NOVEMBER 19, 2015, 7:27 PM LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2015, 7:11 AM
BY ALLISON PRIES
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
PARAMUS – Gary M., of Park Ridge, clutched a packet of tissues in one hand as he dabbed tears from his cheek with the other.
Listening to a presentation at Bergen Community College, titled “Caught in the Web: Heroin Addiction” the 27-year-old personal trainer blended into the crowd of mostly 20-somethings who stopped into the all-day event between classes.
Then, he moved to take his seat at the panel, where he told the dozens of attendees inside the Moses Family Meeting and Training Center that a weight-lifting injury at 19 got him a prescription for Oxycodone.
“I loved it,” said Gary, who asked that his last name not be published because he is in recovery. “Pills became too expensive and heroin was a whole lot cheaper.”
The tale is one that resonates throughout New Jersey, said the event’s keynote speaker, Michael DeLeon, a Vineland man who has made it his mission to inform whoever will listen about the danger of drugs in general and the heroin epidemic.
Parents don’t start young enough in talking to their children about drugs and they don’t do it often enough, DeLeon said. By the time they’re doing heroin, “you have a problem you might not win,” he said.
DeLeon founded the non-profit Steered Straight back in 2000 after serving 12 years in jail for drug-related crimes.
