NARRATOR: This program contains subject
matter and language that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Viewer discretion is advised.
MAN: Come on. Throw it.
Throw it, throw it, throw it.
Yeah!
My name is Morgan.
I'm 20 years old.
And I live in Lancaster, Ohio.
Get it.
I've been married to my husband Terrance
for a little over a year now.
We have a daughter named Peyton.
MACEY: Morgan is so smart.
She's so funny.
Good job.
She was an amazing older sister.
[laughter]
She's a very caring person, loving.
You almost had it.
Here.
A great kid.
I mean, one of the best.
Shh.
Good job.
I have wanted to be a nurse ever since I was little.
I really love to help people and take care of people.
I think I'm a nice person.
I don't know.
Morgan had the world at her fingertips.
Morgan could have done anything she wanted to do.
Oh, that'll work fine.
She got scholarships to colleges.
It just didn't happen.
[baby crying]
My husband, my daughter and I all live with my grandma.
And I'm a heroin addict.
SHAWNEE: Morgan and Terrance bicker every day.
It's 3 o'clock.
You missed the pawnshop and everything.
SHAWNEE: It's every day, every day, every day.
And the reason they do it is because they need their drugs.
I have completely destroyed my body.
People can just look at the bruises and abscesses
and all that and just be able to tell that I'm a heroin addict.
SHAWNEE: I've seen her nod out going out in a car.
I'm afraid with the path that Morgan is going,
she's not going to make it much longer.
She has to stop.
I don't want to see my daughter die over this stuff.
Morgan was my first born, and, oh, she was such a cute baby.
Made you smile from the first moment you saw her.
I had a really happy childhood.
We took vacations to the beach, and all of the time
we were so close.
I was a straight-A student.
I had a 4.0 GPA in school.
You could read a book to her, and she could read
it back to you from memory.
We knew we had a very smart child on our hands then.
When I was in junior high and high school,
my weight was something that I was
really self-conscious about.
When Morgan would come home from school,
she would tell me that people would call
her fat, ugly, horrible names.
MORGAN: I really tried to be funny and be really
friendly for people to like me.
When the boys started getting interested in the other girls,
they weren't really paying attention to Morgan.
MORGAN: When you're the big girl,
the guys don't really want to talk to you.
He didn't judge me for being bigger.
He would flirt with me in front of his friends,
which eased my insecurities.
He showed her affection, and she ate it up.
I could tell instantly that he changed her.
Her life revolved around Terrance.
In high school, Terrance moved on from me
and got a different girlfriend.
It really hurt me.
He was really the only person who really liked me, I guess.
And I thought it was never going to happen again.
And that's when just kind of withdrew from my family.
I'll come and get Peyton in a minute.
You can tell Morgan's high.
That's what scares me about Peyton,
is them being around her, and they're both high.
With Morgan's addiction, it's like just holding your breath
and waiting for the bottom to fall out.
I'm using more heroin than I ever have.
I don't believe that we would be where we're at right now
if it wasn't for Terrence.
When we first started to see each other again,
I was terrified to lose him again.
I didn't think emotionally I could stand that happening.
At 17, Morgan graduated a year early,
and she got accepted into a nursing college.
I was working full-time, paying my own bills.
Making pretty good money for being, you know, a minor still.
When Terrence told me that he was a heroin addict,
I didn't want to lose Terrence again.
So I thought that if I use drugs with him
that it would make us closer.
He shot her up for the first time.
Started to look like bones.
I mean, her face was sunken in.
MORGAN: I was too scared to admit that I had a problem,
until there was no hiding it.
When I found out that Morgan was doing heroin,
it was shocking.
She had dreams.
She had goals.
And now she wakes up every day to get high, and that's it.
It was a wake up call, because they both got clean.
When I was seven months pregnant, we got married.
I thought we made it.
Because once the baby comes, she's going to be
the best mother in the world.
About two days after Peyton was born,
Terrance left the hospital, and he relapsed.
I knew Morgan wasn't going to be that far behind.
MORGAN: Terrance packed his stuff
and told me he was leaving.
I was even more terrified this time of losing him
because now we had a baby involved.
I had talked him into staying, and the next day I relapsed.
[telephone ringing]
Here she is.
Can you give me money if I let you use my food
stamp card for groceries?
No, Morgan.
If you're not giving her what she wants,
then she doesn't want anything to do with you.
JIM: How much money do you need, Morgan?
MORGAN (OVER PHONE): What can you do?
I'll give you $40, but I'm not giving
it to you for drugs, all right?
We can't keep giving her money.
You guys say that every time.
I know.
Yeah, but it just keeps repeating
itself over and over again.
It doesn't stop.
She guilt trips everybody into doing it.
It hurts because she doesn't want
anything else to do with us other than to empty
our pockets.
If I had any other choice, I wouldn't ask you guys,
and you know that.
I know.
I feel like crap when I give Morgan money,
and I feel like crap when I don't, because I know
I'm giving her money to go buy heroin,
but I don't know what else to do.
Terrance comes from a family of addiction.
His mother is an addict.
She got him addicted when he was 12 years old.
She shot him up.
He doesn't have any family.
So we tried to be that family for him.
And we've given Terrance so many chances,
and it just seems like he just always sets it on fire.
I hate talking about him because--
he's ruined my daughter.
[crying] He stole her from me.
Taking the intervention to Morgan feels like the best idea
because she has nowhere to go but to sit
down and listen to us.
Can you come outside with me for a minute?
Oh, my God.
I don't feel good, grandma.
I just need you for a minute.
Oh, my God.
Get off of me.
Morgan.
Get the [bleep] out of here.
Please, Morgan.
[knocking]
MORGAN: What?
Please, I'm begging you just to come outside and listen
to what I have to say.
Morgan, please.
OK.
Please.
Let's go listen to what you have to say.
Today I'm here because I've seen your addiction turn you
into someone I don't recognize.
But ever since you started using heroin,
our relationship hasn't been the same.
Morgan, I'm here today because you no longer laugh like you
used to, and it breaks my heart knowing that the girl inside
is just not there anymore.
And most days I can't even look at you because all I do
is I feel lost because I can't help you.
Morgan, look at me, baby.
I'm here today because I love you.
But ever since you started using heroin, I don't see your smile,
I see your sickness.
I hear your screams, or I hear Peyton knocking
on your door saying mama, but you're too busy for Peyton
at that moment.
You're too busy getting high.
Please, Morgan, please, will you get help today?
JIM: I want to hear that laugh you used to have.
My biggest fear is getting that phone
call or visit from the police that you're gone.
Morgan, I'm asking you as your dad,
please accept this help today.
Listen, you can't take care of her the way you are.
You got to get help, too.
You've got to get clean and straighten up.
You have a beautiful baby at home.
You have to take care of her.
You have to do it for that baby.
Oh.
Promise me.
I promise.
JIM: Morgan, will you do it?
Oh, God.
[sobbing]
She surprised me.
I didn't know what she was going to do.
She's so young that she can do anything that she wants to do.
She can be anything that she wants to be.
I was just ready for her to get in that van and go.
Like, I'm not crying because I'm sad.
I'm crying because I'm so happy.
The hardest thing to hear was my dad crying.
He never cries.
I hate disappointing my family.
WOMAN: So shall we get you over the house
and get you settled in?
Yeah.
It's pretty much the first day to the rest of my life.
I'm absolutely ready to be clean.
I am 93 days sober, and it feels really
good to be able to say that.
I never thought that I would be able to say that.
Being without my daughter for the past three months
has been really hard, but it has also been a big motivator
for me to do good and to go home and continue
to do good so I don't ever have to do this again.
Coming to treatment at such a young age,
I feel lucky about that.
I got to catch my addiction while I was young,
and I still have the rest of my life to live.
And I can be whatever I want to be when I grow up.
[music playing]