Addiction

Port Louis, MAURITIUS -- The sun set hours ago. Most everyone who sang and prayed in this concrete room with curtains that's still stuffy from body heat have gone home. Christabelle Piangnee, a 29-year-old whose life has become an incongruous mix of opiates, prostitution and thoughts of quitting both, stays behind and makes a confession of sorts. "I have it," she says. She means HIV. She doesn't say more. She simply sits in her black leather jacket, her open sandals revealing painted toenails, her pretty face a picture of fatigue and hopelessness.

Addiction poses greater dangers Not one person. Despite pages of text arguing that the misuse of buprenorphine is a crisis, The Sun interviewed nobody in Maryland whose initial or primary problem is abuse of the medication ("The `bupe fix,'" Dec. 16-18). Not one good comparison. The Sun provided no information to help readers contrast the street market for buprenorphine with our major heroin problem or with the diversion of more addictive, more lethal and less regulated drugs, such as OxyContin.

When Rich and Gertrude Lyons first admitted they were powerless, television was the first thing to go. Then they weaned themselves from mail-order catalogs, electronic gadgets and sugar. Today, the Chicago couple is still grappling with their "soft" addictions - ordinary behavior that, if overdone, can wreak havoc on your life. Unlike hard addictions, which are usually related to a chemical substance, you don't die from soft addictions. "But you don't really live, either," said self-help guru Judith Wright, who labeled the phenomenon more than a decade ago. People have always had ways to zone out, but experts such as Wright say soft or mild behavioral addictions are escalating, partly because there are so many new things to get addicted to, and so many people have the disposable income to do it. But identifying and treating a soft addiction are difficult.

The first interim report on Baltimore's efforts to reduce heroin addiction through expanded use of a promising drug shows that the city's strategy is working relatively well, but that results could be even better with broader participation by doctors and hospitals. In a city with such abundant medical talent, that should not be an impediment to helping eliminate a major scourge. Baltimore's buprenorphine initiative is a worthy effort, led by the city's Health Department, to help addicts by using a synthetic opiate that is an effective antidote to heroin.

"I'm so nervous," said Lee Goodson, a 48-year-old recovering drug addict who was getting his blood pressure taken by a Towson University student, one of about a dozen nurses-to-be who regularly treat Goodson and other residents of the Helping Up Mission in Baltimore. "Try to keep your arm still," instructed student Jolynn Hemling during a recent visit to the mission. The final reading, 130/80, is a "smidge high," she said. Goodson said he had just taken a health test - one requiring him to answer questions about oral cancer and flossing - and that he's anxious.

MOST PEOPLE in jail have a drug addiction problem. While the offenses they are convicted of may not seem drug-related, it's often an underlying cause. So what better way to treat addictions than in the structured, regimented confinement of the jail?Carroll County's new addition to its Detention Center addresses that need with a segregated 16-bed cellblock dedicated to treating inmate-addicts. The county health department will run the rehabilitation program, affording continuity to outside follow-up treatment.

Walk-in treatment is available for homeless addictsThe Sun's article "Candidates plot strategy for drug battle" (Aug. 15) provided incomplete information about drug treatment, stating that those seeking drug treatment must wait 11 days for outpatient treatment.While we are far from realizing the goal of treatment on demand, some treatment options are available on a walk-in basis.At Health Care for the Homeless (HCH), individuals seeking treatment may walk in and begin treatment on the same day -- or on the following day if they arrive after 1 p.m. The only qualification is that they be homeless.

When the video ended, there was utter silence. And a crowd of several hundred in Westminster High School's auditorium -- some teary-eyed -- quietly pondered the deadly effects of heroin."

ADDICTION'S MADNESS made him snatch the dealer's gold chain. Now he was paying for it, lying face up on a northwest Baltimore sidewalk, five .32-caliber bullets in his gut.A police officer stood over him, his laughing face looming against the night sky. The cop bent down to draw a chalk line around his bleeding body. The officer wouldn't mind seeing him go. He'd been nothing but trouble, a throwaway junkie.He called out for someone, anyone, to go get his brother. No sense waiting for the cop to call an ambulance.

THEY ARE young, have money and too much idle time. Many Howard County teen-agers who plead boredom are using drugs to fill the void in their lives. Most of these disaffected youth turn to marijuana and alcohol. Some have tried crack cocaine. But police say an increasing number have become regular users of heroin.Authorities aren't sure how many heroin addicts are in the county. But Howard narcotics officers say customer demand has reached the point that a drug once hard to find no longer is.Because heroin has become more popular among young people, police have begun a program to involve parents in their drug-fighting efforts.

Vaccines to help people recover from such addictions as nicotine, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines appear scientifically and medically achievable after doctors reported Monday that a vaccine to treat cocaine dependence had produced a large enough antibody response to reduce cocaine use in 38 percent of addicted individuals. Those results come on the heels of last week's announcement that the federal government will fund a large clinical trial of a nicotine vaccine based on earlier promising studies.

They had him cold. A secret camera caught the pharmacist helping himself to drugs off the shelves and downing them on the job. He was taken away in handcuffs and arrested, but on the second day of his trial, he got off with a light prison sentence, probation and regular drug testing. It barely broke his stride, and he soon landed another job in another pharmacy. Prison? The judge let him serve his term on weekends. Drug testing? "I put my knowledge of pharmacology to good use," Jared Combs says.

Lisa Pulley's fourth daughter was born last week. She put the first three up for adoption long ago because she couldn't - really, wouldn't - stop using crack cocaine and heroin long enough to focus on them. n The eighth-grade dropout has never held a job. She has been too busy selling sex for drugs, living on the street so she could afford drugs. There was no room in her life for children. But this time, Pulley swears, she is ready. This time, she keeps telling herself, will be different.

Two Baltimore teams have joined Back On My Feet, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that assists homeless men and women who train to run a marathon - and rebuild their lives in the process. The organization uses running to teach clients goal-setting, responsibility and perseverance, said Barry M. Smith, a counselor and manager at Helping Up Mission. The other team is based at the Maryland Center for Veterans. On Friday, their dedication was put to the test as seven mission clients and about a dozen volunteers met for a 5:30 a.m. run in their third week of training.

Jose Canseco: Last Shot 10 p.m. [A&E] At one time, A&E was known as the Arts and Entertainment channel, notable for its programming a cut above normal network fare. And now the channel serves as an enabler for someone who has an apparent publicity addiction. Here's the show's description from the A&E Web site: Canseco "has used steroids himself for the past 24 years. Now, Jose wants to finally get clean, but he's terrified about what may happen when he goes through the process. There has been no medically documented case of someone quitting steroids after using them for so long, and the doctors have different opinions about what Jose will go through physically and mentally.

Sally Thorner WJZ-TV anchor After being diagnosed with noninvasive melanoma about six years ago, Sally Thorner eagerly spreads the word about protecting skin from the sun. That's why when her dermatologist, Dr. Mona Mofid at Johns Hopkins, asked her to co-author a children's book about the dangers of sun exposure, she put on her thinking cap. "Having no experience in this field, I enlisted my incredibly creative friend Barbara Dale. Together, we came up with Franny and Freddy Get Fried," says Thorner, who is married and has a son. The book is due out this summer.

After a seven-week trial, two pharmacists accused of selling almost 10 million addictive painkillers illegally over the Internet were convicted yesterday in federal court in Baltimore of that offense and several others. Steven Abiodun Sodipo, 51, of Forest Hill and Callixtus Onigbo Nwaehiri, 49, of Jarrettsville were found guilty of selling 9,936,075 units of hydrocodone online using phony prescriptions; conspiracy to launder money; engaging in transactions involving the proceeds of drug sales; and filing false tax returns.

His comeback was the worst-kept secret at Ashley. After a six-month absence, an ailing Father Joseph Martin returned recently to what has been called the Betty Ford Clinic of the East Coast - Father Martin's Ashley. Arriving in his wheelchair, he waited for the applause and standing ovation to yield before speaking to 80 patients at the addiction treatment center he co-founded near Havre de Grace. One more time, the 83-year-old priest spoke of the symptoms of sobriety - the ways patients know they are getting better.

Any day now my mailman, Bob, will be delivering a hefty check to my mailbox courtesy of the U.S. Treasury. With two kids worth $300 a pop, my wife and I are looking at close to $2,000 of something called "economic stimulus." Seems the economy is in trouble. Bear Stearns, now that it doesn't exist, has become a household name. Adjustable mortgage rates are now accepted for what they are - the mortgage industry's version of a fixed game of roulette. And fear of a possible recession is talk-show fodder for agenda-pushing politicos.

Tyrone Lewis had two passions - being a cook and drugs. Hooked on heroin for 15 years, the Baltimore native traces the start of his addiction to a shot of hard liquor given to him when he was 7 by his grandfather. He managed to get and keep - at least for a while - a series of cooking jobs. But he readily admits that "drugs always came first." Now 45, Mr. Lewis has been clean for four years and serves as the kitchen manager for the Dogwood Restaurant in Hampden. He is also the lead apprentice for Chefs in the Making, a culinary training program for recovering addicts, ex-offenders and the homeless started by Dogwood co-owners Galen and Bridget Sampson.