or other opiates.
“It starts innocently enough, taking a few pills,” Onwiler explains. “As the physical addiction builds, someone steps in and says heroin is the answer.”
The residential drug and alcohol treatment facility has two homes in Janesville for about 20 people. One is for intense treatment. The other offers reduced care, allowing clients to integrate back into society.
Treating the high volume of young heroin addicts is new.
“We’re getting better at it,” Onwiler says. “This is the most manipulative population we work with. We need them to change their whole lifestyle. Everything they do and were associated with fueled their addiction.”
Therapy helps them restructure their thinking and make lifestyle and behavioral changes.
“They absolutely can be successful,” Onwiler says. “It comes down to matching the client and family with the appropriate services.”
Becky McKillips is the administrative director, who says parents need to come to counseling as much as their children.
“Parents often want to hide a drug-use problem,” she says. “They need to learn how not to be enablers. As the family gets help, so does the client. Even if the client uses again, he or she gets help quicker if the family is involved.”
Onwiler is seeing more teenagers and people in their early 20s in recovery and 12-step programs in Janesville.
“We have wonderful programs to help them,” he says. “But this needs to be a comprehensive approach from the whole community. We need to be open and across the board.”
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Bob Gibson is Rock County’s alcohol and drug abuse specialist who screens clients for referral and treatment. From 2007 to 2008, he saw a doubling in the number of heroin users—from 51 to 101.
At the end of February 2008, he had seen 12 heroin users. At the same time this year, he had already seen 28. He doesn’t know if the numbers will continue to grow of if they have peaked.
“Most of the new users are 19 to 20,” he says. “I rarely see someone in their upper 20s or 30s. In the 1960s and 1970s, the message was out that heroin is not a good thing. But the message has not passed on to the younger generation.”
Gibson says $230,000 in federal funding is available through Rock County to help people without insurance get into treatment programs for alcohol and other drugs. The amount is down slightly from last year.
“I’m hearing there could be more budget cuts,” he says. “We never have enough money to pay for everyone who needs it. So we help as many as possible.”
Gibson suggests taking Suboxone or methadone as supplements to drug therapy because “it will increase chances of success.” However, some therapists question whether it is effective in the long-term and if supplements just prolong dependency on drugs.
Gibson says people cannot go into treatment while they still are on heroin. They need to go through detoxification or withdrawal. Symptoms include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting as well as severe cravings for the drug.
“I don’t recommend doing it on your own,” Gibson says. “Get help from a family doctor or a detox program. I always recommend some professional intervention to do it.”
In December 2006, Rock County closed its detoxification unit, located in the Human Services building. Human Services Director Charmian Klyve says the service cost the county $1,000 per day per client to operate and was too expensive to run.
Clients needing help now go to Tellurian UCAN Detoxification Program in Madison, which provided services at the Rock County detox unit before it closed. Last year, more than 400 Rock County clients used the facility for alcohol and drug detoxification. More than 70 have been there so far this year.
Advocates in the recovery community complain about lack of local services and say people are not getting into treatment as quickly as they should be after detoxing in Madison.
Klyve says few counties have detox facilities.
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Rarely do you see an addict using just one drug.
“A lot of people are using a lot of chemicals, not just heroin,” says Tim Perry of Janesville’s Crossroads Counseling Center.
The clinic director is seeing an increase in the number of opiate-addicted people who come to Crossroads, an outpatient mental health, alcohol and drug treatment provider.
Heroin addicts spend all day, every day, thinking about seeking and using drugs. The drugs literally change their brains.
“When they are clean, you have to replace that with something that includes positive recreation or employment,” Perry says
He describes heroin as “the nastiest of all drugs” because addiction occurs fast, and the intense physical craving is powerful.
“It is right up there with nicotine,” Perry says. “The craving can be ongoing and lifelong. You can manage it by developing support and continued involvement in a 12-step recovery program.”
Heroin recovery is one day at a time.
“You have to always be aware who you are around and where you go,” Perry says. “To be clean from heroin, you have to be clean from all mood-altering chemicals. That means no beer after work. When I say clean, I mean clean. Other chemicals can work on the same pleasure-seeking parts of the brain, which say, ‘Give me more.’ The next thing you know, you are back on heroin.”
Perry prefers to get heroin addicts into inpatient treatment.
“They are very dangerous to treat as outpatients because they can overdose,” he says. “If I only see them in an outpatient program, I don’t know what they are doing the rest of the time.”
He treats teenagers as young as 14, 15 and 16, who are admitting to heroin use after progressing from prescription opiates such as OxyContin.
Prognosis for a heroin addict improves with the amount of treatment.
“The longer you are in treatment, the better your chances,” Perry says. “When people relapse, you want to re-engage them. The longer they can keep being re-engaged, the better their probability of recovery.”
Heroin takes money because of its extended treatment.
Cost for 30 days of residential drug treatment at Janesville’s AlcoCare is more than $3,000. But prices at different facilities vary greatly, depending on what type of rehab a person attends and length of time in treatment. Clients report some residential treatment centers charge as high as $30,000 per month.
“Lack of funding or insurance is a problem,” Perry says. “Insurance companies also put the clamps on the amount of treatment as well. They have a certain pot of money. Once a client goes above it, the client is either discharged or it has to come out of pocket.”
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Melissa’s nine-month sobriety follows many relapses and a life-changing realization.
“I asked myself, ‘If I wasn’t in therapy, where would I be?’” she says. “I would be right back out there doing the same things and not having a life. I was just miserable.”
Heroin robbed her of a job, an education, her family, personal relationships and, most of all, hope.
Last year, she made up her mind to do things differently, one small struggling step at a time.
She wrote in a journal. She worked out. She began a relationship with God.
She found a mentor. She attended regular 12-step meetings in Janesville. She got a fulltime job.
“When I started seeing results, I got hopeful,” she says.
“Today, my chances (of recovery) are good. But that is all I can say. There are so many people who do not make it. I will have to fight this addiction every day for the rest of my life.”
Nov 23, 2009 at 2:05 p.m.
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great artilcle. congrats on your sobriety. http://www.soberliving.com/resources/add...
Jul 14, 2009 at 12:17 p.m.
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"“But some are so messed up, they will be on it the rest of their lives to stay sober,” Oduwole says. “Others are not candidates for it because they will abuse it.”"
Yes Oduwole is a addiction specialist he specializes in keeping addicts addicted for the rest of their lives by keeping them on suboxone which Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals has a exclusive contract to pay him massive commissions for each long term perscription he perscribes. Its sick the dis-service he is doing for rock country under the false guise of helping people get "off" of drugs. Suboxone is a more powerful drug than the majority of opiates (its a synthetic opiate itself!), hell thats why herion addicts quit, because thanks to Oduwole they've found a better drug and hence why others are actually selling it. Fire Oduwole and revamp the mercy options treamtment center with acutal addiction specialists who want to get people permently off of drugs. (I thought that was the point of drug rehab?)
May 2, 2009 at 2:47 p.m.
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From a personal perspective, main stream society has become so overly dependent on drugs, legal drugs. We have legal drug pushers advertising on every tv stations day and night how this drug or that drug is going to make you feel better in one way, of course you have to survive the side effects/ or perhaps they would like it if you did not, so you could also do some more of their drugs to ease one side effect after another.
We are a society that attempts to treat the side effects, instead of dealing with the underlying reason, the core issue. Someone feels depressed, give them an anti-depressant-never ask them about their diet, or whats going on around them that is depressing. We have mainstreamed our schools and taught them that they can push young parents into seeking out drugs to make sure their kids sit still and behave in the classrooms. Yet we never educate them on health and diet.
We are all connected, our children are not gathering information from only their mom or dad, they gather information from all sources unless you have them locked away somewhere completely limiting their input.
Drug abuse, low self esteem, suicides, angry rampages, ect...these are all symptoms in which we all have played a part in, we are not separate from our communities, we are a part of these symptoms.
How can we awaken as a people? Our first step may have to be to say no to drugs ourselves, and clear up our own heads and be able and capable of thinking clearly in order for our children to follow suit. Can we say no to foods that inhibit our health, and well being, in order to clear our minds and thus have our children follow suit?
We have to become willing, if we want and desire our children to be willing. We are teaching by example. We are being watched, and noticed. We start first with ourselves.
Apr 24, 2009 at 7:20 a.m.
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Sandman, You seem very informed and intellegent. You know exactly where to spend our tax money and which officals are just plain stupid. It must be nice to have a perfect life. Why is it you dont run for a city offical so you can make our fair city perfect. I hope that if for some unforsaken reason you should ever have an ounce of trouble in your life that people will be as supportive of you as you are of them. Have you ever seen the movie pay it forward? I live my life everyday by that. I am not perfect person. I have had my downfalls, and I wish I knew how to fix all the sick things that happen n this world. I just try to do the right things, and think that if everyone does their part to try to help then maybe we can make a difference. I am not condeming you for your opinion, as I firmly believe in our freedom of speech and every person has their right to their own opinions.
Apr 23, 2009 at midnight
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Excellent MMT website.
http://atwatchdog.org/
Apr 22, 2009 at 12:20 p.m.
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I think to be fair to the methadone clinics that mybe the gazette should interview people that work at the methadone clinics I know Dr.Oduwole who works with suboxone which is a wonderful drug and methadone can be a good drug for the right people I think maybe people should due some research about methadone and how it works before making stupid judgements statements like " its a legal way to get drugs" thats a bunch of bull people need to be educated in other treatments availavaile Yes methadone isnt for everyone either is suboxone or NA/ AA which Treatment depends on the patient only not what stupid people think!
Apr 21, 2009 at 9:19 p.m.
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COngrats on the 9 months, i dont know if you remember me but im one of J.U. friends from Chicago. God willing on OCt 1st this year ill have 9 yrs sober, Heroin ruled my life for over 3 yrs. I lost everything also, jobs, home, friends,etc... the only thing that worked for me was Cook County jail for the 3rd time. As a ex H-addict i can say that most people that get hooked wont stop until their lives are at the absolute bottom.I started out small $5 a day snorting for about 3 months then i was drunk and tried shooting it and that was it, soon i was up to $300 a day when i lived in chicago. Stole alot of stuff to support my habit and worked from job to job. I did over 5 treatments, 4 inpaitents and almost 6 months in CCDOC finally worked in a intensive treatment program and a desire to change and a whole lot of GOD and Gods messengers - people who had been there and cared - counselors. Keep doing your share "MELISSIA" and carry the message it works. Today im married for almost 5 yrs, 2 Boys - 3.5 and 1.5 yrs, awesome job, My own home and food in the fridge. Its an amazing Journey as long as you thank god everyday and do your part in recovery. SO take care and maybe ill see you sometime up at J.U. house! THANKS FOR SHARING!
Apr 21, 2009 at 9:12 p.m.
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truecitizen: 4 years ago when i stopped drinking i wanted to make a change. so i looked at my options. i thought 'i can make a difference by either a) NO TOLERANCE, NO TOLERANCE, and help people get away from it all. Educate and demand, go after the sellers and pushers or i could 2) use my time, knowledge, HISTORY, and ability to talk to people as tools to help legalize marijuana and de-criminalize all drugs. the all drugs thing i just get caught up in the discussion...we all know my TRUE passion. but anyways i looked at those two choices and chose option 2 for several reasons. i enjoy smoking pot:) i have a LEGITIMATE claim to a medical marijuana card and quite honestly that battle just seemed easier. i cant even imagine the battle if i chose optioin a. can you imagine a world of NO TOLERANCE NO TOLERANCE...how would i ever even come close to convincing enough people that companys like phillip morris, miller brewing(whom i love:), and pfizer need to go away cuz theyre pushers?? or trying to close down all the taverns cuz theyre sellers?? i have a family member who owns a tavern i couldnt do that. can you imagine me arguing to bring back alcohol prohibition. cuz thats what you are talking about when you say NO TOLERANCE, NO TOLERANCE...no tolerance my friend means if one drug is bad ALL drugs are bad. for you to say NO TOLERANCE, NO TOLERANCE...but not be on every alcohol blog screaming for alcohol prohibition makes you look like yer all bark and no bite. thats why i chose option 2. thats a battle we can and will win. good day. i said good day.
Apr 21, 2009 at 5:54 p.m.
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I think these stories are very important. I go to Parker, And i watched two people that were very close to me get into heroin and mess up there life and there both in jail now for selling heroin. I'm not going to say heroin is something i would never do, because i have tried it and it did have a really big effect on me. But i think stoires like these could really make a differance on people that use.
Apr 21, 2009 at 5:52 p.m.
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"The goal is to eventually wean people off of Suboxone." One drug replaces another in this society.
Given the approximate age of all these young users, I'd have to guess that many if not most are DARE GRADUATES! Government-sponsored studies indicated that DARE had no statistically significant effect on graduates later choices to use drugs, and there was some suggestion that graduates may have an INCREASED likelihood to experiment with drugs (and perhaps that's what we're seeing now). Accordingly, federal funding for the DARE DELUSION dropped to ZERO. On to the next (scientifically unproven) program, please, and spare no expense for the "officially licensed" logo-laden t-shirts, coffee mugs, pens, rulers, banners, needle exchanges, condoms and dental dams (or did I just imagine those last three items?)!
Truth is, drug use is only a symptom of our fat, lazy, bored, externally over-entertained, video game and blockbuster movie stimulated, enjoy-it-now, no-parents-around (they're kids raising kids -- they just want to be best buddies, after all!), hedonist, ride-the-shark "culture."
Most of these kids were never really hungry, never had to work for much and thereby never developed any self-motivation or self-esteem (WAIT -- THOSE ARE THE PILLS WE NEED!), and if they were there were in need of something, there's enough hand-out/freebie/discount/loser programs available (a sure way to ensure you don't ever develop any motivation or self-esteem!).
"Koyaanisqatsi" -- a Hopi indian term for "life out of balance ... The greatest event in the history of mankind has occurred recently, and has been largely missed by both the media and academia. Beyond the headlines and every day crises of international events, a deeper shift in human affairs has occurred: Humanity no longer exists in the natural world, we are no longer connected to it. It is not that we are now users of technology, but rather that we exist within technology, we are part of it and it is part of us. The natural world now exists only to support the artificial one in which we live."
What happens when dysfunctional little animals choose to opt out of the struggle of living things? They die. Shift your perspective -- it's not a heroin problem, it's a heroin SOLUTION to our natural imbalance! It's Travis Bickle's "real rain." PERSONAL CHOICE ... choose to live (and change your behavior accordingly), or choose to continue self-destructive behavior and die. Sad, but if there's a rock-and-roll heaven...
Apr 21, 2009 at 5:50 p.m.
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This sucks. This particular comment from the article is literally my ex-wife finding her brother after shooting up in the bathroom. Evidently child protective services didn't think it was a big deal and told my ex-wife it was ok that the kids were there because she was there too. Yet, she knew he had been doing it. Great child protection we've got, eh?
"Dr. Adedapo Oduwole hangs up the phone after talking with another doctor about how to treat a heroin-overdose victim at Mercy Hospital’s emergency room.
“The man is lucky,” Oduwole says. “His sister found him.”"
Apr 21, 2009 at 4:45 p.m.
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Interesting Fact of the Day:
Heroin was invented by a chemist working for the company Bayer.
http://www.opioids.com/heroin/heroinhist...
Funny I don't see that on the company website ;-)
Apr 21, 2009 at 4:33 p.m.
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Way to go Melissa! You have always been an inspiration to me, since I started as your counselor several years ago. You are a beautiful and intelligent woman who just got caught up. As you used to say, you'd just get a case of the f**k-it's amd go back to using. I think you are so blessed to have the family you have to hang in there with you. I don't care what anyone says about money or whatever, Dr. Oduwole is the best addictionlogist I have ever met. He knows his stuff. What he has to charge is caused by the Mercy machine. There are 3 things required for recovery: admit your problem, ask for help and change your whole life. That may be three things but it's alot. I also support AlcoCare and what they are doing. There are few facilities like them left.
Heroin sucks, plain and simple but there is help. Janesville has good resources, use them.
Apr 21, 2009 at 4:29 p.m.
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amg . . . Best of luck to you and yours!
Apr 21, 2009 at 2:39 p.m.
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oduwale is expensive, along with the treatment program at mercy options. way too expensive if you dont have insurance. i suggest going to fort atkinson behavioral health. you dont have to be in there treatment program or any for that matter. its cheaper than most places and you dont have to make a co-pay when you visit. or if you are going to a janesville doctor there is a funding agency that will cover the overall cost if you qualify. the place is crisis intervention.
Apr 21, 2009 at 1:39 p.m.
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amg,
I would love to help you also if I can. I am a substance abuse counselor, and I might be able to help answer any questions for you that you or your son may have, or perhaps I could be there for YOU as you go through this. Feel free to email me at
marknreetz@charter.net
Much Love,
Rozi
Apr 21, 2009 at 1:33 p.m.
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Bob Gibson returned my call. He is a very knowledgable and helpful person. Not much we can do until my boy is out of jail, but he gave me some options for when that occurs if my son truly wants to be clean.
Apr 21, 2009 at 12:20 p.m.
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Congratulations on the sobriety! It takes a strong person, forced or not, to come clean. To the rest of us that have never been apart of the drug world, it is shocking to see this epidemic! Yet, to those that have used and/or are using, you know just how 'new' this 'epidemic' really is!
Apr 21, 2009 at 12:15 p.m.
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'kid'....there is not a viable comparison to tobacco, a somewhat comparison to alcohol, and these ilicit drugs (including THC) should never be legal. The only way society will recover is if we are educated, and then show no more tolerances, and everyone stops it. People like you are wrong for wanting marijuana to be legal. All of the arguements for that simply will be incorrect, and it will push some people to using harder drugs anyway. NO TOLERANCE, NO TOLERANCE, and help people get away from it all. Educate and demand, go after the sellers and pushers. Stop arguing about that stupid green leaf everytime these articles are written!
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:48 a.m.
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Good point officer. "Right up there with nicotine." Nicotine does not, at least yet, force its users to resort to crime. Nicotine users can live productive, normal lives. Nicotine is no more dangeours than caffeine. It is the tar and carbon monoxide in cigarettes that affect health. To compare a truly dangerous drug like heroin to nicotine just minimizes it. That's part of the problem. When you start lumping the really bad drugs in with nicotine, alcohol and coffee, our young people figure "why not its all bad for me."
Let's get a consistent message out there. Yes, alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs. But drugs like Heroin and others are WAY WAY more dangerous.
Just a thought...
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:38 a.m.
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good point officer. also note 'Methadone is a replacement program that makes your habit legal'...i think that shows that those of us who discuss legalization arent 'flakes' or 'idiots' as we have been improperly labeled.
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:20 a.m.
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amg- Let us know how your son is doing ! Your family in my prayers ! Be brave !
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:19 a.m.
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Take care Melissa, one step at a time, one day at a time.
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:18 a.m.
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latinmami2- I agree 100 % again , Thank you Gazette staff !
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:17 a.m.
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Thanks latin and Loveisgood. Hopefully he will be able to help or at least point us in the right direction.
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:13 a.m.
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all these articles are so sad, but they are also a huge eye opener for everyone and it seems like people are starting to come out and look for help because they realize they are not the only ones with the problems in their families. best of luck to everyone seeking help and i think you are all very brave people for taking the first step
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:11 a.m.
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amg - i would start by contacting the human resources department to start with and they will probably start you out in the right direction
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:11 a.m.
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or try 608-741-3400
Apr 21, 2009 at 11:10 a.m.
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amg -Rock County of Human Services # is 608 757 5200
Under his pic it says that is where he works . They should be able to direct you to him ! Best of luck to you and your son !
Apr 21, 2009 at 11 a.m.
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I am seeking help for my son. How would I contact Bob Gibson?
Apr 21, 2009 at 10:54 a.m.
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People have been snorting heroin for decades. Read some of the books on some of the old jazz musicians. Most people snort because they are afraid of needles or because they think they won't get addicted if they don't shoot it. Eventually once they cross the line from snorting to needles they never go back. The potency of heroin depends on the dealer. If it is not cut with something else people who have been ding heroin a long time can still die. In New York and larger cities the latest batches of heroin have street names. Sometimes a really potent strain of heroin comes into a city and then there are rashes of people dying from overdoses. I am glad the Gazette is finally
addressing this problem. We have had too many young people die from this drug.
Apr 21, 2009 at 10:41 a.m.
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I also believe that the over prescribing of opiates has lead many done the herion path. In every one of these articles it says the user started with vicoden, percocet, and oxycotin. These pills are very expensive on the streets so most will switch to herion because its so much cheaper.
Apr 21, 2009 at 10:13 a.m.
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I'd also like to know what has changed/happened 1980's - present to make one of the "worst" drugs so readily available to young people. When I was a teen this drug was thought of as something from the hippie generation and that I know of was not as common as it appears to be now. How are these drugs making it into our community?
Apr 21, 2009 at 10:08 a.m.
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I think the stories on the drug problems in Janesville are very , very important . I wonder how many new cases will come to light now that people know where to go and what to look for . I have said it many times in the past and will again , knowledge is huge . I know I have learned a lot from these stories and feel much more informed because of them .
Thank you Gazette ! Keep up the great work , I am sure you are saving someones life right now beacause of it !
Apr 21, 2009 at 9:56 a.m.
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I'd like to see the Gazette do an article about why heroin is so easy to get today. I'd like to see an article exploring why the multi decade long war on drugs has only produced more drugs for less cost. Explore the opinion that taking drugs is a personal choice based on the right to life, and that's why government intervention is doomed to fail. Heroin wasn't a problem when I was growing up, why is it now? What's changed? Be honest even if the politically correct moral minority don't agree. Why does the ACLU feel drugs should be legal and regulated? Why are people calling the USA the most incarcerated population on Earth when we were taught that we live in a free society? That's the kind of reporting the wins awards.
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