PAW PAW, Mich-
Tomorrow is graduation day from drug court in Van Buren County for a West Michigan woman. Something Jewel Dailey thought was impossible to reach 16 years ago.
That was the first time Jewel Dailey used meth.
After one try Jewel Dailey was hooked to a drug that would eventually take away everyone and everything she loved.
Jewel Dailey said it’s easy to look forward when you’re looking at a mug shot of yourself, taken when she was using about two years ago.
“A traffic stop landed me on a possession charge,” said Dailey.
Looking back, Dailey said it’s one of the best things that could have happened to her. That arrest stopped the cycle.
“17 hours out a 24 hour day I was using,” said Dailey. “If I wasn’t using I was trying to get it or make it.”
For the past two years Dailey has been in drug court, tested and treated for her addiction. In that time she started a non-profit called methcapital.org
The non-profit raises money to keep drug court going. Taxpayers don’t pay for the program, grants and fundraisers do.
“All I had to do was apply myself, something you never dod when you are on meth,” she said.
Now that Dailey is graduating from drug court, there will be no more drug test. The pressure to stay sober is now on her alone.
She said the support system with the people in drug court will still be there and she plans to work closely with them as she continues her goal of helping others recover from addiction.
Her plan is to do what’s she been doing for the past two years, take it one day at a time.
