Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict

"I am very angry, and one of the things I'm most angry about – and I tell her all the time – is that that drug was so much more important to you than me. And I'm the one that can help you. I'm the one that helps you."

"The progression of addiction and the behavior that comes with it is pretty standard, regardless of where you're born, how much money you have, how old you are, what your race is, what your nationality is. You can be the smartest person in the world. The minute that chemical hits your bloodstream, you lose control of what it does in your body. You can't control it. Nobody can control it. I don't care who you are. It's not controllable."³

"Every generation seems to have their drug of choice. Unfortunately, this generation seems to have found prescription opiates as that drug of choice, and even more unfortunately, the consequences of those drugs are far more devastating than anything else we've seen in the past. Chemically and physiologically speaking, there's very little difference between oxycodone, morphine, and heroin. It's just that one comes in a prescription bottle and another one comes in a plastic bag."

"You can't move. You constantly sneeze. Your fucking whole body fucking aches. It fucking hurts. Fucking people are crapping on themselves. People are puking on themselves. People are doing both at the same time. You would probably rather be dead than have to actually go through withdrawal. It was horrific."

"I love my children more than anything in the world. I will walk through fire for them. And I know a lot of parents feel that way, but you can't feel that way. You have to understand what you're dealing with is not your child. I put my own child in jail to stop her from this, and that's not an easy decision to make. It's not a fun decision. Nobody wants to know that ... their little girl is sitting in jail, but she was seven months clean, eating healthy, getting her rest, no drugs."

"It is much stronger than you, and it will win. It will win because this doesn't just affect you. It affects everybody in your family for the rest of their lives. That we're the ones stuck here missing you, and there's help out there. You got to take it. Don't think you can do it alone, 'cause you can't. And your parents aren't the enemy. They just want the best for you."

¹ Recent Monitoring the Future data show that adolescent illicit drug use has declined from pre-pandemic levels, with 19.8% of 10th graders and 31.2% of 12th graders reporting any illicit drug use in 2023. While overall use has not increased, research continues to show rising overdose risk among adolescents due to the contamination of the illicit drug supply with highly potent synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, meaning fewer users may still face significantly higher risk of death or poisoning compared to earlier periods.
² A large population-based study of nearly 1.7 million people in British Columbia found that individuals receiving chronic prescription opioid therapy for non-cancer pain were significantly more likely to initiate injection drug use within five years compared to those with no opioid exposure. Risk increased with higher prescribed doses, suggesting a dose-dependent relationship between long-term opioid treatment and transition into higher-risk forms of drug use such as injection.
³ Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows a strong but evolving link between prescription opioid misuse and heroin use. Historically, most people who used heroin first misused prescription opioids, but more recent data indicate shifting patterns in initiation. While prescription opioid misuse remains a risk factor for heroin use, only a small proportion of people who misuse prescription opioids transition to heroin, and newer studies show increasing variation in the first opioid used among people entering treatment.