How A Toothache Led A Young Mother To Heroin

Bucks County officials are hoping a series of new videos and public service announcements help in the battle against heroin.

On Thursday at Bucks County Technical High School in Bristol Township, members of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, local TV producers, students and those who have seen the effects of heroin abuse debuted one minute and 10 minute public service announcements that features a mother talking about the struggles of dealing with an adult child with a serious heroin addiction.

Maggie, an employee at PECO and regular suburban mom, tells the story of how her only daughter was first prescribed a prescription painkiller following a minor dental procedure at the age of 21. A few weeks later, she was prescribed more painkillers by a doctor to treat a kidney infection.  Now seven years later, Maggie’s daughter has just completed her seventh stint in a rehabilitation facility and is dealing with a “rollercoaster” of issues as she struggles to stay clean.

“All because of a toothache,” Maggie said.

Maggie’s daughter is like thousands of people throughout the region who are alsobattling drug addiction. She has torn her family apart, emotionally scarred her three children – ages 6 to 10 – and caused her mom and dad to live with the thought that heroin could take their daughter’s life at any time.

“I try not to blame her,” Maggie told LevittownNow.com, adding she tries not to hate what her daughter has become.

Maggie warns viewers of the video that her daughter has stolen everything of value, including deceased family members’ jewelry, just for heroin. She also stated after the video that her daughter has lost custody of her kids and scarred them with PTSD from their experiences with her. Maggie said it’s not only what her daughter has done to others but what she has done to herself. In the seven years she has been addicted to heroin, Maggie’s daughter has caught sexual transmitted infections from having intercourse for money and drugs, collapsed blood veins, damaged her once high-pitched voice and ruined her body with sores and scars from injecting heroin.

Maggie speaks with her daughter and her young kids about drugs and their danger every day.

“I can’t even tell you why she’s using,” Maggie said. “It’s in her brain.”

“Absolutely anybody is at risk to become a drug addict,” Maggie warned in the video.

Back when Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler started his career, “heroin was the stuff you just didn’t go near.” Now, it’s available in almost all of Bucks County’s 60 plus towns.

Officials have said many in the region have transitioned from expensive prescription drugs to heroin because of its similar high. Federal authorities said last year the Philadelphia area is a heroin “hotbed,” with large amounts coming into the area and being sold for cheap.

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Heckler said its accessibility and low cost is fueling Bucks County’s epidemic.

“By the time [a user] has some understanding, they’re hooked,” the district attorney said, speaking from his decades of experience as a lawmaker and law enforcer. “After a few tries, you’re just chasing that high.”

“It’s just not a North Philly problem. There are kids in Council Rock, who live in a big house, who are dying,” Bryan Allen, chief of staff for State Representative Tina Davis and a Bensalem council member, said.

Bucks County Chief of Prosecution Matt Weintraub told the students who watched the videos he wanted to reach the area’s youth.

“If I can reach the people at the schools, we have a shot at this,” he said of halting the epidemic which has claimed dozens of lives in Bucks County.

The creators of the video asked students to help make the videos and Maggie’s story go viral.

Former TV news cameraman and filmmaker Frank Goldstein of Bensalem said he hopes the video gets on local township channels, network affiliates and in schools.

Some of the students who help produce the video spoke after its showing.

Bryanne and Heather Detrick, whose father is a Lower Bucks County police officer, both worked on the video and said it hit home. The sisters, who provided makeup for the people in the video, said they’ve seen the effects of addiction on a family member and have seen the impact dealing with drug addicts has had on their father.

“Maggie was really strong to tell her story and how heroin effected her family,” Bryanne Detrick said.

Zack Zimmerman, a student and volunteer fireman, said he thinks the videos will have an impact on his peers.

Authorities hope the videos, with more to come down the road, will help save Bucks County residents from becoming addicted to heroin.

As Weintraub said last year: “There are no old junkies. They turn into ex-junkies or dead junkies.”