Mark Millican: Drug use can start in teens

Published 2:07 pm Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Though she had a tough time at birth, spending days in a neonatal unit for pneumonia, tiny Ashlynn Nicole Bailey fought for life and got to go home with her parents. She was Mike and Deborah Bailey’s first child and the first grandchild on both sides of the family.

Ashlynn grew up in the church, learned about God and became a Christian at an early age, according to a July 14 online story in The Elijah List’s Breaking Christian News service. She loved people, adventures, having fun and celebrating life.

Yet because of her diminutive size, her classmates at school made fun of her — and she often came home heartbroken. Mike and Deborah tried to parent her through it “the best way we knew how.” However, the labels “short,” “tiny” and “little” stung into her teen years.

She also had “a few misfortunate events early in life that created a personal wound to her soul,” her parents revealed. Still, that didn’t stop Ashlynn from pursuing her dream of becoming a cheerleader that began around age 7. She even took dance and gymnastics lessons to help prepare, and in seventh grade cried tears of joy when she made the middle school cheerleading squad.

Though she excelled in cheer competition, with her parents hoping her success would help her overcome the constant ridicule, her grades began to fall in high school and they suspected drug use. Mike and Deborah felt she was trying to fit in and show others she was “big enough” to be a user, but marijuana was just the beginning.

Soon, her life “spiraled out of control” as she quit cheerleading and arrests would be made. She failed to graduate high school because she had to go to rehab the last two months of her senior year. She attained an equivalency degree and attended college briefly, but “the demon of drug addiction” struck again.

Though Ashlynn went through counseling sessions, she still tried a lot of drugs to numb her wounded psyche. However, the powerful pain-killing properties of heroin did the trick. Various rehab programs and Ashlynn’s desire to get her life back were all factors in trying to help her turn the corner, but self-loathing, helplessness and the power of addiction won out, according to the article.

Last year in late January, she went to buy heroin from her dealer — and he gave her fentanyl instead. Ashlynn took her normal dose, never knowing the same amount of fentanyl — a painkiller almost 100 times more powerful than morphine — would be fatal. She never woke up. The reason her story made the news was not because a church kid took a wrong path, but because Mike and Deborah forgave the dealer who killed Ashlynn when he was sentenced in court.

That happened in neighboring Alabama, but closer to home, a man who made it through the throes of addiction — barely, since he tried to overdose intentionally — has come out on the other side. Nick Weathington told the Times-Courier his story recently, and advised — no, urged — those who are experimenting with opioids to seek help before it’s too late. He started taking drugs at age 13.

As we discovered in our research for a story about local opioid abuse, four Gilmer County adults have died from overdoses since the first of the year. That’s four too many.

“I tried to kill myself with drugs, but there’s no chemical solution for a spiritual battle,” Nick told me.

Perhaps you know someone — or are someone reading this — who needs help. There are drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities nearby, and local meetings of Narcotics Anonymous (888-666-3609, or na.org), Cocaine Anonymous (ca.org/meetings) and Alcoholics Anonymous (aageorgia.org). All these groups include people who are taking life one day at a time and can help with the spiritual aspect of recovery.

Now is the time to call or find a meeting.

Mark Millican is a former Daily Citizen-News staff writer and is editor of the Times-Courier in Ellijay.