Middle-class, teen-age heroin addicts testify before Senate

Recovering teen addicts testify before a U.S. Senate hearing on narcotics control

May 9, 2000
Web posted at: 9:08 p.m. EDT (0108 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Recovering teen-age heroin addicts and their relatives are talking about how the drug has moved into the middle-class suburbs with devastating effects.

"It grabbed a hold of me," said Michael Nevins, recalling how quickly he became addicted after first trying heroin four years ago at age 13. "I couldn't loosen the grip."

Nevins and other recovering teen addicts testified Tuesday before a U.S. Senate caucus on narcotics control examining heroin use in the suburbs.

Nevins described to CNN how he changed from a popular teen-ager in the suburbs on Long Island to an addict who craved a shot of heroin.

VIDEO CNN's Deborah Feyerick talks to one young addict who testified before the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD War on drug

The teen-ager said that one year after he began sniffing heroin he started injecting the drug. He paid for his $1,000-a-week habit by selling other drugs, burglarizing cars and even robbing his family's home, Nevins said.

"I needed help. I didn't even want to go out and get it," Nevins said. "I was too scared, I was too scared to let my family and my friends and the rest of the world know (that) I'm a heroin addict. I shoot heroin, I stick needles into my arm."

People who testified Tuesday said the problem of teen heroin use is taking place under their parents' noses.

"I was totally shocked and very upset -- more with myself than anything," said Lois Nevins, Michael Nevins' mother.

Michael Nevins and other recovering addicts told lawmakers that heroin is easy to find and cheap to buy in the suburbs. Additionally, they said that parents and teachers remain unaware of the problem.

Nevins started using heroin when he was 13; now 17, he's been clean for 10 months

"I don't think they wanted to believe that people from a rich community could do heroin," testified Kathryn Logan.

Nevins, like the others who spoke to members of Congress, is now in a rehabilitation program at the Phoenix House in Ronkonkoma, New York. He has been sober for 10 months, but experts say recovering youth such as Nevins still face a long struggle.

"It's a bad habit that changes the brain and the younger you learn it, the harder it is to stop," said Dr. Charles O'Brien of the Treatment Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Although federal legislation is in the works to stem drug trafficking and heroin use, Nevins said he knew that if he wanted to he could find a heroin fix just a car ride away.

Reporter Deborah Feyerick contributed to this report.

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