So my female roommate has a boyfriend that stayed at the house a lot. He seemed fine and kept to himself when he was over so I didn’t think too much about it. I have known this girl since 5th grade and view her as family. Apparently the boyfriend had “a nervous breakdown” and tried to kill himself and was in the hospital. I thought it was odd that’s he hadn’t gone to see him or visit him. The boyfriends mom came by the house to pick up his clothes and things that were in my roommates room but she didn’t want to go in and get them while the roommate was out so she left a note with her phone number. When I went to put it in the roommates room her dresser drawer was open and there was heroin and heroin paraphernalia inside of it (used needles, empty baggies, a syringe that was loaded and ready to go…which I thought was weird, if you’re a heroin addict you aren’t going to leave a prepped syringe in your drawer…. burnt spoon, etc) . FYI, I was not snooping, this shit was in plain sight. I about had a heart attack, I grew up with a parent who is an addict and cannot have that in my home for obvious reasons. I called my mom immediately and she calmed me down and told me not to jump to conclusions about the circumstance.

After collecting myself I called the roommate and left her a voicemail asking when she was going to be home (knew she was working that night) as I needed to talk to her when she came back. I then proceeded to have a panic attack and cracked a bottle of wine open that I promptly began drinking. I called a few close friends that I knew would be able to help me out with how to handle the situation. I also called my dad who is an addict, he is clean now thankfully and has been for 15 years (very proud of him), and talked to him about the whole situation. I was angry and sad at the same time. I felt like someone who was my family had betrayed and lied to me, regardless of if they were hers or the boyfriends, she allowed narcotics into my home. I felt very violated on top of everything else, my home is somewhere that I’m supposed to feel safe and she took that from me. I know that I was jumping to conclusions in my head but I was in a whirlwind of emotions and feelings annnddd a little tipsy by that point.

I was able to get a hold of her the next day and she said she would hang at home that evening so we could talk when I got home form work. I was a complete bundle of nerves the entire day. When I got home the boyfriends mom was there picking up his things. Afterwards I asked her if she wanted to go in the backyard and talk. I just came right out with it. I was incredibly calm and not condescending. Honestly, I was genuinely concerned that this girl that I love like my family needed help and I was prepared to do whatever I needed to do if that be the case to get her healthy. I just straight up said “I need you to tell me about the drugs in my house” (like I said, very calmly, I didn’t feel like jumping down her throat was the way to handle this situation). She burst into tears. The whole story came pouring out. She knew the boyfriend had a problem in the past and thought that he was in recovery. She had been taking him to outpatient care and a methadone clinic every morning at 7am (she had told me she was taking her grandma to dialysis). She said it all came out when she caught him in the bathroom at my house red-handed with the needle in his arm. She freaked, obviously, grabbed all of shit, grabbed his back pack, and emptied everything out that was in it. At that point he got violent. Started cutting his wrists, saying he would kill himself or her if he didn’t get his shit back. She called the police who came. He decided to go 51/50 at that point and they took him in. She said she put everything in her drawer because she was scared and didn’t know what to do with it.

I explained the obvious issues I had with this. One, you should have told me that he had a problem. If he is basically living in my home I feel like I should know that type of information. Two, she needed to come to me immediately about the shit in her drawer, not just let it sit there for almost a week. I own the home and could have been arrested, lost my real estate license, etc. if the wrong things were to happen. She said that she was so sorry and we continued to talk about everything. I was so relieved to know that she was okay. She has been through so much in her life and I was so so so elated to know that this wasn’t something that she was doing to take away the pain. She told me the boyfriend is with his parents and that they are sending him to a treatment center in an Diego. She said that she wants nothing to do with him anymore and that they are through. I am so happy about this, he is the last thing she needs in her life right now. I made it clear that he is not allowed in my home again and she was right there with me on that.

We went up to her room (with gloves on) and put everything in two freezer zip locks. I called the police department, explained the situation, and asked what I should do to dispose of everything safely and legally. The dispatch told me not to drive it anywhere, if I got pulled over I’d be arrested, and that they would have an officer come and pick it up from the house. We all felt a ton better, like a huge weight had been lifted and we all decided to BBQ. Our other roommate BBQed up some chicken and and corn and our friend Chris came over. We were all so much more relaxed.

About 9pm we got a knock at the door and it was the officer who was there to pick up the bags. I answered the door and this fucker proceeded to interrogate me like I had done something wrong. “why did you go through his backpack?” “its illegal to go through someone else’s property” “I don’t know if I can take this because it isn’t yours” okay, are you fucking with me right now? You want me to keep heroin in my house?? This shit went on for literally 45 minutes. He said that he might need to “take me in” blah blah blah. When I asked him on what charges and told him that anything he brought me in on would be a completely erroneous and ridiculous charge he said he could take the drugs but would have to “write up a report”. I got his badge number and called the PD immediately after he left. I’m sorry, its bullshit that I’m trying to do the right thing and not throw the shit away in the trash can like a lot of other people would do and this fucker is threatening to arrest me for going through someones backpack that was in MY HOUSE??? (I left my female roommate out of the situation as much as possible, she didn’t need to deal with more than what she had already been through so I had said that she had called me and asked me to look in his bag since she caught him using and suspected there was more in his stuff).

Argh…I know I rambled and didn’t make much sense probably but I needed to get that out.