Heartbreaking victims of heroin

Having very close experience of living with a heroin addict, I can assure K Roberts that we are interested in our children/family members, their friends and their activities.

It is the nature of a heroin user, especially at first, to be very secretive re hiding all activities from their loved ones. You may think they are at their friend's watching a video. You phone their friend's mother to make sure this is OK. You drop them off and pick them up, thinking to yourself that this is better than them hanging around on street corners with other lads, drinking and smoking. We think we know where they are and what they are doing. The truth being, six months to a year down the line, they have "chipped in a fiver" each at weekends for a bag.

Then it's every few nights, and they enjoy it and can't see what all the fuss is about -- they don't need it every day! Before you know it, it's £10 each a day, not for recreational use, but, the truth is, they are addicted. And you still think they are watching videos and playing games at each other's houses -- things you expect your children/teenagers to do. They are actually sat in each other's rooms, wondering how they can get the money together for their next fix -- then crime, and, for many girls, prostitution, starts. They soon need £20, then £30 and upwards a day.

Then injecting starts and, usually, that is when the family realises there is a problem -- money goes missing; CDs, electrical goods, jewellery etc disappear. This is normally the first time the alarm bells ring, but it's too late. Also, many people can't believe their own child/family member is taking heroin -- it's a "dirty" word -- many think their friends have led them astray. But, we must remember they chose that path for a laugh and enjoyed it at first. They are now addicts, many of them from loving, caring homes. Relatives spend a short time in disbelief but then begin on a long, long road to help their loved ones who are, ultimately, killing themselves before their very eyes.

I hope and pray K Roberts is never in this situation with any member of his/her family.

It's heartbreaking.

Do you give them money you can't afford? If not, you know they will leave the house with your belongings or will rob someone else who can ill afford to lose their hard-earned possessions or go through the trauma of a burglary. At this point, they need the money to score (buy heroin). For girls, the easiest way is to sell their bodies. To me, this is unimaginable for anything to make me so desperate I could do that or, in fact, burgle others or thieve from my family.. The answer is HEROIN.

I have a close family member who is an addict. This person is funny, attractive and lovable, but lives with an addiction which, if not fed, makes them nasty, aggressive and, ultimately, a thief. However, I will never give up on this person, and every time there is a chance they want to "come clean", I'll be there. We have had numerous visits to CDT, Home Detox, holidays, methadone treatment etc; unfortunately, as yet, none have been successful.

But I will never give up hope and understand everything the Bateman family have said. Do not judge Carly. She earned money the only way she could fund an ever-increasing habit. It is tragic the way her life ended. I can't express my fears strongly enough for every heroin user and their family. You are almost expecting a knock on the door to say they've been arrested, or even a knock to say they've been found dead. My own worst fear is to come home from work and find my family member dead from overdose, like the other family you highlighted. My thoughts and sympathies are with both families.

Please, K Roberts, believe me when I say, most of these people are loved and cared for very, very much and are sadly missed when their all too short lives end. Of the families I know who have lost loved ones to this evil drug, none blame society or want to pass the buck.

Miss Smith

Horwich

Bolton