Coming Sunday, Oct. 14, the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com will bring you a special report: "A New Dawn? A Kentucky mother’s struggle through drug court." Four years in the making, it was a tough story to report, and it will be a disturbing story to read and view.
At 21, Dawn Nicole Smith has three kids she adores, a husband who’s leaving her and a gut-wrenching addiction to painkillers. In March 2004, she was sentenced to treatment - not time - for forging prescriptions and ordered to Fayette County Drug Court. Since then, with her and the court’s permission, Herald-Leader reporter Mary Meehan and photographer David Stephenson have followed her struggle to stay clean.
So, why are we telling you about Dawn?
Newspapers frequently write about addiction. It is evident in every crime log, every brief about a DUI and nearly every family story with a tragic ending. But rarely do they reveal such an intimate portrait.
Almost everyone knows someone touched by substance abuse. As the stories report, in Kentucky alone, 375,000 need treatment. Because of stagnant funding, only 1 in 12 will get help.
The stories also point out that substance abuse is a leading cause of death. It is a factor in at least half of the domestic violence, child abuse and property crimes committed. Research has found that the most promising - if imperfect - counter to these crime statistics is drug court. Kentucky has invested $56 million in drug courts, which will serve every Kentucky county by year-end.
The journalists spent hundreds of hours with Dawn - both in and out of court. Meehan reviewed hundreds of court documents, interviewed dozens of people and researched dozens of reports on drug court, addiction and substance abuse. Stephenson shot 8,093 photos and recorded more than 10 hours of audio.
The two became so familiar to Dawn and her family that even some of Dawn’s most intimate family moments were witnessed and recorded. Dawn, despite pressure from her family, insisted she wanted her story told if it might help someone else.
The result is an unvarnished look at just how intractable a problem addiction is. In Fayette County, only two out of five addicts sentenced to drug court manage to stay clean. It illustrates the special challenges faced by mothers who are addicts and the effect their addiction has on families.
In the newspaper, the six-part series requires 18 inside pages. Online, the six multimedia presentations total 15 minutes and include 130 photos, plus audio from Dawn and original music by a local hip-hop group, the CunninLynguists.
I invite you to check out the series in the paper Oct. 14-15, 17, 19-21 and online at Kentucky.com. If you want to do something to help those in Kentucky imprisoned by the demons of addiction, I urge you to stay tuned until the last chapter in the series, on Oct. 21. We will have a list of ways that you, your church or community group can get involved.
We hope that while it’s hard to look at Dawn’s story, it will also be hard to look away.
Linda Austin
Editor
It is time for the public to become aware of the impact Drug Court has on the individual and also their family.
I don’t think that “every brief about DUI” is about addiction. Some people just make a stupid choice to drive drunk.
A drinking-related incident is not indicative of being addicted to alcohol.
I have went thru the same as she with the lortab.It is a awful monster to fight (ADDICTION).I also was in the Schwarts center with Dawn.I didnt go in for drug court I went for myself and children.I have been clean for 3yrs now,Keep tryin it is worth the fight to wake up without a pill to control you.I beleive you have to want out of this circle badly and you have to fight the addiction as hard as it fights you to give in to its ugly head.To anyone who is fighting to stay clean beleive in YOURSELF YOU CAN DO THIS.
Addiction begins with a personal choice to abuse substances. Continuing a cycle is a choice made by many, with a perpetual “excuse” for the neglect of family (particularly children), abuse of friends and relatives, theft, injury and a myriad of other moral/ ethical as well as legal wrongs. Any person can make a decision to “let” his or her upbringing or current circumstance determine the future, or decide to be a person of substance who not only meets personal obligations (e.g. feed your children, keep a home clean) but also contribute to the good of society in some way. Not everyone will “have”, but parents who chose a few minutes of “feel good” over the welfare of children who have no options, children who choose to “forget it for a few hours” by stealing from relatives to support a habit/ addiction will continue to receive little sympathy or support from the middle-American who works for a living and pays taxes to support the drug courts, food stamps and welfare checks addicts generally use as one more scheme to continue their chosen lifestyle.