The pills that got me hooked — OxyContin 80MG

In 2008 as a sophomore in college I started to have some serious back pain. First diagnosed as a bulging disc I was prescribed physical therapy and Tramadol from my family doctor. I took it as prescribed for my pain. Over the course of the next few years that changed. My pain didn’t go away and the the Tramadol provided me no relief. I moved up to Percocet and eventually Oxycontin when my doctor decided I would need long term pain management (some doctors believed time released drugs were safer as there would be fewer missed doses).

My doctor prescribed me Oxycontin for the first time in 2009. Around this time it wasn’t looked at as dangerous or seriously addictive (at least not in the mainstream). I was prescribed a reasonable dose — 10mg. It worked for a time and then my doses got higher and higher. 10 MG, 20 MG, 30 MG. and eventually 80mg. 80 MG is a lot of opiates. Now the thing most people don’t know about Oxycontin is that it’s a time released drug. That means 1 pill actually has 4 doses in it. Over time I developed a tolerance and became dependent on the pills.

My friend showed me that if you peeled the film off and crushed them you have a megadose of opiates (like 4 pills at once). This is when things really spiraled. I began snorting OxyContin daily. Morning — Afternoon — Night. Then the prescription stopped being refilled . Overnight. My friend had recently met someone that sold heroin and offered me some as a replacement. It felt the same and it was way cheaper than buying pills off the street. I only ever snorted Heroin and as scary as that sounds, once you’ve done OxyContin and Heroin, you realize they’re essentially the same drug from different sources.

This addiction opened the door to trying other drugs recreationally (cocaine, xanax, opium). I had an addiction which started with a prescription. I was headed down a dark path. Call it divine intervention, bad luck or good luck….I was arrested and eventually got the help I needed.

I was parked on campus. The police thought I had marijuana (it was actually a large bag of loose leaf tea). They wanted to test it. I complied. In the field test, it tested positive for amphetamines so they did a further search of my car. I was charged with trafficking methamphetamine based on the quantity of tea I possessed, which they believed to be some form of Meth (at this time the campus police thought they had the biggest bust ever). I was facing a minimum of 25 years in prison and had a $250,000 bail. I was in jail for a week until the bond got lowered to $50,000. My parents were then able to get me released.

I was fortunate — my family had money to get me out, to secure an amazing attorney, and to ultimately get all of the charges dismissed.

As part of my release I was put on probation, which meant I had to see a drug counselor and get regular drug tests. It was during this time that I think my life was saved. If I failed a drug test then I would face the previous charges again.

It was during this time I saw the inequality in our system — A broken system that fails addicts and ruins lives. I was fortunate enough to escape the system mostly unscathed.

Now I am trying to use my story to use my story and the stories of others around the country to educate, inspire, and create empathy for a generation of addicts who have been failed by a broken system.

If you’re interested in learning more about my story and what I’m learning about our medical and legal systems then follow along at:

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