Heaven, Hell, Heroin: Lessons Learned From One Young Man’s Death. Before reading; know that this is a sad real life story by Steve Damish, October 2009. Happens more than you know. Post by Mary S.Heaven, Hell, Heroin: Lessons Learned From One Young Man’s Death. Before reading; know that this is a sad real life story by Steve Damish, October 2009. Happens more than you know. Post by Mary S.
DadOnFire 
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January 27, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Barbara
Thanks, this was very hard to read, but I am glad I read it. I linked to it on my blog and “retweeted” it.
January 27, 2010 at 2:09 pm
dadonfire
After reading this, I realized that society really judges an addict’s need for treatment too late, too little and unfortunately on how bad they look. Public funded treatment centers here can only grease the loudest of squeaky wheels. They try to focus on those they help as a measure of success not the majority who slip between the cracks. Localized record keeping is not good. A dozen young addicts passed away in Tucson last year. Many don’t make the news. Some are minors. Every addict I talk to knows someone who died. For every death from heroin addiction, there is maybe 95 heroin addicts playing at deaths door. Not good odds. It barely gets press. I think the stigma is just too great. Young people who die in alcohol related car accidents make the headlines and more work gets done.
May 1, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Sacha
My child was one of the many to die in Tucson this past year. I don’t understand why some of these deaths are in the news, and some are never known of. I think all drug deaths and overdoses should be made public (names not important) so that everyone knows how bad the problem truly is. Everyone hears about how drugs are a problem, but don’t think much of it because they truly don’t know how bad the problem really is. I didn’t….
January 27, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Barbara
Every addict I know also knows someone who’s died! Anthony’s BEST FRIEND died of a heroin overdose, he named his son after him – but did that stop him? No he was on life support two weeks ago from an OD! But was that enough to get him into treatment? NO! He had to fake being an alcoholic in order to get into the detox are of a rehab in hopes that a bed will open so he can stay there for 90 days.
You are right about the attention received for alcohol related deaths and the stigma about heroin. HOW CAN WE CHANGE THIS? I am so frustrated. No one deserves to go through this or watch their kid go through this but it goes on and on and on.
I can’t imagine the horror of losing a child in a drunk driving accident – but I think in some ways it would be preferable to watching them slowly kill themselves bit by bit and waiting for the phone call.
January 27, 2010 at 5:51 pm
dadonfire
I did get a positive reply from Ethan Nadelmann. I expressed a willingness to speak out in behalf of parents and families. I would recommend you do the same. His email: enadelmann@drugpolicy.org. I also recommend all parents of addicts and other veterans of this nightmare write him. Locally, the Meth Free Alliance http://methfreealliance.org/ has improved meth abuse statistics in Tucson. We don’t have that same punch for heroin. I think the M.F.A. was inspired by the high crime rate and visibility of meth users, so I might look at that, regarding “H”. Nationally, we need to keep pushing this into the spot light. Always open to ideas. Really appreciate your involvement.
January 29, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Barbara
Thanks, I just wrote him.