Pubdate: Tue, 27 Jun 2006
Source: Times, The  (Munster IN)
Copyright: 2006 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.nwitimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: Elizabeth Holmes
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/oxycontin.htm (Oxycontin/Oxycodone)

JAIL HELPS WOMAN COME TO TERMS WITH ADDICTION

Thinking she contracted hepatitis C from shooting heroin, Carol 
Leslie asked her mom to test her.

But when it came time to draw the blood, her mother, who works for 
the LaPorte County Health Department, couldn't find a viable vein. 
"She's like 'Oh my God, I can't even ... it's hard as a rock,'" 
Leslie, who is from Michigan City, recalled her mom saying of the 
veins in her track-ridden right arm.

Leslie grabbed the needle and stuck it in her arm with ease. She 
looked up and saw her mother with tears streaming down her face.

"What have you done to yourself?" her mother asked.

Leslie, now 24, started using heroin two years ago. As a stay-at-home 
mom with a toddler, she popped pills out of boredom. When her supply 
of the prescription pain killer OxyContin ran dry, her friend suggested heroin.

After five months of snorting, she began shooting the drug 
intravenously. All the while, her friends and family knew nothing.

"I was very functional," Leslie said. "I would do it, and I'd be able 
to clean my house."

Eventually, her need for money caught up with her. Leslie landed in 
the Porter County jail last April on charges of identity deception. 
She'll stay until at least next month.

Her mom said to her, "You know what Carol Ann? It's better that 
you're there, not sticking drugs in your arms. I don't have to worry 
about you in here."

Sitting in jail for the past two months has given her a chance to 
clear her head -- both figuratively and physically. She's disgusted 
by the lies she told her family to support her habit and worried sick 
about her release.

Her plan is to not tell her friends where she's going or what she's 
doing when she's out. The only way for her to stay away from heroin 
is to separate herself from the source.

"I don't want to be 40 years old and sitting in jail like some people 
who come in," she said. "It's no big deal for them. Well, screw that. 
It is a big deal. It's jail. I want a life."

Even the scars on her body from the needle injections have begun to 
fade. Sitting in a conference room in the Porter County Jail, Leslie 
pushed up her ratty white shirt and gingerly rubbed her forearms.

"I'm not scarred for life," she said.
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