This is part three of a three-part series on heroin addiction in the Mahoning Valley.
Tiffany Kashmiry's heroin addiction destroyed not just her own life, but also her family. For ten years she depended on drugs and alcohol. The last time she did heroin she was 4 months pregnant and ended up in jail ... again.
"They were telling me, 'Your baby's gonna die. You're going through withdrawal.' And I was like, what can I do? What can I do?," recalled Kashmiry.
Jim Evans is with Meridian Services in Youngstown, a center for opiate addiction. He knows the cost of this particular dependency.
"You can never assume it's not my kid. And even if it is my kid, it doesn't mean they're a bad kid. It means you've gotta take action," said Evans. "So, you're doing $100 a day, 365 days a year. I think it's about $32,000 just in the cost of the heroin, and it's usually more. So, you start to add on the criminal justice costs, cost to the family for attorney and treatment fees, and a lot of medical costs that come out of that."
A treatment program at Meridian would include group therapy, and other help for addicts. But Evans said most people who come through these doors end up here on average five times before they are able to start recovery, which is why he said the best way to stop the problem is to make sure it never starts.
Meridian partners with the PANDA program, offered at local schools like Boardman Middle. School counselor Mindy DePetrio said students are learning the dangers of the drug through the program.
"I really believe that those students aren't going to try heroin. They're not going to do that because they understand what heroin does to their body," said Depetrio.
These kids may not seem old enough to worry about drugs or alcohol, but they're only a year or two shy of the youngest client at Meridian. 8th grader Andrew O'Nesti and 7th grader Maria Serra said the best proactive thing to do to help kids is to provide education about drugs.
"Honestly, it's to get the word out there. If kids don't know what's going to happen, they won't be prepared either," said O'Nesti.
"You see what's wrong and what's right and how to avoid the bad things," said Serra. "People can come and they can learn, but the other part of PANDA is that you need to spread it."
Between the PANDA program in schools and the services Meridian offers, Jim Evans said he is seeing a change for the better, but wants to see even more.
"We have very successful people in the community who know the impact of that and who also see that if I can prevent this in the people who are going to be growing up in our community, I can eventually hire them, and we're going to have success," said Evans.
Not everyone makes it to that point, some addicts don't survive. Tiffany admits that if she hadn't turned her life around the next step was death. Instead, she chose life.
Tiffany gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl in April 2009. She has been sober since December, 2008.
"I just knew that God gave her to me because I had struggled with my life for so long and he knew that that was possibly the only thing that was going to save me, was her," said Kashmiry.
