"Kirsten Smith was 16 when a boy from school injected her with morphine, 18 when she and a date Googled how to crush up and inject themselves with oxycodone, and 19 when she first shot up heroin. Living in Knoxville, Tennessee and modelling herself on Pulp Fiction's freewheeling Mia Wallace, Smith spent her days experimenting with alcohol, cannabis, ecstasy, mushrooms, LSD and benzodiazepines."
"After Smith dropped out of high school and started regularly using heroin, she was caught stealing credit cards and chequebooks from a boyfriend's wealthy parents, from a family friend at church and from her grandmother. On probation for two years, and forced by her parents into a month-long stay at an addiction treatment facility, Smith felt, for the first time, ashamed."
"One day, standing in the living room of Renfro's downtown boarding house, Smith watched him struggle to find a vein. Blood ran down his arm as he plugged in the dregs of his cocaine supply, a residue shot that Smith called a low sad point in an addict's life. For her, Renfro had crossed a line into the shadowlands of compulsion."
Kirsten Smith began injecting drugs as a teen: morphine at 16, oxycodone at 18 and heroin at 19. She experimented with alcohol, cannabis, psychedelics and benzodiazepines while emulating a movie character. Drug use felt harmless until she ran out of money. After dropping out of high school and using heroin regularly, she stole credit cards and chequebooks from relatives and acquaintances. She served two years' probation and spent a month in an addiction facility, which produced shame. Back at work and school she met Brad Renfro, who introduced her to crack and stronger heroin; after three months she feared lifelong addiction and ended the relationship, and he later died of an overdose.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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