HEROIN EYES

Pownal, VT – Friday, Feb. 7, 2014: Brianna Wasieleuski, 11, left, looks on as her sister, recovering heroin addict Stephanie Predel, 23, right, has a smoke outside their rental house. Federal studies show that Vermont has one of the highest per capita uses of illicit drugs. “There’s just nothing here,” said Stephanie Predel, 23, who went from painkillers to heroin, hiding her habit from her children by shooting up in the bathroom. “Come wintertime, everybody just sits inside using.” Stephanie, who says she has not used heroin since November, has lost custody of her children. She has no job and no home and for now is staying with her mother, Jennifer Rose, 42, who blames herself for her daughter’s descent into drugs. “Because I had a dysfunctional family growing up, I did a poor job of bringing her up,” Ms. Rose said. She said she did not know how to break the cycle.