True Stories

Jeremy Traylor

Jeremy Traylor, 18, OxyContin

Jeremy was 80 days sober before deciding to try OxyContin one more time.

Matthew McKinney

Matthew McKinney, 17, Heroin

Matthew was full of adventure, mischief and zest for life but things changed when he got addicted to drugs.

Cassie Haydal

Cassie Haydal, 18, Methamphetamine

Cassie was an honor roll student who was active in sports and volunteered at an after school program at her school. Her parents never suspected drug use until she suffered a heart attack from meth use.

Savage family

Nick and Jack Savage, Indiana, Oxycodone and Alcohol

Indiana parents lost two sons to drug overdose.

Rachel

Rachel Thraxton, Recovering Heroin Addict, Charleston, West Virginia

For years Rachel was addicted to alcohol, pills and heroin.  Find out what advice she offers to young people.

William Christian Doerhoff

William “Will” Christian Doerhoff, 20, Arkansas, Prescription Drugs and Heroin

William “Will” Christian Doerhoff, a top-notch student in high school, didn't touch drugs until college. That decision ended up costing him his life.

Cash Owen

Cash Owen, 22, heroin laced with fentanyl

Cash Owen, described as intelligent and charming by his family, was only 22 years old when he died from a drug overdose. Watch as his mother talks about his addiction and his final days.

photo of Adam Moser

Adam Moser, 27, Portsmouth, N.H, Fentanyl

Adam Moser was popular, adventurous, athletic, a college grad, a top fisherman and a World War II history buff who fluently spoke French. In 2015, he died at age 27 after overdosing on the powerful synthetic opioid, fentanyl.

Photo of Laura Hope Laws

Laura Hope Laws, 17, Morphine and Cocaine

Laura was an active church youth group member, a star varsity soccer player, and kind to many people. However, a prescription painkiller to treat a sports injury eventually led to her heroin addiction, and ultimately, an overdose on morphine, cocaine and alcohol.

image of Montana Sean Brown, who overdosed on 25i-NBOMe

Montana Sean Brown, 15, 25I-NBOMe

Montana and his brothers thought they would have some fun trying LSD for the first time while their parents were out of town. Instead, the freshman football player took a deadly, clandestinely-made synthetic version that killed him.