Brownsville students hear about drugs from former addict
BROWNSVILLE – Although it was difficult to give up a heroin addiction, a recovering addict told a group of Brownsville Area School District middle school students that it is far easier to just say no and walk away than make a decision that could kill them. The 22-year-old woman, who asked that her name not be used, told the teenagers she first smoked marijuana at the age of 12 and then progressed from pills to cocaine and finally to heroin.
“I’d love to say, just say no. But for me, I’m here to tell you that you guys all have choices,” she said. “You can make a really bad choice that can affect you down the road. I’m here to say it is easier to just say no and walk away or do something else. You have a choice.”
“You don’t have to go through the same pain I went through,” she said. “A lot of my friends are dead and I almost died.”
While she was initially attracted to drugs because of the lifestyle and having friends and family members who did drugs, the habit lead to a dead-end road. “If you want to be a productive member of society and have a job, you can’t do drugs,” the woman said.
The recovering addict was one of five people who were featured during a panel discussion held Wednesday over the course of several periods at the renovated library at Redstone Middle School and was attended by approximately 150 eighth-grade students.
Other participants who fielded questions were representatives from the offices of juvenile probation, the crime victims’ center, Hospice and the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission.
The panel members each answered questions composed by the students during the panel discussion, the idea of which came from the students.
Prevention specialist Lorraine Yasenosky of the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission Inc. said it is the first panel discussion held at the middle school. She said the students decided they wanted to do something to address the drug issue and didn’t just want a speaker.
A group of six students, headed by Kelsey Connors came up with the panel discussion idea and even decided whom they wanted on the panel, Yasenosky said. She said she anticipated about 153 kids to attend the sessions throughout the day.
Connors explained that the idea to have a forum came about because she knew a lot of kids are doing drugs and she wanted to do something that could help.
“Brownsville is a pretty bad area (for drugs),” she said, adding that she knows that a lot of kids are doing drugs. Connors said she was hoping that having the forum would either prevent some students from using drugs or urge them to seek help.
When two separate groups of students were asked if they knew anyone who did drugs, nearly everyone raised their hands.
Fayette County juvenile probation officer Rick Rosner explained that in any given year, 200 to 300 kids in the county are on probation, one-quarter of which are from the Brownsville area. He said Brownsville is second only to Connellsville in the number of kids on probation. He said the main crimes include simple assault, aggravated assault or drug charges.
Rosner said the youngest age to enter juvenile probation is 10 and, depending on the severity of the crime, juveniles can remain on probation up to the age of 21.
He said requirements include 25 to 50 hours of community service, such as collecting litter along the road, fines, curfews and drug tests.
To give the students a better idea of what it means to be on probation, Rosner solicited volunteers and then selected one student from each class to put wrist and ankle handcuffs on.
J.J. Stoken, one of the students who organized the event for the social studies classes, said he thought it was pretty cool that students got handcuffed.
He said he believes that drugs are a big problem and he knows people in trouble with drugs. “The idea was to bring people in to explain the dangers to everyone,” Stoken said.
The students also heard about how difficult it is for the panel members to deal with the problems they encounter through their work.
Hospice nurse Gretchen Magaruh said she has dealt with cancer deaths caused by the drugs of alcohol and tobacco. She said sometimes she deals with three or four deaths a week and she gets attached to many of them. “I end up crying with the family,” Magaruh said.
She added that some of the people who are dying could have made choices that would have prevented them from getting cancer.
Although choosing to use drugs made the recovering heroin addict feel like she was a part of something, she said when she went into drug rehabilitation she had to give up her friends, who essentially gave her up also.
“Nobody was calling me in rehab. The only people left were my mom and dad,” she said. “Once my money and drugs were gone, nobody else cared about me.”