Widow of heroin addict makes her point quite effectively with final family photo

I know what's going to happen here because it's the same thing that always happens. I know all you drug people detest me, and believe me, the feeling is mutual. And if you want to know why I keep posting stuff like this - going very much against the societal grain that decided years ago the scourge of drugs was no longer something worth fighting - I'd like to introduce you to Eva Holland. And her two children. And her dead husband. Heroin killed him, and she posed with her kids for this photo because she wants people to understand just what that means:

---

Eva's story is both heartbreaking and sadly typical. I am sharing it in full here:

I'm sure this photo makes a lot of people uncomfortable it may even piss a few people off but the main reason I took it was to show the reality of addiction. If you don't choose recovery every single day this will be your only way out. No parent should have to bury their child and no child as young as ours should have to bury their parent. This was preventable it didn't have to happen but one wrong choice destroyed his family. I know a lot of people may be upset I'm putting it out in the open like This but hiding the facts is only going to keep this epidemic going. The cold hard truth is heroin kills. You may think it will never happen to you but guess what that's what Mike thought too. We were together 11 years. I was there before it all started. I knew what he wanted out of this life, all his hopes and dreams. He never would've imagined his life would turn out this way. He was once so happy and full of life. He was a great son, brother, friend but most importantly he was a great dad. He loved those kids more than anything. But as we all know sometimes life gets tough and we make some wrong choices. His addiction started off with pain pills then inevitably heroin. He loved us all so much he decided enough was enough and went to rehab at the end of last year. He got out right before Christmas as a brand new man. He had found His purpose for living again, he found his gorgeous smile again, he became the man, the son, the brother, the dad that we all needed him to be again. He did so good for so long but then a couple months ago It started with a single pill for a "tooth ache" which inevitably lead him back down the road of addiction instead of staying the coarse of recovery. He said he could handle it, that he could stop on his own and didn't need to get help again. Well he was wrong, last Wednesday he took his last breath. My kids father, the man I loved since I was a kid, a great son and a great person lost his battle. I just needed to share his story in case it can help anyone else.

Now you can save your breath trying to make the case to me that marijuana is different because it's not addictive or whatever. That's not true, but even if it was, it would be beside the point.

---

---

Eva makes it clear that what took Mike down was not any particular drug, but the inability to get through the challenges of life without chemical assistance. It started with pain pills. That led to heroin because it fed a mindset that says the day-to-day managing of life is all about just the right mix of chemicals to make you feel the way you want to feel. The pot-smoker is engaging in the same exact mindset. Your arguments about alcohol being "more harmful" are irrelevant. You'll make them anyway because that's what you're robot-programmed to do. Your arguments about the pharmaceutical industry being the real drug pushers are also irrelevant. They may both be true, and I am no defender of either. But you're all idiots for thinking there's a meaningful distinction to be made between marijuana and any other mind-altering chemical. The same principle is at play in all cases: The natural state of your mind isn't good enough for you so you need a chemical alteration to attain the feeling you want. This makes you a weak and stupid person. It's why I don't respect you. But there's a huge difference between you and Mike. He would never have come on here defending drug use. Mike knew that what he was doing was wrong, and he tried to stop. But the demon of addiction was too strong for him and he didn't know how to be free of it. I don't know if he was a Christian so I don't know if he understood how to take authority over it in Christ. What I do know, from reading Eva's message, is that he was a good man and a good father and he wanted to be free. That begs the question: How did he become a slave to chemical dependency in the first place? In part, without a doubt, it was from listening to the very same people who claim that all kinds of drugs are really no problem and that it's just the moralizing buzzkills out there - people like me - who are trying to ruin everyone's good time. No one would ever try heroin unless they at least received some sort or reassurance that they could step into that world and somehow not have it enslave and ultimately kill them. Every deceived person has to have a deceiver, and the deceiver is usually a human who bought the same deception long ago. So, you see Mike's kids? They'll never see their father alive again, because people like you push the notion that chemical alteration of the brain is an acceptable technique for dealing with everything from pain to frustration to whatever. I don't care if you're talking about pot or heroin or alcohol or prescription pain pills. There. Is. No. Difference. So flame away, as you usually do. Drugs are so important to you that you can't keep your composure when someone like me tells the truth. And you really can't stand it when someone with real courage, like Eva Holland, puts it on display.

---