Pubdate: Thu, 01 Nov 2007 Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) Copyright: 2007 The Arizona Republic Contact: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24 Author: JJ Hensley FAMILY'S NIGHTMARE STARTED WITH POT Like many families, the Krahs' horror started with a little pot, and like most families, they didn't recognize it as a nightmare at the time. Mason was 15 and a student at Highland High School in Gilbert when his parents, Donna and Bill Krah, found out he was smoking pot. "I was just ignorant, like a lot of parents," Donna said. "We thought pot was the worst thing we were dealing with." It would get much worse before Mason died of a heroin overdose in a bus bathroom between Phoenix and Casa Grande. The four years between the first time drugs touched their lives and the last time they saw their son were some of the Krahs' worst. But they don't compare with the anguish Mason's parents and family have lived through in the three years since he OD'd. After they discovered Mason was using drugs, they tried everything to get him to stop, including six weeks at a survival camp when he was 16. Nothing worked. By the time he was 18, Mason had tried marijuana laced with heroin and was locked in a pattern of abuse. "We've all heard that expression 'Oh, it's only pot,' " Bill said. "I don't buy that anymore. It's always something until it gets to the hard stuff." Mason's addiction was a familiar, steady progression from one drug to the next until he found one he couldn't control. "My son was terrified of needles and he ended up shooting up," Donna said. His parents were terrified, too. After Donna found Mason doing heroin in their home, they kicked him out. After saving Mason from a near overdose right before Christmas, when doctors said he had ecstasy, marijuana and heroin in his system, the Krahs put their son in a treatment center. When that failed, they tried a different clinic. When Mason got kicked out of there, reportedly for flirting with a 19-year-old patient, his caretakers put him on a bus for Texas. A 90-minute layover at a bus station in west Phoenix was all it took for Mason to find his last fix. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin