(calm music) - So when my son was young, he was a student in my school, and he'd always been such a great student.

He did sports.

He was into karate.

He had some friends.

He was very well behaved.

And then probably around middle school, I started to see some friend changes, grades started plummeting, behavior issues in school, and, you know, at the time, I didn't really think it was involving drugs.

I honestly didn't.

Not my child.

That was in my head.

And when I started to realize that yes, it is my child, I was in shock.

I was bewildered.

I was petrified.

It consumed every minute of my life.

I wanted help.

Literally, I was going to law enforcement.

I was going to people that I thought had the answer, and that became my focus.

I have to find a way to make him stop.

And everyone is telling me, "Just tell him to stop.

"Take away things.

"Punish him.

"Let him hit rock bottom.

"Tough love," and I started taking that advice.

This truly put a wedge in our relationship, and so that isolated us even more.

So when I journeyed through this and learned more, I found out that my son is absolutely safer in a harm reduction environment.

Harm reduction is simple humanity.

It's understanding that there's reasons why people are trying to either numb feelings, or just feel.

It's radical compassion, accepting my son where he's at, learning how to dialogue differently, so that he feels safe to have conversations with me.

I'm a mom.

I want to love my son.

I don't want to, you know, kick him out of the house, or tell him he's a bad person because that just feeds the addiction.

All of us are just trying the best to keep our loved one alive, at a minimum, and hopefully to help them move in a direction of whatever they want their life to look like.

(calm music)