Heroin: The human struggle
Joseph Sibold will never forget the day his younger brother tried to commit suicide.
The 18-year-old had been staying for a week at their father's house in Apopka, Fla. He needed a heroin fix and turned to Sibold, a local drug dealer, for help. "One night we were playing Jet Moto 2 on PlayStation II while sitting on the futon in the family room," Sibold recalled. "He was shaking and going through withdrawals real bad. I felt real sorry for him and gave him some (heroin). But it seemed like every 30 to 45 minutes that's all he wanted to do."
A little later, his brother locked himself in the bathroom and wouldn't open the door. Sibold rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a butter knife, and pried the door open. He was shocked by what he discovered.
"He's sitting there laying in the bathtub with his wrist cut just because he couldn't have more heroin," Sibold said. "He needed it that bad."
Sibold, 35, told the story during an interview at the Muscogee County Jail, where he recently received treatment for his own heroin addiction. He said the incident occurred about 12 years ago. He's been trying to kick his heroin habit ever since, but it's a physical struggle that's hard to overcome.
"You can deal without cocaine, you can deal without meth, you can go without weed and alcohol if you've been drinking for years and years," he said. "But heroin is the worst."
Sibold said the drug has had a grip on his life ever since he was a teenager. Prior to that he was a good student with perfect attendance, he said. But his parents divorced and his life began to spin out of control. "I couldn't get my own money working at age 14, so what do you do?" he asked. "You're on the streets, you're already smoking weed, so you kind of know the lifestyle a little bit. You know where you can get drugs cheap, and start selling from there."
At 16, Sibold said, he and a cousin introduced heroin to his Apopka community. He picked up the heroin side of the business, while his cousin continued selling cocaine. Sibold said that's how his siblings got addicted to heroin, and it's something he will always regret. "I'm the oldest of five brothers and my brothers were hanging out with some of the people I was selling it to," he said. "So (they) ended up getting addicted to the heroin that I was selling."
Sibold said he quit using heroin after going to jail in 2008, but he returned to the drug a few years later when his wife left with his daughter.
"I just numbed myself drinking and shooting heroin," he said. "I shot heroin every hour on the hour for four years straight."
Sibold said he moved to Columbus about four years ago to help out his in-laws who live in West Point. Prior to his brush with the law, he had been working as an independent contractor, renovating homes in the area.
He began shooting up with other addicts in Columbus, he said, and saw several people overdose. He said the drug is really becoming a problem throughout the Chattahoochee Valley.
He was arrested Sept. 22 for giving a false name, address or date of birth to an officer, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and theft by receiving stolen property and loitering, according to the jail website. He said police picked him up in connection with a shooting at the Chattahoochee RiverWalk. But he claims he is innocent.
Now that he's incarcerated, Sibold said he's determined to overcome his heroin addiction. He wants to set a better example for his children, who are growing up with drug addicts all around them.
"A lot of people are dying," he said. "It definitely ruins lives."
Alva James-Johnson, 706-571-8521. Reach her on Facebook at AlvaJamesJohnsonLedger.
This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Heroin: The human struggle ."