I lost my 20 year old daughter to a drug overdose October 13, 2002.

I noticed a change in my daughter as soon as she began middle school. She looked the same but something had changed within her. Dana began with "roofies", then went on to ecstasy, to cocaine, then onto heroin. By the age of 16, she was shooting heroin twice a day. By the age of 18 she went on methadone and came off of 110 mgs. of methadone when she turned 20. She had to detox as she was sent to Brevard County Correctional Center and spent 44 days there for failure to appear in court.

When she was released in Septemner, she smoked some crack for a few days and was able to get a prescription for xanax, valium and soma- a deadly combination from a very negligent doctor. Dana died after she ingested valium, xanax, cocaine, and methadone. She was laying on a "friends" bed and her breathing became labored. She was drowning in her own body fluids and the "friend" waited until she was cold to the touch and had poor color before 911 was called. By then-Dana was gone.

I do not know how to advise those whose kids are using drugs. I do not hear too many sucess stories. Dana had the counseling, the social workers, the psychologists/psychiatrists, residential rehab-but that craving always lured her back into the world of drugs and darkness. She hit bottom many times-was on life support, in ICU for a week, suffered a mental breakdown from too many toxins being in her brain, and 6 months before Dana died she slept next to her fiance for 5 hours as he died from an overdose of methadone.

It just seems as though once they use heroin-the chance of relapse it extremely high. My heart goes out to any and all of you who are praying for recovery of your loved one. God knows I prayed for Dana. I think God finally had to remove His hand from her to put an end to the suffering.

May God send a special angel to watch over all of the people who are hurting. I know I hurt from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep knowing my daughter is gone.

Debra