The opioid epidemic has many victims, including the perpetrators, their loved ones and family, and the fabric of the communities in which they live. It has also produced a generation of orphaned or severely neglected children. Her story is told in the dark and heartrending documentary Children of Heroin.
Set in Chillicothe, Ohio, a community devastated by heroin addiction and overdose deaths, the film introduces us to several characters on the front lines of the crisis.
A young mother of two has recalled her harrowing experience as a heroin user. She missed many milestones in her children’s development, and she regrets her little boy seeing her suffer from an overdose. After that experience, she came clean and went on to live her life. She is one of the rare lucky ones.
Another respondent realized that both her parents were addicted to opioids when she was in sixth grade. Substance abuse eventually killed her father and sent her mother to prison. She, like many other children of drug users, was placed in foster care before settling in with her grandparents.
The movie portrays one of the grandparents, an elderly woman who lives in a one-bedroom house and is responsible for caring for her daughter’s four young children. She was not equipped enough to care for this large group of children, and worried that her own poor health would affect her ability to see them as an adult.
At a treatment and counseling facility, a group of pregnant women shared their own horror stories about drug addiction, as well as their fears and regrets about their unborn baby. These children may be born with physical tremors from their bad choices. In interviewing these troubled women, the filmmakers try to understand the moment when the lure of addiction becomes more important than the well-being of their children.
“Heroin is the devil incarnate,” explained one film participant. Whether or not society finds effective ways to defeat this monster, its insidious effects will be with us for decades. Children of Heroin is a sobering reminder.
