Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL) Copyright: 2002 Tallahassee Democrat. Contact: http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444 Author: Tony Bridges, Democrat Staff Writer REPORTS DETAIL WOES OF ADDICTS Personal Struggles Lie Behind Drugs' Claiming of Lives The last time K.K.'s wife saw him, he was speeding away from their Tallahassee home in her truck, grasping the $350 in rent money he'd just stolen from her purse. Ten hours later, he was dead, his body wedged into a toilet stall in Jack McLean Park. Lying next to him were a syringe and a plastic bag. In his pockets: cocaine, $210, a pack of Newports and a bullet. The monkey that had ridden K.K.'s back for so many years had finally choked the life out of him. He was 35. His death was one of seven directly attributed to drugs in Leon County last year. There were four women and three men, aged 29 to 52, all of them dead from toxic doses of cocaine, painkillers, crack and Ecstasy. Those seven deaths don't make Tallahassee remarkable - there were fewer in Live Oak and Gainesville, many more in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Across the state, there were nearly 400 deaths caused by cocaine, more than 460 caused by the painkillers oxycodone and hydrocodone and 37 caused by Ecstasy, according to a recent statewide Medical Examiner's report. But the autopsy reports and police investigations that accompanied the passing of Tallahassee's drug dead show just how much they struggled with their addictions and what those addictions eventually cost them. They, like many drug users, fell victim to human nature, to the tendency to always assume the bad things in life happen to someone else, said Patrick Lane, director of adult services for DISC Village drug treatment center "Addiction is a disease of denial," he said. "It's amazing how many of them don't get it." Although the names of the drug victims are public record, the Tallahassee Democrat is using only their initials out of consideration to their families. Among those who died in 2001: Jan. 12: B.H., 52, had battled an addiction to cocaine for several years. She was recently divorced and staying with a friend while she sold her Tallahassee home. The night she died, she wasn't feeling well, but she shared a calzone and watched a little television with her friend before she went off to bed. She never woke up, according to Tallahassee police reports. Her autopsy showed that she died of an overdose of morphine and oxycodone, ingredients of Oxycontin, a powerful painkiller often prescribed to cancer patients. Police never determined where she'd gotten the drug - two friends each claimed the other had given it to her. She left behind a sister and a daughter who both were devastated by her death, police reported. June 28: R.B., 29, was building himself a life. He had a steady girlfriend, a close pal and an entrepreneurial dream. He and his "godbrother" were managing a nightclub on South Monroe Street, trying to set themselves up to buy the place, police said. He'd had some health problems - stomach pain that sent him to the hospital in early June - but it didn't appear to be anything serious. Then he collapsed outside the club on a busy summer night. He suffered a seizure and stopped breathing. Friends drove him to the hospital, but he was dead. Tipsters told police to check his system for Ecstasy. An autopsy showed he'd overdosed on the popular club drug. R.B. was survived by his mother, at least one brother and dozens of grieving friends, reports show. Nov. 17: K.K. must have known what his drug problem was doing to his body. His wife told police he'd been to the emergency room three times in the six weeks before his death. He was suffering from chest pains and from infected scabs on his arms, where he shot himself up with cocaine, police said. On his first visit to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, K.K. allegedly told his wife he'd smuggled in cocaine so he could try to inject it into his IV and take his own life, his death report said. The night he stole the rent money from his wife's purse, he hid all the phones in the house so she couldn't call the police. When she chased him out the door, he shouted over his shoulder for her to "sell something" to make the rent, police reported. At his death, K.K. had been married for nearly 10 years and was the father of two children and stepfather to a third. And there were others killed by their addictions - C.W., 38, who died of a cocaine overdose; D.P., 38, who died with cocaine in her system; D.H., 46, who took a phenobarbital overdose after a weekend crack binge; J.M., 47, who took an overdose of oxycodone and hydrocodone. Three others died in the Big Bend last year, as well. D.M., 37, in Franklin County, J.L., 42, in Wakulla County, and K.C., 42, in Jefferson County, all killed by painkiller overdoses. Many of the families of those who died declined requests for interviews. Some expressed feelings of guilt that they hadn't done enough to keep their loved ones alive. But the addicted probably felt invincible, emboldened by surviving years of drug abuse. Likely no one could have steered them away from their addiction, said Lane, the drug counselor. "People are seeking some kind of altered state because they're not happy with the state they're in," he said. "It just keeps feeding the denial they're already in. "Sometimes, you just can't save someone." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake