Heroin Addiction
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Battling Heroin Addiction: Kelli Davis’ Story
It’s a growing problem in a younger age group. According to Join Together Northern Nevada, in 2009, nearly 1 in 5 people arrested for heroin were teenagers. Kelli Davis started using drugs at a time when most teenagers are in the eighth or ninth grade. This is her story.
I’ve used it all; everyway. Smoked it. Shot it. Snorted it,” says Kelli Davis.
41 days ago, Davis’ drug of choice was heroin. Today, she says she’s clean but it wasn’t before two stints in jail. Her last stint ended exactly a week ago.
“I started smoking pot with the kids in the neighborhood,” she admits.
Davis is now 21-years-old but first started using drugs heavily when she was 14. She says that was the same year she was raped and drugs helped her dull some of her pain.
In a new anti-heroin ad campaign featuring her brother Grant Davis, he says, “It’s extremely hard to trust my sister, because she is a drug addict.”
Kevin Quint is with the organization that spearheaded the campaign, Join Together Northern Nevada (JTNN). Quint says, “Heroine is available, it’s cheaper and we find there are a number of people who have graduated from prescription drug use and abuse to heroine use.”
According to JTNN, in 2006 about 30 percent of heroin arrests were under the age of 30. In 2009, that number more than doubled to 65 percent.
Reno Mayor, Bob Cashell’s son, Patrick, says he’s been clean for 5 years. He’s a success story and is now one of the faces of JTNN’s anti-drug campaign. He’s also one of the many people rooting for Kelli Davis to stay clean.