MPMS Civic Group Presentation Puts a Face on Drug Abuse

Drug abuse changed the young life of Ashleigh Varga and sent her spiraling into a world of heroin addiction, crack houses and crime.

 Varga, who was once a competitive figure skater and varsity cheerleader in Manassas Park, said her life began to changed in high school when she started drinking alcohol. She began dating a boy who was on drugs, Varga said. She soon followed suit.

“I was desperate to be in love … I met a boy who was abusing prescription drugs,” she said. “I started doing drugs … I was popping them like Skittles.  It takes your soul … it sucks the life out of you (and) you turn your will over to drugs.”

 Varga,who said she is one of the few who escape a drug habit, told her story to members of the Joe 15 Team at Manassas Park Middle School on Tuesday.

 The team is a civic organization started by Debbie Page-Maples whose son, Joe Page, was shot to death in February of 2008 by John Matthew Moran, now serving a 35-year sentence for the crime.

Though the team is purposed to help others, Page-Maples said Tuesday’s meeting was different because she gets to help the team by teaching drug-abuse prevention.

 A key part of her son’s demise—and a part she rarely talks about—is that Moran was strung out on drugs when he opened fire into a crowd at a party he'd been kicked out of earlier in the night. 

Her son died four days after one of Moran's bullets struck him, as he stood on the porch of the home where the party was held, Page-Maples told the team Tuesday.

 Moran said during a court hearing he had no idea what he was doing because he was so high on drugs, Page-Maples said.

 “He took away one of my most precious gifts—my firstborn son,” Page-Maples said.

 The Joe 15 Team also heard from Jeremy Shea, who was best friends with Page during their childhood.

Jeremy said he turned to a life of drug use and crime when he was about the age of many of the eighth and seventh graders he addressed on Tuesday.

 “Middle school was the good days; I was on honor roll … but toward the end of eighth grade, I started hanging with the 'cool' kids; the ones that smoked and drank. I started hanging with the negative kids I thought were cool. I drank and smoked weed (marijuana) and it got worse. I started selling drugs, stealing cars, breaking into houses, robbing drug dealers; we were so high and so drunk we didn’t know what we were doing,” he said. “I started doing cocaine, PCP ... I’ll do it all day, go to sleep, wake up and do the same thing again.”

 Shea said he was arrested when he was 18 and was charged with 33 felonies. He was sentence to 45 years in prison with 43 of those years suspended, so he spent 25 months in jail.

 “I was my grandmother’s only grandson; my biggest regret is she died while I was in jail … I didn’t come and see her (and) she died thinking her grandson didn’t care about her,” Shea said. “I attended my grandmother's funeral in handcuffs and shackles with guards in front of my family; it was a very humbling experience.”

 Page-Maples said Shea and her son were inseparable as children and that he was always at her house. She said she remembers when she started not to see Shea anymore.

 Her late son told her that Shea had begun hanging with some people he didn’t know.

She often wonders if she’d known the signs of drug abuse, would she have been able to help Shea, Page-Maples told the team Tuesday.

 Varga told the group she wished someone had recognized the signs of her drug abuse and intervened.

She felt like no one cared as she fell from grace during her high school years.

 “When I graduated high school, I had no friends left; they laughed at me when I walked across the stage (at graduation.) No one asked me if I was OK … but it was my own fault,” she said.

It’s important to help those suspected of abusing drugs, but first, you have to know the signs, Varga said.

 If you notice a friend is very depressed or that they no longer wash his or her colthes or care about person hygeine, then it may be a sign they are on drugs, she said.

Drug addicts become so obsessed with their habit that they let their personal appearance go, she added.

 If you notice someone is in trouble, then let that person know you are there for them, she said.

Varga said she once had a $100 a day heroin habit. She would steal to get money to support it.  She finally entered rehabilitation, which cost $20,000, Varga said.

Her family ended up losing their home because they helped pay for her to go to rehab.

 “I hope you guys are listening to me; I’m not trying to scare you,” Varga said. “There are only three ways out of drug addiction: Die, jail or where I’m standing right now. Not too many people make it to where I am.”

Page-Maples said she arranges a drug presentation for Joe 15 Team members and interested ones every October.

The Joe 15 Team of Manassas Park Middle School is the most heavily supported out of all the clubs at the particapting schools, she said.

There will be a simlar presentation today at Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, her son’s alma mater.

 For more information about the Joe 15 Team, call Debbie at 703-895-1606 or email her at Debd509@aol.com Learn more about the team through its website  thejoe15team.org.