ARLINGTON — The anonymous young people who appeared as silhouettes in the video confessed to stealing money from their parents to get hooked on drugs in seventh grade.

In their late teens and early twenties now, they recalled multiple overdoses, repeated refusals to admit when they’d hit rock bottom, and in the more fortunate cases, thanked the friends and family who had helped them break the cycle of addiction, even after all the pain and broken promises those addicts confessed to putting their loved ones through.

The April 28 “Out of the Shadows” event was borne out of Arlington School District staff meeting with Arlington Police last year to learn the signs of drug abuse among students, but Arlington High School co-principals Will Nelson and Erik Heinz deemed it a catalyst for the series of video interviews, of former students between the ages of 18-20, that would follow.

“We were struck by how early it starts, and how easy it is to hide,” Heinz said.

Nelson added: “At the same time, we wanted to show that there is hope. There’s a stigma around drug recovery, but that needs to go away. We should want people to go through with it.”

Art Dahlgren and Angie Keaty, of Battlefield Addiction, have both faced addiction, albeit from different ends. Keaty’s 22-year-old son became an addict at 14, while Dahlgren has been in recovery since 2011. They agreed that the power of family to help end addiction is vastly underrated.

“Our belief is that addicts often choose to try and kick the habit when their families are ready,” Dahlgren said. “You have to cut off the paths that enable addiction, and many families don’t understand the parts they play in keeping those addictions alive. They’ll say they’re ready, but they’ve gotten used to their loved ones being addicts, and to their own responses.”

Rory Bolter and Molly Ingram are officers on the Arlington Police Pro-Act Team, and they’ve seen the evolution of addiction over time. For Bolter, who recalled his father’s death at 59 due to addiction, it’s even more personal.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” Bolter said.

Bolter has seen marijuana serve as a gateway drug for juvenile addicts, especially as its become more legal, but one of the latest twists has been doses of combined heroin and methamphetamine, with heroin regaining its popularity in the wake of the crackdown on Oxycontin. He reported that heroin and meth are the first and second most popular drugs locally, in that order, and have resulted in increasing numbers of deaths.

While Bolter touted measures such as Good Samaritan laws, which promise drug users they won’t get charged with possession if they call 911 to save the life of someone who’s overdosing, AHS guidance counselor Shanna Crookes asked attendees to consider what led addicts to start using drugs in the first place.

“Rather than asking why they’re addicted, we should ask why they’re in so much pain that they feel the need to escape from it,” Crookes said. “These are still our kids.”

Heather Logan, assistant administrator of Cascade Valley Hospital, cited statistics that, among those aged 13-20, opioid use has doubled from 2010-14, while amphetamine use has jumped 300 percent in that same time.

“It’s not just an Arlington High School problem, or even an Arlington community problem,” Heinz said. “Everyone is part of it. It’s a hard topic to talk about, but doing so is the first step in improving the situation.”

Nelson already expects the district will host another “Out of the Shadows” event this fall.