Mum, Heroin and Me

On Wednesday I went to Kingston Crown Court, and watched for three hours as defendants in the dock were to be granted bail or not and at what date they would appear in front of a crown court. One particular case made a deep impression on me.

The case was in reference to a young girl accused of shop lifting. The prosecution determined that the girl was a 'known heroin addict' and a 'court resident.'

Her appearance was pitiful, she was dressed in a grey tracksuit, her hair, unwashed and scraped back. She listened confused to the prosecution, trying to deny any involvement, almost as if it wasn't her they were talking about.

Before she came out, the court usher who has seen this charade a thousand times muttered, 'any moment now and she'll start crying.'

Part of me wanted to help this girl and to release her from her addiction, but having had a close relative experience alcohol addiction, I knew that more often than not, becoming personally involved is no help at all. 'Getting clean' can only be achieved with the individual's own determination.

Just look at Kate McKenzie. Her daughter Hannah has been addicted to heroin for five years. In a film last night for Channel 4, 'Mum, Heroin and Me' Jane Treay sought to depict an unhappy child who in an attempt to feel better had stumbled into alcohol and heroin addiction.

Everything that mother and daughter did together, coffee, lunch, birthday treats was sadly marred with Hannah's addiction.

Kate and her husband had separated during the course of this film over the couple's disagreement on how to cope with Hannah's addiction. Her father believed in the 'tough love' principle, but Kate could not cut Hannah out of her life, not knowing if she was safe.

Kate even took solace in the fact that Hannah would not be alone on the streets looking for drugs as she would be with her boyfriend Ricky who was also an addict.

The film captured excellently the futile squalor that heroin addicts live in. It juxtaposed Hannah's former 'middle class' life with her current state of happily 'bumbling along the bottom.'

The film opened with a scene in a block of flats. On the stone ground Hannah and Ricky were trying to inject themselves. There was an intense silence as all they could worry about was getting the heroin inside them. As the camera panned down we were able to see another addict, through the stairwell 'cooking up' alone on the ground.

Sat on a park bench together, Kate asked Ricky, "What have we got to do today?" Ricky replied, "Nothing really." Kate then replied, "I don't feel too bad today, I just need one more hit before bed time."

At the end of the film we were told that Hannah had left for a rehab clinic in South Africa for five months, in an effort to free herself from heroin's enslavement.

The devastation heroin had caused on family was unimaginable. The film captured the truth of heroin addiction, and it was 'gritty and grimy with precious little hope of salvation.'