Dylan Lujan (18) died from an alleged drug overdose
Filed Under:
Drug Overdose
Published: Oct 22, 2008 @ 8:47 AM
Dylan Lujan (18)
Date: Aug 20, 2008
Cause of Death: Overdose
Location: Tuscon, AZ
URL: view their profile
Fatal overdoses of 2 from CDO point to heroin, Rx trend
Word that two teens had died of apparent drug overdoses within a week of each other spread like a virus at Canyon del Oro High School soon after this academic year began.
Dylan Lujan, who dropped out of the school last year as a senior, was found dead Aug. 20 in his Oro Valley home. Six days later, Charles Looney died at University Medical Center after being taken there from Oracle. He was a senior at the Oro Valley high school.
"It makes me sad that people our age are dying because of drugs," said Brianna Wright, a 16-year-old student at CDO.
"I hope people will open their eyes and see that it's better to stay away from drugs, because things almost always end up bad," the junior said during a recent lunch break with several classmates.
Authorities wouldn't disclose the circumstances in which the teens died, citing an ongoing probe. The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office is working on toxicology tests on Lujan and Looney.
Funeral services for Looney, 17, will be held at 1 p.m. today at Evergreen Mortuary and Cemetery, 3015 N. Oracle Road. Visitation is at noon. Services for Lujan, 18, took place last week.
Canyon del Oro Principal Michael Gemma confirmed the fatal overdoses but said he had no details about the boys' deaths.
In Looney's case, a "preliminary investigation appears to indicate an overdose of prescription narcotics," according to Michael Minter, a spokesman with the Pinal County Sheriff's Department.
The Oro Valley Police Department, whose officers arrested Lujan May 22 on a charge of possession of marijuana, declined to reveal what the investigation into his death has determined so far.
Lujan and his friend, Alec Taylor Hodge, were inside a car parked illegally in a residential area when they were arrested late that night.
Police reported finding in the car a syringe with liquid heroin, two slightly burnt spoons and a glass pipe with marijuana.
The friends were among numerous youths whom Oro Valley officers took into custody or came in contact with outside school in a growing number of cases involving heroin.
In May, investigators said young people were getting hooked on heroin after abusing such prescription pain relievers as OxyContin.
Hodge, 18, said he still can't believe Lujan is dead.
"At first, I didn't believe it," he said when news of his death first surfaced. "He was someone that I'd seen every day, almost, for all these years."
At his funeral, "there were all kinds of kids from CDO," said Hodge, who graduated from the high school in May.
"I've been like best friends with him since sixth grade. He was my first friend at school," Hodge said.
"I met him in my history class, and we started hanging out."
Hodge said the two did many things together over the years - including drugs.
Lujan didn't finish the school year, Hodge said. When he died, he'd been working at a pizza restaurant.
Hodge said he finds comfort in mutual friends and in the videos they made with Lujan and that often incorporated music Lujan composed on a computer.
Hodge said he is staying away from heroin, which he said many of his peers are smoking or injecting and is fairly easy to find.
Although Principal Gemma said he is aware of the heroin problem, he said prescription drugs are "probably even bigger" among high school students.
"That was a major focus for us in the last year and a half," he said.
Prescription drugs have been discussed, along with illegal substances, in the school's drug-prevention efforts.
"We'll continue to do what we've always done, and that is to bring the best information we can to the students and to the parents," Gemma said.
On Nov. 5, the school will hold a drug-awareness program that includes a student assembly and an evening event for parents at 6:30 p.m. The school is at 25 W. Calle Concordia.
Although the presence of drugs in schools is "a very real issue," Gemma noted that Looney and Lujan died off- campus.
"The bottom line is, know what your kids are doing. . . . It is ironic that both of these incidents happened at residences," he said.
For parents, Gemma said, "The most difficult thing is trying to work that balance between knowing what they're doing and where they are and still giving them that little bit of freedom to make good choices.
"Unfortunately, that can end tragically in some cases, as these two cases. It's a very difficult situation, a tragic situation."
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