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SPEAKER: One of those stories now during this week, where we are hearing stories of Minnesotans affected by the national drug overdose epidemic. The struggle with addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin, has hit people, that is, in all walks of life, here in Minnesota. But American Indians in the state have died of overdoses at a rate that's almost five times higher than Whites. John Collins has this report from White Earth Reservation, where four generations of a family are still staggering from the loss of a young mother.
JOHN COLLINS: The bills still come in the mail. They're from the treatment center that Tiffany Lynn Jackson was court ordered to attend. Tiffany's mother, Rita Rogers, says they want thousands of dollars for the treatment course they kicked her daughter out of.
RITA ROGERS: I got a whole stack of them in my purse I don't even open them. I feel like writing back, return to sender, she's dead. Thank you.
JOHN COLLINS: Tiffany died of a heroin overdose last July 2, while she was five months pregnant. She was 26. Growing up between the White Earth Reservation and Minneapolis, Tiffany was a happy child. Her mother says she was always taking care of her younger brother. After she had her first son at 18, she was excited to have her own family. But Tiffany's struggle with opioid addiction, started soon after.
RITA ROGERS: She was in an accident where she rolled over her dad's Jeep and broke her neck and back. And I brought her home, and took care of her, and nursed her back to health. And it started from the pain meds.
JOHN COLLINS: After the accident, Tiffany learned to walk again. But when her prescriptions ran out, she kept buying painkillers on the street. Rita believes Tiffany first used heroin about five years ago. A close family member had just died in a car accident.
RITA ROGERS: They thought I had died with my cousin, and the cops had to locate me or whatever, and that was the first day that she asked one of her cousins to help her to inject herself.
JOHN COLLINS: Rita tried to convince Tiffany to get into treatment, but she says she was too caught up in the lifestyle. Tiffany's son usually stayed with the family.
RITA ROGERS: She wouldn't come around us when she was on it. I would have to go pick her up in Minneapolis. I'd have to go pick her up in St. Cloud, all over. I'd have to go pick her up, mom, I want to come home. She'd be gone for months at a time.
JOHN COLLINS: Tiffany had a long rap sheet. Most of the trouble she got in, her mom says, was tied to her drug problem. Credit card fraud, shoplifting, giving police a fake name.
RITA ROGERS: I've seen her at her worst on it. She's come to me and she's like, withdrawing from heroin really bad, and she's like, mom, there's bugs crawling on me, help me.
JOHN COLLINS: Tiffany's brother, Curtis Rogers, says she never wanted that life.
CURTIS ROGERS: Before she had her first son, she told me she was going to be a good mom, she was going to be there for him. I guess, I tried to talk to her, I tried to say, remember what you said, and she said I know, brother, I know.
JOHN COLLINS: Two weeks before she died, Tiffany was kicked out of the court ordered treatment program in Saint Cloud. She also lost access to the medication that was keeping her off heroin.
RITA ROGERS: And when they kicked her out, they just kicked her out with her bag. She was almost five months pregnant. I don't know how or why they would do that either.
JOHN COLLINS: Rita drove down and picked Tiffany up behind a Dairy Queen. She says her bags were piled at her feet. A warrant was issued for Tiffany's arrest, but her mom would have preferred Tiffany be put back in jail immediately.
RITA ROGERS: I knew I was going to be prisoner. I was going to bury her.
JOHN COLLINS: Two weeks later, as Tiffany prepared to turn herself in to police, she overdosed on heroin and died. Her unborn baby died with her. She left behind an eight-year-old son. At the family home in White Earth, Curtis Rogers holds his own young son. He says his sister was the victim of a system that failed to help her treat her addiction.
CURTIS ROGERS: Like I said, I always imagined my sister getting better, and we're growing old together, watching our kids. My son should be playing with her baby. He'd be crawling around almost now. It's a big loss and it hurts a lot for my family.
JOHN COLLINS: Covering Health, John Collins, Minnesota Public Radio News.