Brick, Point Pleasant's 'Fight For Survival' Against Heroin Is Underway

If the well-known threats of legal problems, financial ruin, the alienation from one's family and even death weren't enough to stop young people in Ocean County from trying heroin, local officials hope Jesse Morella's story will.

Morella – confined to wheelchair since hours after trying heroin for the first time in 2004 – and his mother came to the Pine Belt Arena in Toms River Thursday night to share their horror story, capping a public forum organized by Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato to map out strategies to win the Shore's battle against drug addiction.

The number of drug overdose deaths in Ocean County is quickly approaching triple digits. There have been 93 overdose deaths so far this year, and autopsy results on three more people are pending, Coronato said.

Jesse Morella didn't die of an overdose, his mother, Maureen, told the hundreds of people who gathered to hear her story. After leaving his group of friends one night in Nov. 2004 to hang out with some older kids, Morella, then 16, snorted heroin for the first time when it was offered to him.

He returned home later that night, felt sick, and went to bed. The heroin he had snorted, Maureen Morella said, was likely laced with rat poison, which caused Jesse to aspirate his own vomit, cutting off air to his lungs and causing severe brain damage.

Jesse, nine years later, can barely walk, has had to re-learn how to read and spell, and still cannot speak.

"I am telling you this because I can't bear to have this happen to another child," said Maureen Morella. "You are always one decision away from the consequences of a lifetime."

Jesse Morella, who grew up in a middle class town in North Jersey, is similar to the victims of drug abuse in Ocean County – the "new face of heroin," said Coronato.

"Some people say it's a war on drugs," he said. "I don't think so. I think it's a fight for survival."

Preventing and Detecting Abuse

Heroin is more potent than ever. A substance that had 3 to 8 percent potency 20 years ago is now 40 to 60 percent pure heroin, said Douglas S. Collier, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent who now works with the New Jersey Attorney General's office.

Collier shared some inconvenient and uncomfortable truths about a typical heroin addict. They're increasingly suburban residents, mostly young ones, and almost always begin their dark path to heroin injections with opiate-based pain pills, such as Vicodin or Oxycodone.

"Pills fuel the heroin, and that's what we're seeing here," said Collier.

About 10 percent of high school students who responded to a recent University of Michigan study admitted to abusing pain pills, Collier said.

People do drugs for all kinds of reasons, but often they are influenced by their friends. Nobody tries heroin – or any drug, for that matter – alone the first time, said Collier.

Preventing abuse can be tricky, but the best ways to prevent a young person from starting is to foster "strong family bonds," said Collier, as well as parental monitoring and involvement in a teen's life, and stressing positive goals like a strong academic performance in school.

Parents should also develop a plan, said Collier. Tell children that if they ever find themselves in a bad situation, you'll pick them up "no questions asked."

Collier pointed to one university study that looked at teens who do not do drugs.

"The number one reason kids do not do drugs is because they do not want to disappoint their parents," he said.

Combating the Problem

"I'm not looking to jail a heroin user," said Coronato. "These people need to be diverted so they can improve their lives."

But tough enforcement is on the way against dealers, and the prosecutor's office will also actively intervene to keep young people from using drugs.

Beginning next month, Coronato said, drug-sniffing dogs will patrol the hallways of local schools, searching for illegal substances in lockers and elsewhere.

The prosecutor's office will also continue its aggressive enforcement against heroin dealers through its northern and southern strike teams, and will charge dealers whose products results in a person's death with murder, said Coronato.

Also, Coronato said, police officers around the county will be trained in how to administer Narcan, a drug which counteracts opiate overdoses and could potentially save lives.

One thing is for sure, however.

"It's here, and it's not going away," said Collier.