Santa Maria Resident Speaks Out About Heroin Use

Chelsea Accuna says “from the first time” she used heroin she became someone else.

Over four years, she spent her time and money on a heroin habit she just couldn’t break.

“I was addicted to something I didn’t want to do anymore. I wanted to quit but quitting made me sick,” she said

Accuna was 18 and hanging with a friend when she took her first hit.

She told reporter Cory James “for three years I lived my life not wanting to do it but felt like I needed to, to live a normal life.”

In high school, Accuna had dreams of becoming a doctor and even graduated a year early to make that happen but “let that all go when I was addicted,” she said.

Fire officials say they haven’t seen an increase in a number of heroin-related calls because law enforcement does “a very good job suppressing that activity.”

As of mid September, Accuna has been clean 47 days. She says even though there is not a high case of heroin use in Santa Maria, she wants to shine light on something she sees as a growing problem in her community.