Why Do I Do What I Do? Two

This quote, from a high school student at pretty much sums it up:

"One out of a million may not seem like a lot, if you're counting pennies. But by saving one person, you have hundreds of others from grief and suffering. I am inspired."

Prescription Drug Abuse Takes Off

Use of prescription drugs like OxyContin is increasing. Here's a good summary, from the Washington Times:

The number of Americans abusing prescription drugs nearly doubled from 7.8 million in 1992 to 15.1 million in 2003, according to the report [from Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse]. Prescription-drug abuse also has become more widespread than abuse of illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin and hallucinogens combined, which numbered 12.3 million in 2003.

The most popular prescription drugs were opioids, which are painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. ... Partly to blame for the increase, Mr. Califano said, is the widespread availability of prescription drugs on the Internet. In 2004, the research firm Beau Dietl & Associates found that only 6 percent of Web sites selling prescription drugs required a prescription.

The number of 12-to-17-year olds abusing prescription drugs increased 212 percent in the 11 years CASA examined, while the number of adults abusing prescription drugs increased 81 percent, according to the study.

"For many kids, the family medicine cabinet has become a greater temptation and a greater threat than illegal street drugs," said Mr. Califano, who served under President Carter as the secretary of health, education and welfare. He said many young people assume prescription drugs are safe because they are "a good clean pill in a nice clean bottle."

But in 2002, controlled prescription drugs were responsible for 29.9 percent of drug-related emergency-room deaths.

GHB Serial Killers In Florida?

Police in Florida are investigating what appears to be as many as seven murders in which saddistic murders were carried out on victims drugged with GHB. The Bradenberg Herald reports:

TAMPA - From the outside, Steven Lorenzo seemed a perfect fit for Seminole Heights, a historic riverside neighborhood where front-porch friendliness still flourishes under moss-draped oaks.

The electrician and home inspector often sat on his veranda, ready with a smile or helping hand. He lent his tools and home-repair skills. He rescued one neighbor's cats from the pound and another neighbor's house from a fire. ...

But inside his meticulously restored 1928 bungalow, investigators say, Lorenzo turned tormenter, drugging, raping and torturing men he met at gay bars or on the Internet. At least seven reported escaping with their lives. But two others who vanished in December 2003 apparently didn't, finally spotlighting the disappearances of three other Tampa Bay-area gay men.

One of Lorenzo's Internet chat buddies, an Illinois native who briefly lived in Orlando, recently told police that he helped Lorenzo kill and dispose of the two men's bodies, dismembering one in Lorenzo's garage.

Today, Lorenzo, 46, and Scott Schweickert, 39, are being held without bail in Hillsborough County Jail, accused by federal authorities of drug-assisted crimes of violence. Lorenzo's charming cottage on West Powhatan Avenue remains the focus of an ever-widening, multistate probe that has yielded horrific clues about what might have happened behind closed doors.

The most telling evidence - DNA analysis of bloodstains found on wood floors and cobblestones in the garage - could answer the question that haunts the families and friends of Tampa Bay's missing gay men: What happened to their loved ones? ...

Neither man has been charged with murder. But indictments are expected soon, contingent on the DNA results Nielsen and the mothers of at least two other missing men and three other police departments anxiously await. ...

Then, in 2002, federal drug agents visited Lorenzo for buying on the Internet a solvent used to make gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, commonly known as a "date-rape drug."

Again, Lorenzo was questioned but not arrested.

But, after the town-hall meeting, police and federal drug agents actively began investigating Lorenzo in the reported assaults. Serving a search warrant on his house a year ago June, they found photographs and videos of numerous men in various stages of bondage, some who appeared to be in "a comatose-like state." ...

Why Do I Do What I Do?

Rick Moore posted this comment to the post below:

I wondered how you got involved in this area. Thanks for reprinting the article - I must have missed it when it first came out in the Register. Good luck with this valuable ministry.

Here's what I posted back to him:

Hi Rick,

How did I do this? With a lot of guts and a lot of heart!

When I read in the paper what happened to Erin Rose, I just couldn't believe these things were happening to our kids!! I knew someone had to do something real and different. Being "Just a Mom" all I knew was that the kids and the parents need to see and feel what's happening in the hopes it will help their kids.

What better way to do that than to go see these families and let them tell their stories for everyone else to learn from? I kept this a self-funded documentary, so it could stay pure! All of the families were free to say whatever they wanted. I think it was worth the cost.

You see, what really scares me, and many of the parents too, is when we think about the future for all of the teens and young adults who choose to take ecstasy, ketamine, GHB, oxy-contin, DXM and the list goes on and on.

These drugs seem to take them much quicker, either with death or other problems.

I think all of us as a society should be very concerned about this! How many will be on SSI for life and other aid, because they can no longer funtion, not to mention all the other resourses needed to help rehabilitate?

This is a big problem that, until people see it for what it really is, will only get worse. I don't want millions to die or be maimed for life before anyone cares. I say we need to care now to help prevent tragedies.

THAT'S WHY I DO WHAT I DO!!

Thank you so very much for asking!!

Beth