Family shares story of how drugs affected son, daughters

BY KENNETH HICKSON, THE DAILY IBERIAN

Iberia Parish Coroner Dr. James Falterman considers the drug abuse problem in the parish an “epidemic,” claiming it has claimed more lives in recent months than the past 15 years.

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So, The Daily Iberian wanted to find people whose lives have been affected by it. It wasn’t difficult to find them.

“Every morning, we wake up and it seems like we’re starting all over again,” Ruby Romero said. On June 17, she and her husband, Ceser Romero Jr., lost their son, Ceser III, to prescription drug abuse.

“Just look at the obituaries and you’ll see all the young people dying from this lately,” Ceser said.

Ceser and Ruby, who live in Coteau, said their son was taking Loritab, Soma, Methadone and Xanax. Loritab is a prescription pain medication, Soma is considered a muscle relaxer, Methadone was originally introduced as a substitute for people trying to get off of heroin but is now used for pain, and Xanax is an anti-anxiety medication. Falterman said taking a combination of those drugs has become very popular with addicts and it has been the cause of many of their deaths, especially when they include Methadone.

Ceser and Ruby said their son was combining the medications he got from doctors with others like Methadone, he got from the street. But, they said their pain doesn’t end with the death of their son. The couple has twin daughters. One of them is a recovering addict, the other is in jail because of her addiction.

Ceser said when he began getting help for his daughter who is now in jail, he realized the system was working against him. He said that daughter’s addiction started with Loritab.

“I’ve seen my daughter go pull good teeth just to get a prescription,” he said.

But, Ceser said it wasn’t always as hard as pulling teeth for his daughter to get the prescription drugs she wanted.

“She had a sore throat and went to the doctor and he gave her 10 milligrams of Loritab,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with my daughter. She’s never broken a bone. She just has an addiction and needs help for it.”

And, when his daughter got arrested the first time, Ceser said he tried to get her help.

“I told the judge, I just buried a son, please give her another chance, so he sent her to Keys to Sober Living in New Iberia,” he said. It was at that treatment facility, Ceser said, doctors decided to put his daughter on Methadone to help her beat her addiction.

“I was so infuriated when I found out what they were doing with my daughter, after all the money I’ve spent and they go and put her on Methadone,” Ceser said. “They were telling me Methadone is a safe drug, don’t worry about it.”

Ceser said his daughter was on Methadone and other drugs she got from the street when police pulled her over and she went to jail for probation violation.

For many people, it is hard to understand the power of drug addiction, including Farron Goutierrez, who relapsed into drug abuse after being clean and sober for 14 years.

“I got into an auto accident and I had surgery on both of my shoulders and the doctor put me on Loritab and the Loritab stopped working so I asked the doctor to put me on Methadone,” Goutierrez said. “After I had my second surgery, I got depressed. They put me on Xanax.”

Although Goutierrez said he did buy some of his drugs from the streets, he said it was just as easy to get them the legal way.

“They got them pain management places in Lafayette. If you go with cash money, they’ll give you whatever you want,” he said. And, Goutierrez said doctors at those pain management clinics would prescribe the same combination of drugs that Falterman considers to be potentially deadly.

Goutierrez said he also started doing “Crystal Meth,” but he said getting off the prescription pain medications was the hardest.

Ceser, Ruby and Goutierrez all decided to talk with The Daily Iberian because they said if their story can help just one person, it is worth it. Ceser said he also hopes law enforcement will do more to crack down on drugs.

“People need to know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s wrong with law enforcement. There are so many drugs on the street,” Ceser said. “I know so many families who have family members who doctor shop.”

During the last state legislative session, legislators passed a law against “doctor shopping” which is getting prescriptions from more than one doctor for narcotic pain medications.