The Needle and the Damage Undone

June 25th, 2012 | Add a Comment

Heroin is a very popular drug around the world. Over the past couple years, heroin has become an epidemic. During my two years of using heroin, I have seen many friends go down with this drug addiction. Before I was using heroin, I was smoking weed on a daily basis. I first started smoking when I was a freshman in high school.

Sophomore year came around and I didn’t smoke weed more than ten times. By the time I entered my junior year, I was smoking every single day. It got to the point where I smoked before school, during passing periods, lunch, and after school. My day would continue; non-stop blazing. Going to school sober was never an option for me; school seemed boring without any drugs. Senior year was very easy for me, as there was never a class where I was sober. Doing drugs was a daily routine; I occasionally used cocaine and ecstasy. ADHD and cocaine do not mix very well, since I was already hyper as hell. When I used cocaine, the only thing it did was make me angry and want to fight people. I knew instantly that drug wasn’t for me. Ecstasy, by contrast, was fun for me. When on ecstasy I was very friendly and loved to talk to people.

One day I made the smart decision to buy two quad stacked blue dolphins (two pills of ecstasy) and pop them while I was in my third period English class. Thizzing at school seemed like it would be really fun, so I did it. Luckily, I did not get caught. Nonetheless, it was a very poor choice on my part. Later that day, I went to the bowling alley after school to smoke a cigarette, and I ended up smoking OxyContin for the first time with a couple of my friends. It was my first time using an opiate and afterwards I felt like complete crap. I was throwing up every ten seconds, and I can remember never wanting to do that drug again. Of course, being my addict self, smoking OxyContin became a daily routine.

I was physically addicted and suffered from withdrawals if I did not have it. Before school one day, my friend and I smoked an 80 in my truck. When we were done, we brought the foil, tooter, and lighter with us to throw away before we entered the school. Sitting in English class nodding out, I remember my name being called by the school police officer. They had drug dogs in my school parking lot, and I took some rips out of my bong and left all of it in my truck. It was three days before graduation and I had just been busted. God was with me on this one, and I was still able to graduate. I picked up a 40 for myself before graduation and smoked it right away.

Now that summer was here, OC’s became very expensive. So my friends and I advanced to the next drug up the ladder: heroin. It was a lot cheaper, and the high was better. Black tar heroin became the love of my life, replacing everyone and everything else. Realizing that it had taken over my life was difficult—if not impossible—for me to fathom at this point. I had never tried to stop using drugs and was still under the delusion that everything was okay. But it wasn’t. Smoking heroin can only do so much after two years of using every day, leading me to switch to intravenous use; shooting heroin then became the new love of my life. Fortunately, I went into rehab about a month after I started using rigs.

This has been a very difficult journey to undertake. It seems crazy to think that heroin has hit The States so bad. I could not have imagined at a younger age that I would be doing opiates by age 16. There appears to be an epidemic spreading across the country, with so many young, suffering addicts out there right now. For all the still-suffering addicts, my advice is simple: find a meeting, find a sponsor, and work the steps. Your life will forever change for the better.

By Frankie D.