Drug addiction does not only affect the addict themselves, it also affects all the friends and family of the addict.
According to Little Things, Gabi was raised by her grandparents – Barry, a retired police officer, and his wife, Carol. When she was a teenager, Gabi got hooked on pain medication, and she quickly moved to heroin at the age of 16. It wasn’t until Gabi overdosed on a street corner that her grandparents knew how bad things had gotten.
“I never thought that being completely sober was ever going to be part of my life,” Gabi told WCPO.
Barry and Carol immediately signed their granddaughter up for an outpatient treatment program, but it didn’t work. Things quickly went downhill for Gabi as she dropped out of college and beauty school, gave away her grandparent’s car, and ripped off drug dealers. She ended up stealing more than $8,000-worth of Carol’s jewelry, which she pawned in order to buy drugs.
Desperate to save Gabi, Barry and Carol made the ultimate “tough love” decision: they turned her in to the police. This was Gabi’s fourth arrest, so the judge was ready to throw the book at her, but Barry convinced him to send her to a long-term treatment program. What happened next is truly inspiring, and can be seen in the video below.
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