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Road to recovery: Drug addicts get help through court program
RYAN KARP | TimesReporter.com | April 2, 2006

At age 16, Chris was roaming the halls of New Philadelphia High, pulling in a cool $1,000 a week from selling drugs.

“Being a drug dealer, it was a dream,” said Chris.

“You’d think the rich kids wouldn’t do it but you’d be surprised. I’m not glorifying it, but it was awesome.”

He said he was able to sell drugs to “just about everyone.”

As for himself, Chris used cocaine and LSD at the same time. At 19, he started to use heroin.

“At first it was cool to do it on the weekends,” said Chris. “Then it was cool to do it everyday.”

He soon added crack cocaine to his regimen. Sometimes, he would abuse the heroin and crack cocaine together – a method known by drug users as “speedballing.”

Those who speedball say the injection creates a rush from the cocaine followed by the calming effects of heroin. Speedballing was blamed in the death of comedian John Belushi in 1982.

Chris is one of 21 people enrolled in the Tuscarawas County Community Corrections Drug Court program. All 21 were charged on felony drug-related charges and are working through the 12-month program to sobriety. If they are successful, their records will get wiped clean.

The intensive program is designed for offenders who are determined to kick their drug habits for good. If the offender doesn’t follow through, punishment quickly follows.

Many of the drug court’s felons are in their 20s. They are native Tuscarawas County residents and attended area schools. Chris and two other program members agreed to discuss their addictions with The Times-Reporter. (Their names have been changed for the purpose of this story to protect their identities.)


* * *

Chris, 20, said his parents smoked marijuana. He started smoking marijuana at age 13.

By the time he reached 10th grade, Chris was abusing cocaine, acid and Ectasy – a stimulant once considered a “club drug” or a drug used by people in their 20s. Now, teenagers are using it.

Chris had two jobs – fixing cars and selling drugs. The latter job paid more.

Chris bought drugs for resale from sources in Columbus, where some of his relatives lived.

After losing his legitimate job, Chris began losing control of his life.

Of 50 doses of acid, he would use about 35 of them on himself and sell the remaining 15.

He overdosed on heroin and Xanex, a commonly abused prescription medication.

Chris said he stole money from his family and pawned his car, television and stereo so he could buy drugs.

He was arrested in 2005 during a heroin bust by law enforcement officers. Two weeks later, he went through a detoxification process at New Destiny treatment center at Clinton. He was sentenced to the drug court program four months ago.

So far, he said it’s working.

“Everyone says once you’re a junkie, always a junkie,” said Chris. “It’s hard. It takes a lot of work. It really does.”

As for his former junkie friends? Chris said he still talks with them.

“Some people say they’re not friends but just because they’ve got an addiction, doesn’t mean they aren’t your friends,” he said. “They made the same mistake you did and you’ve got to try and help them, but really I’ve got to worry about myself now.”


* * *

Bill, 21, grew up in Dover, New Philadelphia and Uhrichsville.

He said he had his first hit of marijuana when he was 10.

“It was a downhill slide from there,” he said. “I guess I just enjoyed it too much.”

Bill smoked pot every day until he was 18.

“Marijuana is probably only addictive to people if they want it to be,” said Bill. “If you like something, you’re going to do it all the time.

“I was stoned constantly. I couldn’t get out of bed. No one really cared. I didn’t care. I was stoned half my life.”

Bill said his family never showed any awareness of his drug habit.

“You’re constantly lying,” he said. “Then you’re lying to cover up the lies.”

Bill said he told his family he needed money for other things. When he got it, he used it to buy drugs.

Bill said the only other drug he abused besides marijuana was cocaine.

He was arrested during a traffic stop. Police found marijuana, cocaine and drug paraphernalia in his car.

His first stint in the drug court program was not successful. He was caught smoking marijuana. He served 16 days in jail and then re-entered the program.

That was five months ago.

“From that point on, I’ve been clean,” he said. “I still get cravings for pot once in awhile. I wrecked my car and wanted to go home and get totally trashed but I didn’t. I went home and thought about getting a new car and thought about my kids (ages 3 and 1) and went to sleep.”

When family members found out about his drug problems, they were disappointed, but most have been supportive of his attempt at rehabilitation.

“It was very hard to rebuild those bridges,” said Bill. “You’re not going to succeed unless you have the support of your family.


* * *

Jason, 21, of New Philadelphia began smoking pot in the 7th grade. At 16 years old, he was drinking alcoholic beverages everyday as well as abusing acid. At age 18, he began using cocaine and ecstasy. In total, Jason has abused 39 different drugs, including prescription medication.

“It ain’t hard to get drugs,” he said. “It’s a phone call away. And you can’t just forget the phone numbers. They’re stuck in my head.”

Jason said family members were aware of his drug problem and “busted” him a couple different times and even told police.

“But they could never find it on me,” he said.

Jason graduated from high school in the summer of 2003. That summer, he was charged with possession of paraphrenalia – a misdemeanor charge.

That Christmas, he began taking heroin.

“I used to drive to Cleveland everyday with a friend and go get it,” said Jason. “We’d do it the whole way home and turn around the next day and go get more.”

Then in 2004, Jason was arrested for breaking and entering. He faced several charges, including underage drinking and obstruction of justice. He was put on probation for three years but violated it because he was caught abusing drugs. His probation officer was warned by his own mother.

“Towards the end of my addiction before I got busted, I was injecting heroin four or five times a day intraveneously. I’m grateful to my mom. She probably saved my life. I’d probably be dead or in jail.”

Jason said he has been clean for nine months now.

“I get cravings every once in awhile – more often that not,” he said. “But I don’t want to go to prison so I just don’t do it. And life is better without (drugs) most importantly.”


* * *

Forty-five percent of teenagers in the U.S. tried marijuana in high school in 2005.

Nine and a half percent of high school students abused Vicodin, a prescription drug, in 2005.

More than 11 million people age 12 and older admit to using Ecstasy at least once in their lifetime, from a survey taken in 2004.

Adults age 26 and older have the highest rate of current cocaine use, compared to other age groups.

Statistics are from the the National Institute on Drug Abuse at www.drugabuse.gov.

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FreeUpJahCure

Damn I hope those guys get there life together...its f'd up most of them started to abuse other drugs and made the marijuana "gateway theory" a reality. I just dont know why anyone would try a drug that can considerably harm or worse kill you. I'm glad anyone can't say the same for marijuana.

Mamabudz

there is something so ...wrong...about how that article.

it is the demonization of a particular street drug as the sole cause of each of these young men's criminal problem.

...low self esteem, poverty ...there is the cause

...neglect abandonment

another cause.

Aversion therapy is not the best cure for this problem. They are treating the symptoms and not the diseases.

...like "bonkehs oyfen toiten"




(a cookie for anyone who can find a picture of bonkehs rings on someone)

Little Nicky

$1000.00 a week isn't a lot of money, really. Think about it. Thats pretty much a standard wage for someone with any kind of an education. Some fields offer even more. So this drug dealer, who is pulling down a grand a week for the risk he is taking is really screwing himself. Of course, this is only my humble opinion.

Buzzby

This was not a professional with an advanced degree. This was a 16 year old high school kid. His options for legitimate, part-time employment would not bring in more than $200 a week.

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FreeUpJahCure

You really think so? When I was 18 I was making around $300-$400 working in a clothing store, every 2 weeks. I don't really think theres alot of teenagers making that much money with a high school diploma either. So I definitly could see why the youth and people with less money would wanna go the dealer route. Especially if you can double or even make more what the average teenager is making. Plus its less work. The only thing you have to really worry about is gettin bagged by "dem boyz", aka cops or getting shot da fuck up in the long run. Im not advocating that lifestyle but I can definitly see why people walk down that path.

Little Nicky

"shot da fuck up" is a pretty serious condition. Is it worth it for a job with no future or benefits?

FreeUpJahCure

You forgot the "in the long run" part and "I'm not advocating this lifestyle...". There is definitly a possibility of u getting arressted,killed,robbed etc..., or being one of the smart and lucky 1's to have niether of those situations arise.The future and benefits of this job is going to vary obviously. I named some of the negative things already but nonetheless there is still money to be made so people take those risk knowing the consequences.