This is part two of a three-part series on heroin addiction in the Mahoning Valley.
On Wednesday, we introduced you to a major drug problem in this area and a young woman struggling with addiction to heroin.
Her name is Tiffany Kashmiry, and both police and drug treatment specialists will tell you she's far from alone in the fight. Because of the nature of this drug, people who never intended to start using heroin end up consumed by it.
"No, I mean I felt good, and I knew the next day I wanted more, instantly. And I knew it was bad, I knew it was something that I shouldn't be doing, but the addiction took over again, and I wanted it and wanted it," Kashmiry said.
She was high on heroin when she broke her neck.
"We were joking around and the kid that was there flipped me over and I landed on my head and I ended up crushing my fifth vertebrae," Kashmiry said.
She was 25 years old and shooting up every day. But it didn't start that way. It doesn't for most people.
"Everything school related I was drinking at, everything. Football games, basketball games, dances," said Kashmiry, a Springfield High School graduate.
She got her first DUI when she was a junior in high school. After high school, she dropped out of college, got a job at a bank and found friends who liked the same things she did.
"We started doing Ecstasy and going to raves all the time. And then that became my addiction, was trying to find a rave to go to," Kashmiry said.
She used Ecstasy, methamphetamine, and even cocaine, until she found a drug she couldn't just use on the weekends.
"I thought how could I be doing this? I told myself I would never do this type of drug because everything else was I could cover it more. And then this one was every day. It was all day, every day," Kashmiry said.
She was a young woman with a supportive family and bright future, but had a life consumed by heroin.
So, how did she support her habit?
"Oh, horrible. Stealing, stealing from my parents, the people that I was with who were stealing from their families. Just horrible, horrible things," Kashmiry said.
She stole, was arrested for drunk driving and went to jail more than a few times. But her parents always bailed her out.
She said she probably would be dead if she had not had that support.
Kashmiry went to a court-ordered rehab program for the fourth time. She tried to stay sober and get her life together.
And then something happened that she thought would really help turn things around. She found out she was pregnant.
"This is hard to share because you know, um, I wasn't, I didn't stay sober. I was four months pregnant and I picked up again. And it is hard for me to talk about because it's just so selfish, and when drug court found out about it they said, 'we're done. We can't do anything more for you. If you can't even stay sober with a child, then you can't stay sober.' And at that point I had given up. You know, I was just like, 'you're right.' So they put me in jail again," Kashmiry said.
Tune in to Friday's newscasts or check our website for part three in this series and find out how Kashmiry's life got turned around.
