No one knew East Bridgewater man
was addicted - until it was too late

By Maureen Boyle
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

A young father's difficult life ends
at 29 when he can't shake heroin habit

By Maureen Boyle
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Peter Jason MacLean beat his heroin addiction.
 At least that's what his grandmother, who raised him, thought.
 MacLean, 29, had gone through a few treatment programs and finally, it seemed, the addiction that had dogged him for years had been overcome.
 "He got himself a job, was working three or four years and he was clean as far as we knew," Elizabeth Ripley of Bridgewater said.
 Divorced with two children, MacLean would regularly visit his son and daughter. He would take them out. Sometimes, they would stay with him on weekends.
 He was living with a woman in Taunton in 2004 when his grandmother's phone rang.
 "I got a call from his ex-wife that they had found him dead on the floor with his two kids beside him," Mrs. Ripley said.
 His daughter was 7 or 8 at the time. His son was 5, his grandmother said.
 "They must have been asleep and when the morning came, the little girl tried to get him up. He was gone by then," she said.
 MacLean's life was never easy.
 His mother died of complications from surgery when he was 6 and his brother was 3 months old. His grandmother raised him, his aunt adopted his brother.
 "He had a rough time as a kid. We had a lot of trouble with him," Mrs. Ripley recalled.
 But age - and treatment programs - seemed to have mellowed him.
 He seemed to be heading in the right direction.
 His grandmother now wonders if they were deluding themselves, thinking someone can kick the heroin habit.
 "Once you are addicted, you are always addicted, I think," she said. "Very few ever shake it. I'm sure there are some people who have kicked the habit, but there haven't been many."

 Maureen Boyle can be reached at mboyle@enterprisenews.com.