Bob CollinsEvery day we’re confronted by the exploding opioid crisis ravaging the region. A story today about a La Crosse, Wis., family adds to the head-shaking senselessness.
Roberta Draheim, 50, is sure that heroin killed her daughter on Monday when she found Britney, 25, unresponsive in bed with two younger children, the La Crosse Tribune reports.
“My daughter is dead,” Draheim told dispatchers. “It’s heroin. I know it’s heroin.”
How did she know? Because she says Britney was searching for heroin to treat a toothache.
Draheim, understandably, was inconsolable, the Tribune says.
She was also under the influence of drugs, the police suspect.
Police found 12 grams of meth and drug paraphernalia throughout the house and small bags with trace amounts of meth and a BB gun in Draheim’s bedroom, according to the criminal complaint. Officers also found a plastic bag with a residue consistent with heroin in the living room.
The Tribune says mom could be charged with first-degree reckless homicide under a law that holds drug dealers accountable in fatal overdose cases.
