This story was originally published November 10, 1999.
The story of Nina H. belies the impression that heroin is a new phenomenon in Vermont. It’s been here at least 20 years. One thing is different, though: “In 1994 you couldn’t buy heroin in City Hall Park in Burlington,” says Nina. “Now you can.”
Her friend Michael M. agrees. The street availability of heroin, he says, “has increased exponentially.” Not only that, he adds, but “the kind of people involved with it has changed.”
Nina hopes that her story will be a cautionary tale to potential users, or those who have flirted with heroin but are not yet hooked. She knows that she glamorized drugs herself in the beginning, and believes that young users in, for instance, Burlington’s City Hall Park think it’s “cool” to be a dealer. “There’s nothing cool about it,” she declares flatly. “There’s nothing cool about jail.”
As a peer educator, Nina says, “I try to share my experience about romanticizing drugs. You know, the suffering, tortured artist. That’s just bullshit. When you’re in the backseat of a car with a redneck and you’re forced to have sex with him for drugs, there’s nothing romantic about that.”
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2015.
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Nina, if you’re reading this, what advice do you or your mother have for families of addicts when it comes to enabling? I know you say you can’t push anyone toward changing, and I know this to be true, and I know your mother’s stance on “tough love”, but what realistic advice is there for families stuck between continuing to enable and trying to regain some sense of normalcy and financial stability, particularly when the addict isn’t an only child, as you are? And particularly when the parents cannot possibly be blamed for anything, such as the abuse you experienced as a child? At what point should enabling be stopped when it is so clearly unhealthy for everyone involved and the addict isn’t getting any better?