“I've tried most drugs, and heroin is the most physically and mentally addictive drug ever.  And I wouldn't advise anybody to get into it.  I just think that, anybody who does find themselves in that mess, there should be somewhere, an option to go somewhere to get help.”

For the first twenty years of her life Julie had no idea what trouble was.  Growing up in a big house in suburbia, she dreamed of becoming a movie star. But in the early ‘80s she fell in love with a young guy from a rich family who gave her three kids and a heroin habit. “My husband and I were both taking drugs and he lost his job and I started getting on at him and he's getting on at me, and the marriage just crumbled. So there I was, I was left on my own with three children.  And because we spent all the money on drugs, the rent didn't get paid, so I became homeless.”

For the next several years, she moved the kids from one bed-and-breakfast to another, supporting herself with prostitution and shoplifting, all the time frantically chasing the dragon. “Everything revolved around heroin.  I couldn't plan a weekend away.  I had to worry about the next fix.  And going out and being frightened that the guy's been busted and it's not gonna be there.  You're so channeled into that, you can't think of anything else.  It's just heroin, heroin, heroin.  The minute you've got spare money for a birthday or Christmas or something, it's gone on the heroin—‘I'll put it back in later’—you never do.  You're just completely kidding yourself the whole time.” 

Somehow, she managed to keep all these balls in the air, simultaneously feeding three children and a major habit. Like most addicts, she tried to kick repeatedly without success.

“When you're on the drug, you can say, well, I'll do this and I'll do that.  But when the drug's wearing off, it’s a different story. You’ll do anything. And if it means dragging three children around for hours... I knew those children were going to be very bored sitting in the back of the car waiting for a dealer to come with drugs, so I'd pacify them with ice cream or make them promises that I knew I wasn't going to keep.”