Lake Worth among hardest hit

Twenty out of every 10,000 people are suspected to have died of an overdose in Lake Worth so far this year — compared with seven out of 10,000 in West Palm Beach and 10 out of every 10,000 in Delray Beach.

Sterling Redwine, 28, was part of the demand for drugs in Lake Worth.

Crack cocaine was not ordinarily Redwine’s drug of choice, said Wendy Fields, his mother. He preferred heroin, which he used on and off since he was a teenager in North Carolina, she said.

Redwine also was a music lover, a talented welder and man who understood he had a problem and was searching for help. The first time he asked to go into treatment, he handed his wallet to his mom, and said, “If you don’t keep this, I’ll be dead by tomorrow.”

Redwine died curled in the fetal position on a bathroom floor of a sober home in August, according to a Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office report. In his hands, he held a glass crack pipe and a lighter, the report said.

The official cause of death was cocaine and fentanyl intoxication, according to the report. “Every drug that Sterling ever used was in an attempt to escape a different kind of pain, from loss,” Fields said.

Kevin Dvorak, who owns the Keys to the Kingdom Halfway House where Redwine died, said the two weren’t close. He kicked him out once before for using drugs, but also took him in when he was sleeping on the streets, he said.

“This is not the recovery capital of the world, this is the relapse capital of the world,” he said. “We tested twice a week, you know? I’m not the police. I’m trying to guide