"...everyone is bored,and devotes himself to cultivating habits..these habits are not peculiar to our town.." Albert Camus "The Plague"

Thursday, August 31, 2006




THE SCOURGE OF HEROIN:
A DAUGHTER'S STRUGGLE,
A FATHER'S DILEMMA



My 30 year old daughter has been a heroin addict for around 10 years. Of course, she's had some periods of time when she was clean. I think she started mainlining in Seattle (no surprise, bad heroin scene there) and got badly strung out there. We, her mom and I, got her back to Massachusetts where she did really well for a while, had a good job etc. She's been in de-tox several times and until recently was in a program with weekly meetings and medical help with a heroin antagonist (not methadone but a newer one, bupenephrine (sp?)I think). But the last 2 years she has been sliding back into the abyss; was arrested a couple of times for possession and, most recently, was last week arrested for violation of probation. (she had tested dirty). Anyway, now she is jailed without bail with her first court appearance on 9/18. Her public defender thinks she will probably get a mandatory 30 day drug treatment program plus assignment to a halfway house deal. But, she could also get a prison sentence.

I'm sure many other folks out there have been through this. Can sitting in a jail cell shock a reasonably intelligent person back to reality? Or does it take a near death O.D. to get through to such people? Any ideas or suggestions?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

my friend
the peril of a father can be
happy and also so sad
a prayer and a good friend can be of great help. your child is a
great gift.
One day I truly believe all will
come to a good resolve
a friend we will be

Anonymous said...

Excellent job of getting this out in the open!! We all had our worst nightmares about Andrea's problems!! Hopefully some other parents have helpful suggestions for future rehab!
Our thoughts are with her during this ordeal!!!

Anonymous said...

we as a family all have to
be a part of helping some way
no one can ever kknow this can happen to any of us. just never
sstop caring about one another
charlie