'There is life after drugs': A message for teens addicted to fentanyl

Katie Smith was first introduced to opioids at age 15by a much older boyfriend.

It wasn't long before she had graduated to the strongest form of the drug she could find fentanyl becoming instantly hooked on the high. It gave her energy, she says,butmade her feel calm, comfortable and confident.

But the best part came when she drifted into unconsciousness,what she and others refer to as"the nod."

"When you are going to sleep and you are sitting there and you're kind of like, nodding off, you go out for a second and you come back. That was one of the most enjoyable parts of it all," Smith saysfrom her mother's home in Smiths Falls.

But those nodscould prove deadly. Smith remembers injecting herself with what she thought was the usual amount of fentanyl, but was in fact a lethal dose.

Fortunately a friend noticed she had stopped breathing and quickly administered naloxone, a medication used to block the effects of opioids.

Several hours later "the same thing happened again, because the buzz I felt before I went into the overdose was so powerful ... it was like, 'Oh, lets do that again,'" Smithrecalls.

Once again, the dose was higher than expected and she needed to be revived by a friend.

Pleasure dissipates

Before long, Smith saysshe no longer experienced any pleasure from taking the drug.

Instead, fentanyl injections became a daily necessity, the only way she felt she could keep the symptoms of withdrawal at bay.

It's excruciating pain. You are vomiting, you are sweating. I wouldn't even get high anymore.- Katie Smith

"Its excruciating pain.You are vomiting, you are sweating. I wouldn't even get high anymore. I would just do it to get better, to feel normal," she says.

Smithalso lost weight, suffered from seizures,loss of memoryand even extensive tooth decay all, she says, the result of taking fentanyl.

Katie Smith discusses her 7-year addiction

8 years ago

Duration 1:13

A Smiths Falls woman has decided to speak out about her addiction to fentanyl in the hope that teenagers learn from her example and avoid taking the drug.

Road to recovery

By last year, Smith was stealing money from her mother and shoplifting from stores in Smiths Falls to support her now seven-year-old habit.

She was arrested by police and the court ordered her to either take part in a new pilot project for young people addicted to drugs,or go to jail.

As part of the program she spends her weekdays in counseling sessions with eight other people also struggling with addiction, and she also has to submit to weekly drug tests.

Smith is now 22 years old and has been clean for threemonths.

"The first couple of weeks were hell; the sickness and the withdrawals. But now I am pastthat ... I am realizing that I am happy without drugs, and I never thought that was possible. I mean, my anxiety is going down, my depression is better, I have friends, I do normal things," she says.

And Smith has some advice for the Kanatateens who have recently spoken out about their own fentanyl addictions.

"There is life after drugs," she says.