Mar. 8--SALISBURY -- A cremation urn rests on the shelf of the hutch in a Spring Street home, evidence of the ultimate price paid for experimenting with the evils of drug addiction.

It was just over a year ago Jay and Brenda DeBoisbriand placed the urn carrying the ashes of their beloved 25-year-old son on the shelf, not long after Joseph DeBoisbriand died on Jan. 2 after using heroin with friends.

The second of three children, their son had been a happy and curious child, his parents said, a giving and loving son, and that's how they want to remember him. He was a thousand times more than a drug user, they said, but it was his addiction that finally consumed and destroyed him.

Dealing with his loss is unbearable, the DeBoisbriands said, so horrible, if fact, they want other parents to be alert to the signs and the sacrifice demanded by narcotic abuse.

Brenda DeBoisbriand said she and Jay knew their son Joey had, like so many other youth, experimented with drugs. They were proactive, she said, regularly searching his room.

"You have to search your children's rooms; you have to protect them from themselves," Brenda DeBoisbriand said. "And if I found something, I always put it right in the middle of the table, so he'd see it when he came home."

Discussions with her son always followed her discovery, she said. Jay DeBoisbriand said on one occasion, when he didn't recognize the substance found, he took it to Salisbury police for identification, then confronted his son.

But at some point the experimentation with non-addictive drugs like marijuana became Joey's gateway into the recreational use of potentially addictive and deadly drugs. Brenda DeBoisbriand believes that began after surgery when Joey was a teenager.

"Joey had to have a tumor removed from his jaw when he was 14, and it was very painful," she said. "The doctor gave him pills to take for the pain. That's when I think he may have gotten a taste for that kind of drug.

"The medical profession needs to be more aware of this problem," she continued. "Doctors shouldn't prescribe addictive drugs to kids. There are other medications they can use."

As many in local law enforcement will explain, prescription drug abuse is an epidemic infecting the region currently, especially among young people. Mistakenly thought to be safe because they're prescribed by doctors, teenagers who would never even consider taking heroin feel taking powerful painkillers OxyContin, Percodan, Percocet, Vicadin or methadone is acceptable in recreational settings.

Often the pills are secretly snatched from the medicine chests of their families and friends and used at "pharm (for pharmaceutical) parties," where they're consumed with alcohol in a deadly cocktail, according to Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman and Special Agent Tony Pettigrew, a Newburyport resident.

What starts out as a party experiment can quickly lead to a fatal experience for some, the experts say. It doesn't take long to get addicted to the euphoria -- or high -- these prescription drugs produce, said Salisbury police Chief David L'Esperance, who lost his own son to a prescription drug overdose.

"Drugs are a scourge; no one is immune," L'Esperance said. "Not anybody."

Further endangering their users, these drugs also come at a financially high price. OxyContin, for example, the most abused prescription drug on the market today, can cost $80 for one pill.

"Oxy 80s are the most sought-after (prescription drug) sold illegally today," said Sgt. Richard Farrell of the N.H. Attorney General's Drug Task Force. "It's expensive, so you often find people get addicted to Oxys, then can't afford to maintain the habit and resort to heroin, which is much cheaper."

L'Esperance is witnessing that scenario in the region.

"Heroin's back," he said. "It's back, and it's killing people."

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said since heroin sells for as little as $5 to $15 a bag, it's the cheaper alternative when prescription drug addicts can't get pills to appease their craving. And heroin is a powerfully deadly companion.

'Rock bottom'

The DeBoisbriands believe that's what happened to their son over the course of his drug use, especially through 2009, when oral surgery to remove his wisdom teeth again provided easy access to drugs prescribed to ease the pain.

Over a difficult summer, Joey and his parents entered counseling to deal with the problem, but it was unsuccessful. In the fall, Joey approached his parents with devastating news.

"He said, "I always told you I'd tell you if I ever hit rock bottom. I've hit rock bottom; I've done heroin,'" Brenda DeBoisbriand said. "When children are addicted to prescription drugs, parents need to be very watchful."

It was decided a drug rehabilitation facility was the best course of action, and her son made the calls to find himself a place, packed his bags and went. But the first experience away from home and drugs didn't go well, she said.

Joey returned home, and the family took him to Anna Jaques Hospital, where they called in a crisis team to treat him medically and then find him another rehabilitation center.

"At rehab they tear you down to nothing, then they build you back up," Brenda DeBoisbriand said. "He came home three days before Christmas. They had built him back up. He was very positive. We had a great holiday."

A series of disappointments, however, along with the problem of bi-polar depression diagnosed at the rehabilitation center sent Joey DeBoisbriand crashing down, she said. The descent would prove fatal.

"When a person comes home from rehab, they can relapse as quick as that," she said, snapping her fingers.

Early on Jan. 2, Brenda DeBoisbriand remembers seeing her son sitting pensively in the kitchen. But by about 2 p.m., he was picked up by his friend Jesse Zompa, 21 at the time, and the two went to visit Jonathan Ingham, then 24, who lived in an apartment on Beach Road.

According to the police report of the investigation conducted by Mass. State Police Trooper Stephen O'Connor of Blodgett's office, Ingham and Joseph DeBoisbriand left to purchase heroin for their joint use from a supplier at a rest stop on Interstate 495.

Back at Ingham's place, almost immediately after using the heroin, DeBoisbriand fell unconscious to the floor, O'Connor's report indicated. No one dialed 911, but the two tried unsuccessfully to revive DeBoisbriand themselves. When their actions failed, they drove him to Anna Jaques Hospital emergency room. Joseph DeBoisbriand arrived without a pulse; by 4:30 p.m., he was pronounced dead when ER personnel couldn't revive him.

Investigation

With the medical examiner, local and state police notified, the investigation was handled by the state police, according to regulations, L'Esperance said.

The family questioned whether Jonathan Ingham -- the son of Amesbury Deputy Police Chief Gary Ingham -- received special treatment concerning his involvement in DeBoisbriand's death. L'Esperance, as well as the officials from the Essex County district attorney, said Ingham never made a call on his son's behalf.

And the analysis of phone records indicated no contact occurred between the Ingham father and son during the time before, during and after DeBoisbriand's death on Jan. 2, according to Assistant District Attorney John Dawley.

Ingham was tried at Salem District Court on a charge of possession of heroin, and received an 18-month suspended sentence and probation. No charges were lodged against Zompa.

Dawley said the case was reviewed at length, and more serious charges were not brought because the autopsy findings showed a heroin overdose was not the primary cause of death.

James Gubitose, the Essex County prosecutor in charge of the case, said the medical examiner determined there wasn't enough heroin in Joseph DeBoisbriand's system to be considered a lethal dose. According to the autopsy, he died from cardiac arrest brought on by prolonged drug abuse.

Dawley said members of the medical examiner's office have told him drug use by former addicts after completing drug rehabilitation programs can be more hazardous than prior use. The use of a strong drug like heroin after rehab, Dawley said, even in small quantities, can prove fatal. It's too much of a shock to their systems, which have been debilitated by drug use.

The addiction that had stalked Joseph DeBoisbriand for years had weakened the heart of even this young, seemingly strong, 25-year-old.

"My son Joey died of heroin use as soon as he started using heroin," Brenda DeBoisbriand said.

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