They say it starts with smoking weed or drinking alcohol. They say you move up the ladder until you fall in the hands of the Big H. Your dealer, maybe even your friend tells you about the great high you'll feel. How it'll make you feel better. They don't tell you about the constant shaking. They don't mention you won't be able to use the bathroom for days or how you'll randomly 'nod out.' They don't mention how you'll soon be doing anything for another hit. Whether it's stealing your grandma's purse or getting on your knees in a disgusting rest stop. They don't tell you that you're entire life has been taken from you now, it belongs to the Big H.
Heroin use has more than doubled in the past decade among young adults aged 18 to 25 years. That means that overdoses have also increased. You can look at just about anyone and they probably either know someone or have heard of someone addicted to the devastating drug. They may not be people you know at all, but hearing that another 19-year-old girl has lost her battle with the disease is enough to make anyone shed a tear. This drug is not only stealing away the lives of the users, though, it's stealing away the lives of those around them too.
Knowing or loving someone that has or is using heroin is exhausting in every sense of the word. You're living in a world where worst case is death and best case is struggling for the rest of your life. You'll always wonder what they're up too. You'll question what's taking them so long in the bathroom. Are they just itchy or is that one of the side effects? The best-case scenario is questioning the one you love for the rest of your life. Worse scenario is that your suspicions are right. They relapsed. What's next? Do they want help? Do you keep fighting with them? Are you willing to watch them slowly die? Even worst yet, what do you do if you find them passed out on the floor? Their skin is growing colder and their lips are starting to turn blue. You check for a pulse and find it's faint. Do you call an ambulance? More than likely they're going to be mad at you. You find yourself googling what to do in case of a heroin overdose, tears streaming down your face. Make sure their head is turned, so if they vomit they don't choke. You start to do chest compressions. You feel helpless as you watch someone you love die. You finally call an ambulance, where they inject naloxone. They finally come to wondering why you're hysterical. You make them swear never to do that to you again. To never put you through that again. If you're lucky, they don't. So many are unlucky.
Every day we find ourselves plagued by this man-made disease more and more. Every day another mother and father are burying their child. Every day a kid is left orphaned or neglected because "Trying it once is no big deal." Every day someone is choosing this vice against life because being high is the only bearable thing left. This epidemic is killing and traumatizing our people. The pain doesn't stop when the abuser dies, it lives in the hearts of all those left behind. We as a community, as a country, need to help end the war on drugs. Stop criminalizing and hunting down the pot heads and start throwing the book at the people who deserve it. We need to unite against heroin and the ones who deal it. We need to educate the ignorant children who get offered this but offer help and support to the ones already addicted.
