“I started using when I was 13. I wanted to know what was so great. Just drinking and smoking weed. I quickly went downhill from there. I started stealing my mom’s prescription pills and taking them a few times a week. Then it was coke and meth. Then it was heroin. Once I tried heroin my life was over… or so I thought.” That is how Jordan Hinds describes her long and painful road to drugs, and ultimately, to recovery. (See videos of her recovery journey here.) Two years ago, ER doctors told Jordan that it was a miracle she was still alive. She had always been the beautiful, popular girl, with many friends, a loving family and a huge social life. Now, she weighed 89 pounds, had sores on her face, couldn’t eat or swallow because her throat was sore from smoking, began cutting herself, and was numb and in a deep depression - Jordan was a heroin addict.

At first, no one seemed to be the wiser, because Jordan was keeping up that façade of working, going to school, making straight “A’s,” and hanging out with her friends. Eventually, she started selling drugs to support her habit, dropped out of school and refused to see her family. “That’s what the drugs do to you, one moment you’re really, really happy, and then, when you come off the drugs, you become very self-destructive and hate everything and everyone around you,” Jordan said.

One night, after running away from her parents and going on a drug binge, Jordan knew she needed help - desperately - but was scared to talk to her parents. When Jordan’s mother realized that Jordan was in trouble, she had her drug tested. “I failed with flying colors,” Jordan laughs. “It was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

Her mother took her to the ER to detox, and then to a treatment facility where she stayed for over three months. “My mother stayed with me through thick and thin, and was always there when I wanted to give up on my treatment,” Jordan remembers. “If you stick with it, no matter how hard it gets, you can recover from your addiction - you just have to want it badly enough.”

Now, after two years of recovery, Jordan still goes to AA meetings and has a sponsor. She surrounds herself with positive people and maintains a positive outlook on life, and she knows that family is the #1 thing in her life. “I have great friends now and great relationships with my family. I got a full ride scholarship to college, and I’m going to school to be a counselor and help teens who are going through what I went through,” Jordan said. “The biggest lesson I had to learn was that you can have your life back!”

As the Partnership for a Drug-Free America continues to help parents whose children have developed a problem with drugs or alcohol, we take every opportunity to support those who have made it through the darkest days; those who have been treated for the disease of addiction and are currently living a life in recovery. As people in recovery seek community, connection and support, the Partnership welcomes them to a new web destination at www.drugfree.org/lifeafter.

As part of the Partnership’s commitment to recovery, on Saturday, September 27th, Partnership staff, friends and family participated in A&E Network’s Recovery Rally which united thousands of people in a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge followed by a rally in City Hall Park in downtown New York City. The Partnership believes that recovery is an attainable goal, and should be celebrated and supported. Marching alongside so many people who are living proof that treatment works was inspiring, and renewed the Partneship’s commitment to ensure that families have access to treatment and other help for loved ones in trouble.

With the new Life After site, the Partnership strives to support the recovery community further by providing a place for those in recovery to share their stories, connect with others who have had similar experiences and find encouragement from friends and family. Even if you are not struggling with recovery yourself, please visit Life After to express your support or to be inspired by these amazing stories of success and hope.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has launched a new beta Web site designed to celebrate stories of addiction recovery, and to bring a human face to the issue of substance abuse, which affects more than 22 million Americans. The site, called Life After, serves as a social network and inspirational showcase where visitors can share stories of hope, celebrate their recovery and find encouragement from friends and family.

While the site will feature stories of triumph over addiction to a variety of substances, the initial focus is on recovery from methamphetamine.

“Storytelling is an integral part of recovery,” said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. “For the first time, the Partnership is building an online community dedicated to helping those in recovery draw strength from their common experiences. These people are living proof that recovery from meth is possible, and that’s an extremely powerful message of hope, especially for friends and family of those struggling with addiction. ”

The goal of Life After is to raise awareness about the many faces of addiction, and to emphasize the critical role of friends and family in supporting those who are addicted through treatment and recovery. The site seeks to motivate and engage family and friends to become educated about these issues, and is designed to be a conversation starter between those in recovery and the public to exchange experiences, share concerns about the dangers of meth and other substance abuse and to provide support and guidance for those seeking to help a loved one.

To learn more about this site, visit www.drugfree.org/lifeafter.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has launched Meth360, a  multidisciplinary community outreach program designed to enhance community efforts to deal with the impact of methamphetamine, and mobilize parents and concerned citizens to take action to prevent meth use.

Created in 2006 with funding from the United States Department of Justice, Meth360 pairs teams of law enforcement officers with substance abuse prevention and treatment professionals to co-deliver meth awareness presentations at local business and civic organizations, schools and parent groups. By encouraging presenters to work in teams and bring their own experiences and anecdotes to the presentation, Meth360 offers audiences a “360-degree” perspective of the meth issue. For presenters, Meth360 helps build bridges between law enforcement and social services providers in their efforts to protect families and communities from substance abuse.

Meth360 was pilot-tested in four regions, with support from four lead law enforcement agencies. The Partnership recruited and trained presenters in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Albany, New York; Pierce and King Counties, Washington and Fairfax and Prince William Counties in Northern Virginia. During the nine-month pilot, 170 volunteer presenters from all three disciplines delivered 200 presentations, reaching 7,100 community members.

“Communities must be involved if we are to win the fight against drugs,” said Sergeant James Cox of the Fairfax County Police Department, one of the first agencies participating in Meth360. “Meth360 has aided our Department in forming partnerships with the communities we serve-and with our own government- by delivering the extremely powerful message that accompanies this campaign. These partnerships will be long-lasting and treasured, and if other jurisdictions have the same success we have had with Meth360, I truly believe methamphetamine can be a drug of the past.”

Audience evaluations in the pilot areas indicate that 93 percent of those who saw the presentation said Meth360 “taught them more” about methamphetamine and 86 percent reported they would “take action” to help protect their community.

Subsequent research, conducted by The Police Executive Research Forum, shows that 100 percent of presenters who responded to a survey would recommend Meth360 to communities interested in raising awareness about meth use, and 98 percent stated that the multidisciplinary approach enhanced the program’s credibility.

The Partnership has now expanded Meth360 into ten new states, and has recruited lead law enforcement agencies to help establish and expand the program in each state. Meth360 is now operating in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas. Program participants are using a new Web site, www.drugfree.org/meth360, to train themselves to deliver and coordinate presentations. This resource is available to all agencies, free of charge, and includes all materials needed to implement Meth360.

With additional funding from the Office of Justice of Programs and the COPS Office, the Partnership is expanding Meth360 into ten more states in 2008-Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico, West Virginia and Wisconsin-and is creating youth, parent and Spanish-language versions of the presentation.

To learn more about Meth360, please visit www.drugfree.org/meth360 or email meth360@drugfree.org.

At 30 years old, I couldn’t believe I had been living the way I had been for the last two years. Though I had used drugs since the age of 12, I never really had a problem with them — or so I thought. I thought of myself as a functioning member of society. But, at 30, I was on the verge of losing a job that I really liked. Learn more