9781422274279

1 CHAPTER

Who uses Heroin? Replace Matthew McKinney’s name with that of a million other addicts and their stories all sound the same. Matt was a typical teenager in a middle-class family, active and friendly. But he changed when he started doing drugs. He began smoking marijuana when he was thirteen years old, and later started injecting heroin. When Matt was fifteen, his family had him committed to a rigorous drug rehabilitation program in Minnesota. After four months of treatment and counseling, he was released. Things seemed to be looking up. Matt was clean and sober, and those who cared about him believed Matt was his old happy self. However, his family didn’t realize that his happy exterior hid the fact that Matt was still engaged in a hopeless war against heroin addiction. Eventually, a friend from his drug-using days returned to his home town, and Matt’s struggle with heroin addiction resumed.

7

Who Uses Heroin?