A Lorain woman, found unresponsive in her car after she admitted to using heroin on Friday, told newsnet5.com reporter Derick Waller she made “a mistake,” but that the situation was not as serious as it looked.
The 48-year-old mother requested not to be identified. Lorain police charged her with operating a vehicle while intoxicated (OVI) and possession of heroin, drug paraphernalia and drug instruments after an officer administered Narcan, or Naloxone, the opiate antidote than can revive users from an overdose.
The woman said she was driven to drug abuse after her son, Jesse Hayes, 15, was shot in the face and killed by a cousin last May. That cousin, Thomas Catalde, 29, was sentenced to just under four years in prison.
“I thought maybe that was a way to deal with the pain,” the woman said, "but it was a mistake and I don’t ever want to do it again.”
On Friday, Patrolman Brent Payne said the woman could have died from her drug use, but the woman said Monday she was alert when officers arrived and did not need treatment.
Still, her family is concerned about her well-being. Her uncle said suspicions of drug use were confirmed by Friday’s news report.
"I really just want to try and cut ties and be done,” her uncle Josh Ellis said. "I don’t want my children around that stuff and I don’t want to be around drugs myself.”
The woman said other people, who find themselves in a desperate situation, should avoid using heroin.
"That’s not the way to go,” she said.
When asked what she does instead she replied, “I don’t know. I go to therapy and see a psychiatrist and I don’t know, I just, I don’t know how to deal with it.”
Numbers from the Ohio Department of Health show heroin deaths are increasing. In fact, in 2014, more people died from unintentional drug overdoses than car accidents.
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