“I feel like they were waiting for me to die. Some sort of population control.”

The detectives had documented over 100 instances of her buying drugs, and Mackenzie wonders why they didn’t arrest her the first time. Her addiction started after two surgeries on her spine in high school. “Opiates were a part of my life since then,” she says. “It’s horrible. It’s killing people. There were something like 37 overdoses in Cuyahoga County in one day last month. I think nine of them were fatal.”

Mackenzie is working the produce stand outside of The Little Pie Shop & Café, where highways 45 and 531 come to a T. The produce stand is only a small part of her busy schedule: “I have group three days a week, NA four days a week, I have two jobs, and I go to school.” She’s working toward a BA in psychology.

Mackenzie is humble and sincere, openly talking about her addiction and the heroin epidemic that’s swept through the rust belt. She ponders how much the economy – and lack of opportunity – are to blame. “There’s nothing to do here, people are bored. Have you seen our mall?” The Towne Square Mall in Ashtabula is a ghost town; more than half vacant.

Mackenzie wishes the services for addicts in the area would expand, and that we would do more, as a society, to understand and treat addiction, instead of simply shaming people with the illness. After a relapse this summer, she landed back in jail, which was no relief. “When I was in county jail, a girl brought in cigarettes, a lighter, and crack cocaine in her whooha.” She was grateful for a second stint in rehab and, thankfully, has a kind probation officer, “She’s cute, like, I would hang with her if she wasn’t my P.O.”

When it comes to the election, Mackenzie says she doesn’t plan to vote. “I really don’t know how to go about it. I feel like we’re going to be okay, either way. Our country is always going to be okay.”

Mackenzie currently has supervised visitations with her two children – a son and a daughter.

Ashtabula, OH:
• City Population: 18,508.
• Per capita income: $16,045.
• 79.4% white, 9.0% Black, 7.6% Hispanic, 3.7% two or more races.
• Percentage below poverty line: 40.1%.

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