Adverse childhood experiences can cause trauma, which can play a role in substance abuse. It’s important to look at any California drug crimes through this lens to determine what the proper legal consequences will be for these crimes.
The definition of adverse childhood experiences
Adverse childhood experiences are traumatizing events or ongoing hardships impacting someone while they’re a child. This can include abuse, neglect, abandonment, or even dealing with natural disasters. It can lead the individual to have mental, emotional, and even physical struggles throughout the rest of their life.
Chain reactions and nearly impossible odds
A young woman is now on the other side of her drug addiction, bad relationship decisions, and struggles with school and work. Her story began with abandonment and separation from her alcoholic mother and her father and abuse from her mother’s boyfriend. Due to this, she began to have trust issues and overall instability in relationships and life.
These difficulties made this woman turn to drugs at a young age. She started out drinking after meeting an older man. Then he got her to move on to hard drugs. She also committed drug-related crimes during this period. Though she tried court-mandated rehabilitation, she could not make it work for her.
Rising against the odds with faith
A probation officer contacted this woman as she was about to receive her prison sentence. The young woman promised to make changes and lead a sober life with the help of this officer and Narcotics Anonymous. Though it was a rough road, she turned her life around and found a healthy relationship after learning she had to love herself and take care of her mental and physical health first. The firm limits she learned about in her group and the care from several people along this journey gave her the keys to success.
Drug crimes are a serious offense, but there is hope for many individuals who face being charged with such crimes. With help from caring professionals it is possible to change one’s course in life to one with value, purpose, and more good days than bad.
