Publication: The News Press
Date: 3-05-04
BY SARAH LUNDY
stundy@news-press.com

Lee County sheriff Capt. Jeff Taylor was chatting with a sergeant about their families when Lt. Matt Powell walked into his office on June 19, 2003. It was another routine morning until his friend told Taylor that his son had overdosed on drugs.

As Taylor drove to Gulf Coast Hospital, he thought it would be a great lesson for his son. His son would get sick — maybe he’d have his stomach pumped — and learn the stupidity of drugs. The teenager’s experience would end with a grand chewing out by dad.

“I went a mile and then got this cold chill from my head to my toes. I thought, he’s not sick. He’s dead,” said Taylor, 55. “I got this overwhelming feeling that this isn’t something that can be fixed.”

Eighteen-year-old Matt Taylor joined the hundreds of others across the country who have died from overdosing on OxyContin, a prescribed painkiller introduced by Purdue Pharma in 1995.

The drug — often used instead of heroin - has a time-release effect. By chewing, snorting or shooting the OxyContin, abusers get a morphine-like high, according to the US. Drug Enforcement Administration. A large dose can cause severe respiratory depression, which can lead to death by slowing a person’s breathing to dangerously low levels.

According to a medical examiner’s report, OxyContin contributed to the deaths of 11 people in Lee, Hendry and Glades counties last year in 2002, the drug played a part in 12 people’s deaths. “It’s a growing problem, and there’s an increased amount of it on the Street,” said Janice Cook the Southwest Florida Addiction Services director of detox. “OxyContin has taken over crack (for addictions).”

Until Matt’s overdose, the 30-year law enforcement veteran who had headed up the county narcotics unit for six years worried more about Matt, his older brother, Erik, 23, and his sister Holly, 21, drinking and driving.
“That was my greatest fear, especially with two sons,” Taylor said.

“I just think at some point I missed the presentation of telling him that that particular pill will kill you. I had no idea that he would take it. I never dreamed in a million years he would do that.”

This sparked the sheriff’s watch commander to dig deeper into what happened to Matt, a motorcycle enthusiast who hoped to become an Army Ranger. The son his father called a “scrapper” had just earned his General Educational Development certificate and was planning to join the Army when he died.

Taylor’s journey revealed heartbreaking details — a string of bad choices made by his son and his friends.
The night before Matt died, he went to a party at a house in San Carlos Park. That’s where he took the OxyContin.

Around 5am, while he was staying at a friend’s house, he began to have trouble breathing.

For the next five hours, Matt struggled for air. His friends tried to help by sitting him up, shaking him and throwing water on him, Taylor said.

“Then they finally realized he’s dead.” he said. “For whatever reason, they didn’t get him help.”

THE MOURNING BEGINS
Not satisfied with the sheriff office investigation, Taylor began digging into his son’s death. He wanted to know who gave his son the drugs.

Taylor learned his son had two undisolved OxyContin pills in his stomach.

“There was something else he had taken — some more OxyContin in his system — that killed him,” he said.
For years, the captain heard about OxyContin. “But we were dealing with midlevel smugglers and things. We didn’t see OxyContin,” he said.

Taylor began researching OxyContin on the Internet and talking to people. “First I drove down to San Carlos and started interviewing people who were at this party,” he said.

We eventually backed off his personal investigation of who gave his son the drug.

“I was not real sure that when I found someone who gave him the stuff what would happen to that guy. At that point, I had this revenge thing.

“I blame whoever gave it to him and wherever he got it, and I blame the people at that house for not doing anything about it. I thought the department could do a thorough investigation of tracking down where it came from.”

He blames the drug company, Purdue Pharma for making it so easily available.

And he blames Matt for taking the drugs.

In his quest for answers, Taylor learned he was not alone.

“I then stumbled into the Web site,” Taylor said referring to www.oxyabusekills.com.
He read story after story of others who had died from taking too much OxyContin — just like Matt.

WORDS OF WARNING
Taylor finds peace visiting his son’s grave at Ft. Myers Memorial Gardens Cemetery once — sometimes twice — a day. He’ll spend 15 minutes to several hours talking to Matt.

Taylor hopes telling Matt’s story to the world will warn others about the dangers of OxyContin. The captain plans to take what he has learned to the middle and high schools. Next month, he plans to drive to Orlando, where a U.S. congressional hearing on OxyContin is scheduled.

“If I’m a guy who has been in the field for 30 years (as a cop) and I didn’t understand that it’s like taking poison, how would an 18-year-old at a party know about that?” he said.