Devastating Drug Addiction

Maria says she has been clean since August 15, 2006, and it was prison that turned her around. "I never thought I would ever end up there," she says. "You know you're doing wrong, but something about that drug kind of just shields you away ... You just don't care. You're always chasing that next high, and basically you're going to do whatever it takes to get [it]—no matter who it hurts, how many times you hurt them, the repercussions after."

The thought of relapsing is still an everyday struggle for Maria. "You have that choice to either pick up or not. But for me, being the addict that I am, I know that one pickup or that one decision is going to land me right back to where I was—that endless spiral to destruction."