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Maria remembers her first love.

For 13 years, Maria, a wife and mother of three children, was addicted to prescription painkiller pills and later heroin. The abuse began when she was 18.

She had suffered severe back pain following a 1989 car accident. Her doctor prescribed Darvocet, Tylenol 3, Vicodin and Flexeril for her pain. She’d stop taking the pills, but after giving birth to her second child, the pain returned.

Her mother gave her Vicodin to relieve the pain. She was 21 at the time.

From there, Maria went on to use other prescribed painkillers to help ease the discomfort – abusing the analgesic patches and the time-release oxycodone – both highly addictive pain medications – together for a high.

At one point Maria took OxyContin – she took the first one whole.

“The person who gave me it said I was doing it wrong,” said Maria, now 35. “They said, ‘You have to suck the codeine off of it, then crush it.’ So I did it.”

And that was it.

“I fell in love. To me, it was euphoric,” Maria said.

Sandy Ancas, a supervisor at the methadone clinic in Plains Township, where Maria is a client, explains it this way: A man she met at training once told her: “Heroin will take you to a place you never thought existed.”

Maria agrees.

“You know when you drink and you get that happy, euphoric feeling? Times that by 100,” Maria said. “We’re talking life is absolutely great. Nothing can hurt you. Everything is perfect. You fall in love. That becomes your first love.”

But, the downside, according to Maria, is that after awhile, “you’re chasing that feeling and you’re not getting it. After you’re an addict, you keep trying, trying and trying.”

“Trying not to get sick,” Ancas added.

When Maria was sick and had no pills, she turned to heroin. She began snorting heroin about eight years ago. Maria’s husband, who is now 40, didn’t start using until a few years later.

Both Maria and her husband go to the clinic. Her husband fell off a roof while working his construction job and had back pain – a story similar to Maria’s. He started with painkillers in 1998.

In 2000 they started taking pills together.

A year later, they began injecting heroin together.

Their addiction led to financial problems. The two sat down and figured they had spent $40,000 for a year’s worth of pain pills and heroin.

In 2001 Maria started bouncing checks. Supporting their habits cost them their jobs so they started selling their possessions – from DVDs to laptops.

Both of them were in and out of jail.

Supporting a $200-a-day habit would become difficult. A packet of heroin can cost anywhere from $10 to $20.

Maria has built up a tolerance, Ancas said. Just like a smoker addicted to nicotine.

“Some people can smoke three or more cigarettes a day,” Ancas said. “But people will build up a tolerance so you need more nicotine. It’s the same concept with opiates. The more you use, the more you need to not get sick.”

Maria’s recovery occurred when she gave birth to her third child.

“My miracle child,” Maria said. “I could not have any more children. The next thing I know I got pregnant out of the blue. I got in here (the clinic) within a day.”

The couple is looking to buy a new house. Maria just bought a Chevy Malibu. She and her husband both have full-time jobs.

“My life just changed, completely changed from me being out on the streets – homeless with no money. I slept in shelters, everything. We had absolutely nothing (compared) to what we have now.”

Jen Marckini, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7210.