with her. she was reluctant to assist us at first because she was scared. between tears and the lockup, the former student admitted being addicted to heroin after a devastating sports injury. she told our cameras this was not the life she had planned. you know, i was just a really happy-go-lucky kid, you know, outgoing, had a lot of friends. you know, played a lot of sports, was really active. raised in rural michigan, dana personified the all-american girl. studious and athletic, dana wasn t just good, she was exceptional. i was always a bright child. you know, very athletic. anything i picked up i excelled at very quickly. looking back now, dana says the punishing physical grind and pressure to succeed as a star athlete led her to abuse alcohol. you train rigorously. you re playing sports seven days, six days a week, you know, and that s hours-long practices, you know, and tournaments and, you know, just different training sessions.
over their life. and you know, it s just an obsession of the mind. dana says her $20-a-day fix quickly escalated to a $300-a-day habit. transforming her into a vulnerable fiend. a drug dealer who had been very fond of me kind of made me an offer i couldn t refuse where he said, i ll give you x amount of drugs if you let me, you know, sleep with you. the memories of selling herself remain a source of trauma for dana. the first time was obviously really hard on me, you know. i was so upset, you know. i was crying afterwards. i felt so weird. you know, and i remember sitting in the shower for, like, a half hour after just, you know, crying like, you know, what am i doing? you know, am i going crazy? those who are open about their sex work experience, i would say it s about 95% also admit some sort of drug addiction. the trafficking survivors that she counsels says that
the woman says the need for crack cocaine keeps her out on the streets. if people helped you to get off of it instead of trying to force you, maybe you could make it. my advice is don t ever try anything, not even a little. even if you re uncomfortable, just get through it. thank you so much. good luck with that. take care. good luck to you. as the woman disappears into the downpour, we are reminded of dana, who also walked these desperate streets, hungry for her next fix. but today, dana says that staying sober is the only way to stay off the street. it s a fight, but i mean, it s a fight worth fighting for, you know, to stay clean. and i am aware of that. i just really hope i can
okay? did you find the heroin? yep. she says she s got a bunch of heroin in here. that s probably heroin right here. inside dana s car, police find what they say is $300 worth of heroin and three syringes. it s just enough of a fix to get the young woman through the night. i can take the photo real quick, and then we ll go on from there. what s going on with you that you re getting so addicted to it? that s our main concern. you don t appear to be the girl that needs to be on that stuff. okay? i know. that s why i m doing this because i m addicted to it and, you know how long have you been out here? what do you mean? involved in prostitution? almost a year. since last january. that s where you re feeding the addiction? she s been involved in prostitution for about a year. and she has an addiction problem with heroin, and she feeds that addiction through prostitution. back at the state police post, dana confesses she s been fighting heroin addiction for over
time and that was it. it was a wrap. i don t even know how to describe it. you know, it felt like any pain, any hurt in my life, anything negative when i did it, it was just gone. these are kids that grow up in great households, stable households. dana s story isn t shocking to scott macy, who says he counsels many high-achieving young women and men who have sold themselves for drugs. heroin addiction or opiate addiction is a physical as well as a mental, you know, and it s what we consider a brain disease. a former addict, scott macy knows firsthand the devastating impact of what is known as chasing the dragon. like dana, he lived a double life, going back and forth from his white-collar job to detroit s east side to feed his addiction. addiction just takes over any type of thought process, any type of you know, just takes over their life.