Goodrich – An all-American feel drifted over the Martian football field that 1996 autumn Friday evening.
Goodrich was behind. An anxious crowd turned exuberant as junior Eric Curtis made a spectacular block, then the winning touchdown.
Life was good.
In high school, Eric’s friends were everywhere. A football captain and weight lifter from a close family, he was on the honor roll, had a good job, lots of money in his pocket, and a solid future as an electrician.
While his high school friends enjoy warm weather and the future of their dreams, Eric hasn’t seen any of it. Inside a barrage of locked doors, he’s spent the last month wrenching, vomiting, and shaking his way through heroin withdrawal in the Genesee County Jail. The 24-year-old former football captain faces charges of domestic violence, possession of marijuana, and fraudulently obtaining thousands of dollars.
It was his family who had him arrested.
‘He calls, and it just kills you,? said his mother, Janet Curtis. ‘I can’t do anything’I don’t know if I would want to do anything because he needs help.?
‘I don’t want him to go to jail, but I don’t want him to die.?
Eric isn’t pleading guilty, but admits heroin has led him places he’d never otherwise go.
‘I want people to know how bad it gets. I am a good person’I’d never do that sober and clean-minded, I wouldn’t think of consequences at all…I ended up screwing up and going down the wrong road,? said Eric, looking gaunt in an orange inmate uniform.
Like most Goodrich kids, Eric knew better. Between family, school, and DARE, he’d learned to ‘just say no? to drugs.
Coach Brad Rainwater remembers Eric as a ‘sweet, caring kid.?
‘He was very well liked,? Rainwater said. ‘There was always laughter around Eric, just a nice atmosphere. You had the feeling he could accomplish something with his life.?
Eric traces his addiction back to school days, when he took pain medication for injuries. With older friends, he started drinking and ‘smoking weed,? he says, and later, heroin.
‘I started around 19, 20, 21, did heroin once maybe every three months,? said Eric quietly.
Known as a hard worker, Eric worked at Burton Industries in Atlas Township.
‘I had lots of money for my age. I was into partying,? he said. ‘My best friend at that time kept hanging around being totally screwed up. I knew something was up’he said pain pills.?
When Eric learned his friend used heroin, his first response was, ‘No way, I ain’t gonna try that.?
‘He gave me just a little tiny bit’like $5 worth’it totally messed me up the whole night,? Eric said.
It was just the beginning.
‘It was kind of like I didn’t like it, I couldn’t hold my head up. It came around again, he put it in front of me.
‘I was just like weak-minded,? said Eric, gravely.
According to the U.S. Attorney General’s office, heroin has several times the addictive potential of morphine.
‘See, it got to the point where I started to like it,? said Eric.
‘I was friends with everybody, but I lost all my friends except one or two friends ‘they didn’t want to be around me when I was like that.?
At first, no one suspected heroin was a problem for Eric, not even when he eventually turned to buying needles to inject it.
‘They didn’t ask why in Goodrich. In downtown Flint they’d ask if I was diabetic, I’d say ‘Yeah, type A?, I bought them at the drive-through. I never shared (needles)’I was super scared.?
According to White House drug policy information, physical dependence on heroin results in rapid and violent withdrawal symptoms.
‘It got to point where I had to have heroin every day’it worked like that,? said Eric.
‘It’s like having the flu. You can’t go to work with the flu so you (use heroin to feel normal).?
Eventually guilt drove Eric to confess his addiction to his family and girlfriend.
‘Like two years after that I ended up telling my girlfriend about it, I felt real bad. She just kind of lost it. It’s horrible, I felt so bad about everything I wrote my mom like five letters, told her I love her, I’m not mad at my dad calling the cops.?
Eric estimates heroin has cost him around $10,000, plus the cost of drug rehabilitation programs and hospitalizations.
‘I never thought life would turn out like this’I didn’t think it would a year ago, I thought, ah, it’s a phase,? said Eric.
‘I want to help other kids who have it put in front of ’em. I almost died once’my mom found me purple like two years ago when I first started trying it. Some kids can just try it and be dead, but that time I got lucky, my dad knew CPR.?
Overdosing resulted in liver and kidney failure.
‘He was three-and-a-half weeks at U of M (hospital), and nearly died,? said Janet.
‘People say they have to hit rock bottom, but he’s hit rock bottom several times. It’s a drug that completely takes over their bodies’it only takes one use.?
‘You’d think it wouldn’t happen here. Kids are so smart, they hide it. Or maybe their parents are so dumb. I’m shocked at the things I’ve learned,? she said.
Because heroin is widely available in Detroit, the drug’also known as smack, dogfood, or boy’is easy for a user to get here too,? said Eric.
‘You buy it in $10 little papers or a $25 thing’I’d do one a day, then at least two a day. At first when I went with friends I was sitting in a car, terrified, in downtown Flint.?
With increasingly more direct contacts in the market, Eric eventually eliminated the middleman when buying heroin.
‘It got to where slowly’like months later’I was introduced to people,? said Eric. ‘At first it was expensive, then you get five guys down. I knew people real good that would give it to me for free.?
His month in jail has been ‘honestly the longest time’he said.
‘Every day I was just doing it, it wasn’t even like I’d get high off it. You get so used to going to sleep every night like that, when you’re not on anything you can’t sleep’it’s horrible…I say that I beat it before but I really didn’t, I’d just go smoke weed or get drunk to go to sleep.?
Most of Eric’s heroin-using friends are now in prison, he says.
‘I’ve been going to church every single day in here, praying. This is a wake-up call for me,? he said. ‘It’s the worst drug there is, it puts a monkey on your back. There’s nothing I regret more.?
‘If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t drink or anything,? said Eric.
‘I’d say it’s important not to start doing any drugs. They say anything’even cigarettes? are a gateway drug, they lead up to (addiction). I’m sure at the high school there’s kids doing heroin.?
With prayers and support of family and friends, Eric’s determined to turn his life around.
‘The ‘want of it? is always going to be there,? he said. ‘I just have to not want to, more.?
Writer’s note: Heroin is highly addictive, deadly, and unexpected in a community like Goodrich. Eric Curtis has gone public about his battle with heroin, in the hopes other youth won’t become addicted. We commend Eric and his family for their courage in sharing this story. EL