Scott Kaboski talks about his history of drug addiction, along with the hope he has gained during his rehabilitation process at the Discovery Institute for Addictive Disorders. PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff Growing up, Scott Kaboski didn’t seem at risk for heroin addiction. The 23-year-old was brought up in an intact family in South Amboy, part of a small neighborhood where everyone knows one another, he said.
“My childhood was, I guess [what] you could call normal or average,” he said.
But as Kaboski headed for adulthood, his life veered off course. Hanging with a new crowd, he started smoking weed, which he believes served as a gateway to other drugs. As marijuana became an everyday habit, over time Kaboski started dabbling in hallucinogens and a variety of pills, including Xanax and OxyContin.
“After that, I became addicted to the opiates,” he said.
Opiates have a high potential for addiction — a potential that is realizing itself more and more among young people in recent years.
Jill Danskin, director of family therapy at the Discovery Institute for Addictive Disorders, discusses the complexity of addiction. Frank Greenagel Jr. is a recovery counselor at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick and Newark campuses, where he oversees recovery housing. He knows about the problem firsthand. In 2009, he said, only one student in recovery housing had an opiate addiction; in fall 2010, that number rose to eight.
“Now it’s well over 40 percent for the fall of 2012,” said Greenagel, who is also chairman of the New Jersey Task Force on Heroin & Other Opiates. “It’s a major public health issue.”
Why are more and more young people grappling with opiate addiction, and how does it happen? It seems, as with addiction in general, to be a progressive issue.
Kaboski, who first served probation for drug-possession charges at 17, started taking pills instead of smoking marijuana in an effort to show up clean on drug tests.
Accessibility is the problem, according to Greenagel.
“I really attribute it to the surge in the amount of prescribed pain pills,” he said, adding that unfinished prescriptions are often left in medicine cabinets.
Acceptability is another issue, he said.
“[Pills] have the societal stamp of approval,” Greenagel said. “It’s not some shady, one-eyed drug dealer. The normalizing effect is very powerful.”
And so are the drugs’ effects. Prescription opioid painkillers were tied to 14,800 fatal overdoses in 2008 — more than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I never thought that I was going to die from it, because I thought I was invincible,” Kaboski said.
For Kaboski, if pot was the gateway to pills, pills paved the path to hell.
“If any kind of painkiller opiate was unavailable, I would get heroin,” he said, adding that he would also pursue heroin if he didn’t have a lot of money. According to Greenagel, heroin can be obtained for about 10 percent of the cost of opioid prescription drugs.
“So, of course, people make that transition,” Greenagel said. Without pills to ease the segue, he said, users “never would have made the jump to heroin.”
Another contributor to opioid pill users turning to heroin is greater regulations on prescription drugs. Greenagel said the New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program, launched in 2012, made it harder to acquire the substances.
No matter which opiate is being abused, users often find themselves acting out of character because of their habits.
“I would rob my family, rob my friends, rob anyone … to get my next fix or high so I wouldn’t be sick,” Kaboski said. “All the things I believed in, they went out the window.”
Although his family tried to confront him about the worsening issue, Kaboski was in denial.
“I always wanted more,” he said. “I never had enough.”
After more than 10 arrests and three convictions on various charges, and time spent in the county jail, Kaboski found help — but it wasn’t of his own accord.
When a drug court required him to check into Discovery Institute for Addictive Disorders in Marlboro on Dec. 4, he was resistant to the six-month stint.
According to Jill Danskin, director of family therapy at the facility, Kaboski came in “angry, defiant, bored [and] sometimes disrespectful.” However, he has made a staggering transformation, she said.
“You’re as proud as if you’re his own parent,” she said.
Like others in the facility’s inpatient program, Kaboski is dressed well, outfitted in shirt, tie, slacks and dress shoes. He has also risen to the top of Discovery Institute’s social hierarchy to attain the top title of chief. As such, he acts as a mentor and keeps other clients on time, organized and following the rules.
“This place tries to replicate real life,” Danskin said, adding that this helps clients get ready to face the world sober.
All signs point to Kaboski being ready for June 2, when he will go home.
“I’m definitely nervous, anxious, excited — I feel a lot of mixed emotions,” he said.
Thanks to Discovery Institute, Kaboski said, he has acquired a number of tools that will help him, including setting healthy boundaries.
His advice to those who are just starting to use drugs is clear — don’t do it.
“However you’re feeling, it’s temporary; it will pass,” he said. “Look what I’ve been through. That’s where they could end up if they’re lucky.”
Lucky, indeed.
According to Danskin, one counselor at Discovery Institute keeps obituaries of alumni who have died. The success rate of treatment, she said, is directly correlated with length of treatment. But inadequate insurance coverage prevents this sometimes, she said.
“It takes time for the fog to lift,” she said. “It takes time to break through the denial.”
Even with proper treatment, addiction presents a lifelong struggle.
“There’s no cure for addiction … you manage your life one day at a time,” Danskin said.
She likened addiction to a pilot light that is always burning inside someone. A simple flip of a switch can be all it takes to further ignite that flame, she said.
“It’s just a battle that we have to fight for the rest of our lives,” Kaboski said.
“Just ask for help,” he said. “That’s the best advice I can give someone.”
For more information on Discovery Institute, visit discoverynj.org or call 800-714- 2175.