During the seven years she spent with an abusive partner, Destiny Garcia would often go to the emergency room with a host of injuries. She left with pain pills, anxiety medication, sleeping pills, muscle relaxers and, ultimately, an addiction that “overtook everything.”
After ending her relationship, Garcia said it became easier and cheaper to find heroine than opioids. As she risked everything to get her next fix, she and her children soon became homeless on the streets of Salt Lake City.
“My parenting, my home, my family, my self worth, my motivation — it completely took me over, 100% in every aspect of my life,” she recounted at town hall focused on opioids at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center downtown Wednesday evening.