‘It will take away your life’

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Press Photo by Beth Wischmeyer Above, Crystal Winn, 29 speaks to a group of high schoolers as Carmen Pearson, 23, listens during the annual Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Community Health Fair Health Fair in Belfield Wednesday.
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Press Photo by Beth Wischmeyer Becky Byzewski from Community Action talks about impaired driving during the event.

Talk about it

BELFIELD — A former meth junkie told students at one point she stayed up for 21 days and didn’t eat for 14 days while high.

“I should’ve been dead,” Crystal Winn said. The 29-year-old, along with Carmen Pearson, 23, is an inmate at the Dakota Women’s Correction and Rehabilitation Center in New England. Wednesday the two talked to high school students about how meth changes lives during the annual Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Community Health Fair held at St. Bernard’s Parish Center.

Pearson said she ended up in prison because once she was so high she was wandering around a hospital cafeteria. She had stashed cake and pie in her purse and she didn’t remember any of it except for waking up a few days later in jail.

The two also talked about how they experimented with different drugs growing up before ending up addicted to meth.

Besides their health, the women told high schoolers how the highly-addictive drug has affected their families, personal life and relationships.

Winn has three children that will be up for adoption next month and Pearson has two children that are living with her mother until circumstances change.

Both women said they and their families were negatively affected by their drug use. Both women are working on improving their health and receiving help for their addictions.

“It will take away your life,” Pearson told the group. “It may seem like fun at the time, but it is not worth it. It will take away everything you treasure in your life.”

Tags: meth, junkies, impaired, driving, drugs