A devastated Missouri mother sent an open message to her daughter's drug dealer.
Tina Louden's daughter, Ashley, was addicted to heroin and lost her battle with the addiction a few days before turning 25.
On Aug. 15, Louden posted the message on Facebook along with her picture embracing a pink urn that held her daughter's ashes.
“To my daughter’s drug dealer, this is how I spend my daughter’s birthday now. How do you live with yourself???”
Louden's post had more than 257, 000 shares. She replied to some of the 13 thousand comments.
"I can't thank all of you enough for sharing my photo and for all the kind words. I almost didn't post this pic but I want all the parents of lost children to know they are not alone and that dealers need to be held responsible for selling poison to our children all over the world . God BLESS YOU ALL EVEN THE NEGATIVE PEOPLE."
Louden's message is a call to action.
"Maybe it would change somebody, we live through this pain, every birthday, every holiday, it's not the same. Part of our heart is gone," Louden told TV station KSDK.
KSDK reported that prescription pills came first for Ashley, before she moved to heroin. She struggled to get clean, to be healthy before for her two young daughters, but overdosed on July 4, 2013, said the report.
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, from 2001 to 2014, there was a 6-fold increase in the total number of heroin overdose deaths.
