2008 CFC# 12486 
Our Stories
Share the power of long-term recovery. If you are in recovery, a family member, friend or ally of someone in recovery, we want to hear your recovery story!
Learn more...
Voice of the Recovery Community Award
Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) is the recipient of The Joel Hernandez Voice of the Recovery Community Award!
Learn more…
|
Recovery in the News
Teen who overcame 'cheese' addiction ready for new life after graduation
Vanesa D. Salinas
The Dallas Morning News
June 14, 2008
Daisy Moreno remembers a time when her sole purpose for going to school was to buy and consume drugs. Her friends frequently consumed cocaine.
Then came the latest sensation among high school students addicted to stimulants: "cheese" heroin – a mix of black heroin from Mexico and the medication Tylenol PM that eventually claimed the lives of at least 26 youths 18 and younger in North Texas. She was hooked.
"I was in a pit ... they were difficult days," said the 18-year-old, who's thin as a reed, with expressive, almond eyes.
Last week, dressed in an elegant white gown and cap that reflected her new drug-free status, Daisy graduated from North Dallas High School.
"Back then I was a 'cheese' head. I was a drug addict. I didn't know what I wanted," she said. "Right now it's good. I don't get in trouble. [I've] calmed down."
Cheese heroin made its debut in northern Dallas in 2005 and stunned many with its price: $2 a dose.
It eventually spread to other areas of Dallas and the suburbs. As the drug proliferated, the number of victims rose.
The epidemic abated a little last year, and the number of arrests fell from 142 in 2006-07 to 57 in 2007-08, according to Dallas Independent School District police.
"Most of our arrests this year were because we got information from other students about people there at school bringing this stuff to school," said Gary Hodges, assistant chief of police for DISD. "That's the way we found out about it. The students are trying to clean up their own campuses."
Community forums to educate students and their parents about the drug's dangers also made a difference, as well as increased surveillance in schools, including drug-sniffing dogs and a MySpace page to get young people to repudiate the drug, officials said.
"One case of heroin cheese is too many for us. We'd like for it to be zero cases, that's our goal," said Jose Luis Torres, an assistant superintendent for DISD. "However, when we talk about 158,000 students, this number of students that are actually being caught in possession of this highly addictive drug, it's minute."
Introduction to drugs
The road to recovery wasn't easy for Daisy.
She tried marijuana for the first time when she was 13 years old. Three years later she tried cocaine and liked it. She realized she was becoming an addict and tried to substitute with other drugs such as cheese without realizing that the new drug was also addictive.
Maria Moreno, Daisy's mother, remembers the changes in her daughter's attitude.
"She was really ill-tempered, she went around slamming doors, and I couldn't say anything to her because everything irritated her," her mother said. "Or she would lock herself up in her room and not go out for anything."
Daisy consumed drugs daily, and principals at North Dallas High School eventually took notice and sent her to Village Fair, an alternative school.
"They called me from the school, and I went, and there she was,'" Maria Moreno said. "She looked really bad. I looked at her, and she grabbed me and cried and cried."
Even at the alternative school, Daisy was able to find drugs. Finally, she was sent to Nexus Recovery Center, which had a program to help girls between 12 and 17 years old.
Daisy was admitted for a month, then spent a lot of time there as an outpatient.
Guadalupe Salgado, a counselor at Nexus who worked on Daisy's case, said a patient's rehabilitation depends on his or her desire to recuperate and the severity of the addiction.
"Not everyone will have that success," Ms. Salgado said. "It's different for everyone. Some are really ready for it; some may think they don't have a problem."
Old temptations
When Daisy's treatment ended, she returned to Village Fair. She behaved, did her homework and earned her return to North Dallas High School.
On her first day back, a student offered her cheese heroin.
"I was standing in the lunch line," Daisy said, "and then this girl I used to talk to came up to me and she's like, 'Hey, where have you been? ... Go to the restroom.' And I'm like, 'For what?' She's like 'I've got a gram.' I said, 'I don't care.'
"She got mad, but I don't care," Daisy said. "I was like, I better not do it, I better not do it, and then when she took off, I was like ... I've never done that before. I was proud of myself."
Daisy said she's had to cut ties with the majority of her old friends, just as she did with that girl in line, because most were involved in drugs, too.
She thought about switching schools. But she realized that moving to another campus wouldn't change anything.
"If I were to change, I was going to need to do it myself," she said.
The next step: She'd like to attend Texas A&M-Commerce. And she's filed her application. But she still needs to take her SAT.
"To me, it's a new book because the old one was just into drugs," she said. "I want to start a new life. I see myself going to college and supporting myself, starting my career."
© 2008 The Dallas Morning News