5/28/2009 11:05:00 PM
DUMP THE DRUGS:
Mom who lost son urges parents to keep track of prescriptions
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Matt Hinshaw/The Daily Courier
Debbie DiVello sits next to a photo of her son Shaun Dominick who died from a prescription drug overdose at the age of 19 in 2006, at her home in Prescott Valley.
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Prescott Valley's Shaun Gingerich had a legitimate reason to take prescription painkillers. In 2004 at the age of 17, a dirt bike accident landed him in the hospital with multiple leg fractures.
Then he got hooked. Two years later he died from an accidental overdose of methadone.
His roommates found him one morning, barely breathing, a rattling sound wheezing from his chest.
They called 911 but it was too late. Shaun died before he reached the hospital.
"I was at my house and the police drove up," said his mom, Debbie Divello. "I thought Shaun was in some sort of trouble."
But the police told her he was dead.
"I just couldn't believe it," Divello said. "You don't expect that in a million years."
Divello said her son's prescription drug use had quickly spun out of control.
"He was in rehab four times," she said. Nothing seemed to work.
"These kids know what to do," Divello said. "And (they) think that because it's a prescription drug, they're not going to get hurt."
That's why efforts like Saturday's "Dump the Drugs" event in Prescott, Prescott Valley and Mayer are so important, she said.
MATForce officials are sponsoring the event so the public can bring in no longer needed prescription and over-the-counter medications to be properly disposed of.
MATForce is the Yavapai County Substance Abuse Coalition. Its efforts lately have focused on keeping prescription drugs away from teens.
"The proper disposal of prescription drugs is not down the drain or in the garbage, both of which can contribute to trace contaminants in our water supply," Yavapai County Attorney and MATForce Co-chair Sheila Polk said.
The public can drop off medications between 9 a.m. and noon at the Prescott Police Department, 222 S. Marina St., Prescott; at the Prescott Valley Police Department, 7601 E. Civic Circle, Prescott Valley; and at the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office Mayer substation, 13272 Central Ave., Mayer.
Research by Partnership for a Drug Free America shows that every day, 2,500 teens use a prescription drug to get high for the first time.
Divello said she had envisioned a very different life for her son.
"That boy loved life to the edge," she said. But after he became addicted, the loving son she knew vanished.
Shaun would come and go, hiding drugs in his underpants because he knew that was the one place his mother wouldn't search.
Partnership for a Drug Free America says teens are most likely to abuse pain relievers, stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives.
One way adults can prevent this is to either hide prescriptions or lock their prescriptions up.
"If you feel you have to keep (medications), get a safe with a key because it's like candy to a kid," Divello said. "Junior high to high school is when it all starts happening. I think it's the peer pressure. And sometimes they just want to be numb. It's like they don't want to live life."
Parents can look for signs that their children may be abusing drugs. Are they sleeping in the middle of the day? Are they slurring words? Are they secretive about their friends or where they're going?
"Parents have to pay attention," Divello continued.
Some kids will stash drugs in their shoes or down their socks. They want to experiment and they think prescription drugs are somehow safer than drugs they have to get on the street.
Divello says there's an even simpler way to keep children safe from abusing prescription drugs: "Get rid of 'em. It's just a temptation."
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Posted: Saturday, June 27, 2009
Article comment by:
Keri Page
I think what Debbie Divello is doing is absolutely amazing. She's turning something that is so sad into something positive. I would love to find out more information...and I would love to be able to visit Shaun at his resting place. The last time I was in Arizona I saw Shaun. I'm visiting again in a week and a half, and would love to pay my respects. If anyone knows could you please contact me and let me know how to get all the correct information...? thank u, best wishes.
Posted: Thursday, June 18, 2009
Article comment by:
George Clarke
Methadone is currently available as a very low cost pain prescription medication and needs to be kept safe and used only as directed. If you take methadone in pill for it may take 4 hours or more to show its analegesic property. While waiting, he takes more wonder where the effect will be felt. I am sure the young man was told not to use drugs. The disease of addiction reached him and I am very sorry that he is gone. The proper program for him may have been a buprenorphine MD or a methadone clinic. These are often discriminated against by some abstinence based treatment programs which also can work but do not approve of medically assisted treatment. Both can provide a taper or maintenance. I like to make sure that people know all the options.
Posted: Monday, June 01, 2009
Article comment by:
Hey Tricia - ponder this...
Hey Tricia - this mom needs to take responsibility of how she raised her kid and quit blaming the perils of society. PARENTS are the cause of the more screwed up teens than DRUGS will ever be. That's the part no one is willing to say.
Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2009
Article comment by:
Tricia
Doesn't add up again, maybe you should take some College Math classes since you don't seem to be able to add. Go hide underneath a rock somewhere and never come out,because you seem to believe that by telling a problem to leave, it will cease to be. Maybe you have a addiction problem yourself and are in denial and still blaming your parents.Whether that's the case or not, learning to be tolerant instead of telling every one who doesn't live the way you want will get you a lot further in life in general.Debbie my condolences I'm glad you are trying to make something good come out of this tragedy, that is very brave and kind of you.
Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
My condolences as well -- But at 19, Shaun was the age to be part of the DARE generation. I'd think that those fine folks who take credit every time drug use falls would step up to take the blame when their education fails.
Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2009
Article comment by:
dump matforce
I think that the public servants of MATForce should be ashamed of themselves for using a mother's grief to further their own agendas. But, then, who needs shame when you have "meth, the soul-robber"?
Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
My condolences to Ms. Divello; but hiding and locking up drugs isn't the answer; methadone, after all, ISN'T a drug routinely found in home medicine cabinets. Don't you see that Shaun's death is an indication that MATForce is failing to educate our children?
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
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Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Drugs shoud be taken with Care@all Times, there out of control by DRS!!!(take as needed)
Over the counter all Drug Store require is over18 then how do under 18 get them???Get a Lock Safe!!!My prayer goes out to the Family.
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
All drugs? Including insulin? Pretty broad statements.
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
Doesn't add up, again
The biggest losers are those that defend this and other drug addicts. The parents should be the ones you focus your anger at, not the critical ones. Shut up and go away! And take your addictions with you! And yes, I DARE!
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
HOW DARE YOU BE SO JUDGEMENTAL. Unless or until you are afflicted with the disease of addiction of any type OR someone you know or love faces the hideous illness then you should not say a word about what you CLEARLY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT!!!! Addiction is a demon and needs treatment the same as a diabetic, cancer patient etc. You should really get educated before you cast painful stones at those who suffer from ANY DISEASE OR ADDICTION....A DISEASE IS A DISEASE. The LOSERS are the ones who call names without facts or knowledge. A parent lost a child, PERIOD.
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
Don't Judge
To: Doesn't add up:
Pain killers are OPIATES as is heroin. When people get hooked on pain killers and the time comes when they cannot get any more, either on the street or from a doctor, they will do anything to get high and heroin is relatively cheap, easy to get and doesn't require a prescription. Going from one to the other is not uncommon at all. Just because someone gets addicted that doesn't make them a loser - it just makes them sick and in need of serious help. Wow, judge much???
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
Joe Dearing
i didn't read in the article that he went from painkillers to heroin. But if you knew your painkillers, you would know that oxycontin (which is extremely popular recreationally these days) is basically heroin in a pill, so if kids are taking those, they have a chemical desire to try heroin, so that is how you go from painkillers to heroin.
I have to take them for a legitimate reason but it is all about being responsible with your prescription AND NEVER giving them to anyone else.
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
Article comment by:
Don't judge other people
How do you go from pain killers go to herion very easy.Who are you to judge, unless you know the situtation don't judge. Some people don't respond well with prescription drugs and get hooked very easy. Yes drugs are not good and should be controlled when prescripted by Doctors. But wait you comment "all drugs are for losers" so you mean people who are dying or living with a painfull disease like cancer or something else who need presciption drugs are losers. Remember she lost her son and its doesn't matter how that happened it was still her son. How brave of her to tell her story and warn other parents.
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