There was plenty of pain the first weeks Kersh was in detox. "I didn't sleep for five days because I had these huge goosebumps all over my body. I couldn't stand my skin to touch anything and I couldn't even lie down. I was sick to my stomach and felt like I had the worst flu ever. The movies don't come close to showing what kicking (the habit) is really like."

Consider Kersh the new face of heroin and cocaine addiction in Utah. Substance abuse prevention workers and statistics they keep say statewide at least 8,700 young people between 18 and 25 are using hard core narcotics, and 10 to 15 more try heroin or cocaine for the first time every weekend in Salt Lake County.

"And most have told themselves they would never do any drugs, and every single one of them never planned on becoming an addict," said Jeff St. Romain, president and CEO of VOA.

Kersh is lucky that she didn't quit the way in which about at least a third of heroin users do it — death. In the past three years in Utah, at least 17 heroin users between ages 18 and 25 have died by overdose. Most were using without the knowledge of parents or friends.

Best estimates by state and county public health departments are that on any given day in Utah, there are 52,000 Utahns using illicit drugs. About 22,000 of those are age 18 to 25. About half that many are 12 to 17 years old. About 19,000 Utahns 26 and older will be using illicit drugs today. Those drugs the state classifies as illicit are marijuana, cocaine (including crack), heroin, methamphetamine and inhalants.

"People who walk through our doors come from every ZIP code in the state," VOA's St. Romain said, "and most are ashamed and struggling and doing the best they can. And some will have the sweetest faces you'll ever see."