Last updated : November 11, 2024
A stereotype of the drug addict has developed over the decades. Thin, haggard, mentally unstable, perhaps homeless, an addict has frequently been feared. An unknown, unpredictable quantity that was likely to break into your house to get cash for his next fix.
While there may indeed be deeply troubled individuals out there who easily fit this profile, the archetype doesn’t suit others at all. Take, for instance, the case of Laura Hope Laws, an Atlanta teenager who died of a drug overdose over Thanksgiving weekend in 2013.
In many ways she was the typical American teen. She attended a public high school, and was active in extracurricular activities and her church. However, Laura also had issues that weren’t so typical. Her high school freshman year was marred by a broken jaw, the result of a soccer accident. The injury was painful, and Laura was prescribed some fairly heavy duty pain medications. Her parents believe that this was the beginning of their daughter’s downward spiral.
First, there was a dependence on the prescription pain medications that had been given to her in the wake of her accident. When those prescriptions ran out and her doctors refused to extend it, Laura’s addiction took a darker turn. She was soon hooked on heroin, which was easier to acquire than pain pills as well as being cheaper. The heroin on the streets today is also stronger than the drug that was available just a decade or so ago. Soon, Laura was engaged in a life and death battle with heroin, a battle that she would ultimately lose.
Like many struggling addicts, Laura sought help repeatedly. There was a 30 day inpatient program, a 12 step recovery program and attempts at intensive outpatient treatment. While she would attain sobriety now and again, there were always relapses. She would make recoveries, playing in school sports and participating in other activities, and then relapse just a few days later. She would disappear for days at a time, leaving her parents to worry frantically for her whereabouts and her well-being.
Her parents’ worst fears came true during the Thanksgiving weekend of 2013. They couldn’t locate Laura. She wasn’t at home and was not responding to texts and phone messages. Finally, the family had to board a plane for their holiday travels, without Laura. It wasn’t until landing that her mother received the message that Laura had passed away.
The coroner found a potent mix of drugs in Laura’s system that included oxycodone, cocaine and morphine. Heroin was not found. Still, her parents feel that the drug certainly played a role in Laura’s early death.
In response to the tragedy, the family is working toward passage of a Good Samaritan law in Georgia that would prohibit criminal prosecution against people who call 911 to report an overdose. Similar efforts are underway in several other states as well. Changes such as these will likely come slowly. Nonetheless, it is a worthwhile effort to attempt to save lives, perhaps giving addicts a second chance. Laura’s parents think it is something their daughter would have appreciated, and they are wholeheartedly devoted to the cause. As they discovered, drug addiction knows no boundaries. Regardless of race, economic background, religion or any other facet that makes up the human character, drug addiction destroys lives.
