The day finally came this week. I just found out today that my junkie "cousin" fatally OD'ed two days ago. I put "cousin" in quotes because my mother was adopted. My mother knew exactly where she stood as her adoptive parents were quick to tell her, "Blood is thicker than water." After hearing the refrain throughout much of your life, you grow bitter and disgusted, but frankly, we're both thankful to God we share not one drop of blood with these people

My cousin was a malignant tumor given a human shape. Because of this woman's terrible childhood, grandpa pitied her endlessly. Even as recently as a year ago, he kept saying, "She's just a big kid," because she would always be the 5-year-old girl he'd stare at on his refrigerator door. I don't know what inspired her to take drugs, but I can tell you that she indeed suffered the worst possible circumstances growing up. Her father committed suicide before she was six months old. Her mother is a consummate grifter who shacks up with the lowest of low lives.

My cousin's teenage obsession with Kurt Cobain partly explains her inclination towards hard drugs, but she grew up with an endless stream of pain. She either decided early on that her prospects in life would be minimal (her mother did frequently berate her) or perhaps she simply had no interest in being productive, and what better way to explore new sensations than continually ingest newer and newer highs. Getting high simultaneously helped alleviate the pain of her childhood trauma and kept her close in spirit to the celebrities she idolized. Her grandpa would unconditionally support her, so the incentive to grow up simply didn't exist. In the end, grandpa viewed his granddaughter as a child who desperately needed to be nurtured.

In the beginning, grandpa afforded my cousin a mobile home near some of her school friends. Despite the town being economically destitute, she still wanted to stay in touch with the same circle of shitheads. Meanwhile, grandpa routinely paid for her various expenses, from utilities, phone plan to even toiletries, all while she received welfare. She also solicited under false pretenses so he'd give her beer and drug money for her and her friends to party.

After years of grandpa's support, she caused him absolute grief, from stealing from friends, hanging out with petty criminals and dope fiends, getting in trouble with the law and ruining his credit by running up debt on his cards, forcing him to lie to the credit card company (he claimed ID theft) to protect her.

Within the past five years or so, my cousin became deeply addicted to heroin and started doing anything she could to feed her habit, including stealing some of his antiques, stealing his social security checks and forging signatures to cash them, stealing from friends and even getting one of her dope fiend friend to screech and harass him into giving up family heirlooms, most notably grandma's ring. After allegedly three hours of verbal abuse, he finally caved in and surrendered the ring. She and dope fiend stole his car to pawn the ring and used the proceeds to buy drugs. One time, a dealer even came by grandpa's house to collect an owed debt.

After enough abuse, grandpa finally mustered the courage to call the cops and had his precious heroin addict put in rehab for a month. After she got out, she immediately went back to her old tricks, doing drugs, stealing from everyone she knew and doing everything to keep her heroin supply steady. She even found newer ways to solicit money from grandpa, such as buying pet food for her starving dog, which she would then return for heroin money. As this all happened, she shoplifted, leading to her getting caught one time and pulling a "I DINDU NUFFIN!" After enough grief, he called the cops, had her arrested and got a restraining order.

A month went by without a word from my cousin, but being full of hard luck stories, she came back into his life and continued the drug routine. In that time, he befriended an empathetic cop. One night, she came home after having stole his car to make a drug run, banging on the door and cursing noisily. The cop greeted and promptly arrested her. As she sat in jail, she wrote him a letter, demanding he rescind the restraining order, effectively leading to law enforcement revoking her bail.

She was then sentenced to 6 months (it took two months for the case to go anywhere because her lawyer kept forum shopping) and was finally free around Christmas time. Since that time, she was living in the old bastard's house and continued to live her days partying and stealing from friends.

Then, her biological mother moved in and the conditions of grandpa's house deteriorated rapidly. Prior to OD'ing fatally, she had previously OD'd at a friend's house which put her in court-ordered rehab for three months. In a move that surprised everyone, grandpa finally pressed charges for stealing which put her in jail for about a month. She fatally OD'ed within one week of getting out.

Frankly, I don't have it in me to gravedance. All I can say is what a waste of life.

So tell me, how do you feel about the opioid crisis? Do you know anyone in your life affected by it?