Death of 15-year-old Maddie Kiefer by what Whitefish Bay police say is a drug overdose death has not only caused grief and sorrow in the community she called home.It's caused a sobering reminder for any parent around the area who has heard this story and wondered about the danger their own children may face.David Spakowitz, head of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Narcotics Bureau, had a frank and eye-opening conversation about the subjects of teenage drug use on 620WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News."Spakowitz gave some shocking facts about how teenage drug users are more quickly advancing to the most dangerous of drugs, including heroin, the drug of choice of one of the suspects accused of giving Maddie the substances that apparently killed her."It used to be where you'd start out drinking, go into alcohol, experiment in cocaine, ecstasy, LSD, then eventually go onto heroin, the top of the heap," said Spakowitz."We've seen an alarming rate of younger kids starting out with marijuana and going right to heroin."Boyfriends and girlfriends, because it's an injectable substance, sometimes they're afraid of needles so their friends will shoot them up."There's not that leap. It used to take years to progress to a high level of an opiate addiction. Now, it's done, sometimes within a year."Heroin Much Easier To Use Spakowitz detailed that heroin is more used by teenagers because it's simply not as hard to use as it was a generation ago."The heroin, from when I was growing up, the only way to use heroin, because of the low purity, was to inject it.
"From about the mid-90's, there's been such an increase in the quality of heroin that makes it snortable. There's not the stigma associated with needles."With an opiate, it's a central nervous system depressant. It slows everything down. It slows down your heart rate, your respiration, so it's not an aggressive type of high. You don't have a care in the world."Once you're on heroin or an opiate, everything is fine, and I think these kids are using it as an escape.""You can snort one $10 bag of heroin and have a two-to-four hour high, and maybe that's the appealing thing because there's not the stigma of crack cocaine or using needles."Before Heroin, It's The Stuff You Have In Your Medicine CabinetThe drugs Spakowitz says teenagers sometimes use before reaching heroin can often be found inside your own cabinet.It's often the drugs you may get from your doctor for pain medication, sometimes oxycontin or vicodin, the drug former Packers quarterback Brett Favre became addicted to during the mid-1990's."They start out abusing an opiate, oxycontin, vicodin.."We have studies that say that 2/3rds of kids, young adults that get their drugs get it from their parents' medicine cabinet."We need parents out there or family members (to know), once you're done with a prescription, get rid of it."Another suggestion Spakowitz gave is to have a locked medicine cabinet.Often, it may not be your own children rummaging through your medicine cabinet for such prescription drugs.It might be your child's friends who could be raiding it, and your child might not even know it."I've had a number of cases where (we ask), 'Where are you getting all this stuff?' and (suspects) say, 'When I go over to a friend's house, the first thing I do is go through the medicine cabinet.Then, the need becomes worst than just going for what's your doctor gave you."Unfortunately with what happens, when they no longer can get it from their friend's medicine cabinet, or their parent's prescriptions lapse, so they can't take it any longer, it becomes to expensive to use oxycontin or vicodin, so they're moving on to heroin."Heroin More Available in Wisconsin The supply chain of heroin delivery to the Midwest has made it much easier to find the deadly drug in Wisconsin."We've seen a shift," explained Spakowitz. "We used to see the majority of our heroin users that come from Chicago or South American heroin coming from the southwest border."In the last three or four years, all of our heroin comes from Chicago. What used to come out of the southwest border or New York City now is only 90 miles away.
"That's how it's getting to Milwaukee."And how it's getting across the entire state."It's not a Southeastern Wisconsin problem. I talked to law enforcement officers all across the state. There's a huge prescription diversion problem across the state, not only in the Madison area, but the Fox River Valley, Central Wisconsin, Northwestern Wisconsin.""One of the most alarming and dangerous things that I'm seeing is that the users will pool their money. They'll get four or five of their friends, pool in $40, $50, $60, have the one person that will drive to Milwaukee to the heroin supplier (and) pick up the heroin."A lot of times, they'll shoot up right around the block, the gas station restroom, and then they'll drive it back to the county where they came from and distribute it out there."We're having a number of these kids that are under the influence of heroin operating on our roadways. Very, very dangerous.""As such, the Attorney General has identified this as an emerging problem and has specifically trained agents in each one of our field offices for opiate investigations similar to what we did with the methamphetamine problem Wisconsin experienced five, six, seven years ago in Northwestern Wisconsin."Sometimes, Surviving Overdoses Doesn't Stop Addictions One of the suspects accused of supplying drugs to Kiefer twice overdosed from mixing heroin with other drugs.Still, that didn't stop him from continuing his habits, and allegedly, supplying others like Kiefer with drugs."When we see these kids and young adults that use controlled substances, especially heroin, it's almost like a badge of honor, the number of times they've overdosed," said Spakowitz."All of a sudden they're back at it. They're playing Russian roulette with this drug, because they don't know the quality."One week, it might be 20% heroin that they're using, the next week, it might be 50%, and they can overdose."The way dealers give higher level narcotics can also get users to unknowingly overdose."The new drug dealer wants to get more customers, so to try to get you to be my customer and try to get you away from (another drug dealer), I'm going to give you higher quality dope because it will be better dope, and you'll say 'I'll come back to you.'"But if you have an established tolerance level of maybe two bags at 30% (heroin), and I give you 60% heroin, and you do the same, all of a sudden, it becomes like shooting four bags. There's a strong, strong potential for overdose."The mixing of drugs, which one of the suspects in the Kiefer case did in both of his overdose cases, also has become more prevalent."A group of young people will take whatever medications they come to the party with, throw them in a big bowl, mix with alcohol, and they just start grabbing out anything and ingesting those."Talk about a potential lethal dose."How To Tell Your Child May Be Using Drugs?What are the warning signs to watch for? Spakowitz gives some good tips in terms of the child's behavior.
"The first basic thing is that you have to know your kid," explains Spakowitz."You have to understand their behaviors and what they're doing, the friends they're associating with."With any kind of substance abuse, and we've seen it unfortunately more so with opiate abuse which is your oxycontin, vicodin, and subsequently heroin, is the changes in behavior."If your son or daughter is strong in athletics, or academically very strong or has other interests, very strong in the family, and all of a sudden starts shying away from their normal group of friends and start hanging out with other people, changes in personal appearance, lack of money, or all of a sudden they have a lot of money, more secretive (behaviors), those are some of the indicators that we've identified that they may be involved in controlled substances.One thing parents must caution themselves about, too, is their own willingness to ask the tough questions, knowing they may feel a sense of failure if they see their own child using drugs.
"A lot of parents are in denial, especially if they come from a more affluent family, or a family-orientated group," said Spakowitz. "You don't want to admit that maybe your son or daughter is involved in something like this."
"It's shock at first, because they think they've done everything right, and then all of a sudden, there's some embarrassment involved. 'How could I have done this?' They've given everything. 'I've provided for them,' and then all of a sudden, 'What happens here?' "Spakowitz tells parents who discover their children's use to remain steadfast in fighting for their children's lives and getting them off the drugs - and away from the sources of those drugs.
"You have to stick with it. It has to be a family endeavor. They have to break that cycle. They have to get them away from their friends. With opiate addicts, with heroin, with 'oxy,' they all sort of stick together because, 'I need it, and I know where to go.'
"I've talked to too many parents from very good families. Their son and daughter have been in and out of treatment, and once in a while, you just throw up your hands and say 'I've tried my best.' "
But it's up to the drug user to finally say no more."The user has to want to quit. They have to be committed to it.""The good kid from a suburban high school can get a felony drug record that can stick with them for the rest of their lives, and it's difficult to explain that to these kids, 'your choices now will affect the rest of your lives.' "Or end a life, as reported to be the case with Maddie Kiefer.
