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Thursday, May 23, 2002

South Texas reps push for drug treatment center

McALLEN, Texas (AP) - South Texas politicians vow to push for money for a drug treatment center in the Rio Grande Valley during the next legislative session following the apparent overdose death of a 15-year-old Edinburg boy last weekend.

Aaron Pea Jr., who will serve House District 20 next year, and state Rep. Juan Hinojosa, who will serve in the state Senate next year, said they plan to draft legislation securing federal, state and local money needed to build a drug treatment and detoxification center in the Valley.

"Too many times people are on the streets addicted to drugs and go to jail, where they aren't helped at all," Hinojosa was quoted as saying in Thursday's editions of The Monitor in McAllen. "What we need to do is give families an option and a way out of drug addiction with a professional center where people are rehabilitated."

The apparent drug overdose death of Edinburg High School student Levi Hampton on Saturday struck an emotional chord with Pea, whose son, John Austin Pea, died from a drug overdose at the same time last year.

That same weekend last year, Samuel Isaac Hernandez, 22, of McAllen and Cristanto Garza, 21, of Edinburg died from overdoses of cocaine and heroin. The three deaths are believed to be connected to the same drug supplier.

"It's very emotional for me because the boy died on the same day as my son," Pea said. "It's hard to see a young boy who had his life in front of him taken away to see him lying in a small wooden box with no future."

Jody Guerra, program director at the Palmer Drug Abuse Program, said the Valley has few resources to fight a significant drug problem.

"We need any help we can get at this point." Guerra said, noting that there's only three outpatient treatment centers in the Valley. "We are in a unique situation that separates us from the bigger cities.

"We have a high volume of drugs passing through a concentrated area and they are available at a lower cost than up north because we are so close to the source."

Police said they are still investigating Hampton's death. Hampton is believed to have overdosed on the prescription drug Oxycontin, which is an opiate like heroin that is prescribed for severe pain, police said. Following the overdose, Hampton slipped into a three-week coma before his death on Saturday.

On Wednesday, more than 100 grieving family members and friends filled the tiny chapel of First Christian Church for Hampton's memorial service.

"People were just coming in and out of his room talking to him," Hampton's mother, Theresa Hampton, said of her son's final weeks in the hospital.

She echoed the calls for help in the fight against drugs in the Valley.

"They're dropping like flies," Hampton said, seething with anger. "Something needs to be done. My son was a person, not just another news story."

from the Reporter-News