Asbury Park heroin user survivor shares his story

<p>There have been plenty of stories about the nation's heroin epidemic, and too often the story ends with a funeral, but News 12’s Kurt Siegelin shows how one man from Highlands avoided his.</p>

News 12 Staff

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Feb 19, 2018, 1:56 PM

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Updated 2,259 days ago

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There have been plenty of stories about the nation's heroin epidemic, and too often the story ends with a funeral, but News 12’s Kurt Siegelin shows how one man from Highlands avoided his.

Kyle Kirms made a trip recently to Asbury Park as part of the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission.

He stayed here, homeless and strung out on heroin 21 months ago.

Broke without hope, it was the low point in his life.

Along the way, there were nine failed trips to rehab, and then it got worst.

Looking at years in prison, Kirms went to a residential addiction center in Kearny. He met Idris Rahman, a counselor and a savior.

Idris wrote a note to the judge, sparing Kirms jail. The judge agreed.

Brought back from the cliff's edge after years of addition, 21 months later, and 21 months clean.

Today, Kirms runs a production company. There is direction, focus, and responsibility in his life.

Kirms knows the prospect of a relapse is always out there.

He says what keeps him going is his production business and a sense that his life is going somewhere.

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