All you need to do to hear about our society’s addiction problem is turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper. Opioid addiction is spreading so rapidly it’s being called an epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Addiction state overall drug overdoses more than doubled between 2002 and 2014, from 23,518 to 47,055. And the numbers continue to rise.

 

Addiction is spread across all age groups, income classes and ethnicities. It’s found in rural and urban communities. Addiction has touched every single person in the United States in one way or another. This is one person’s story. 

 

Like many young people, Devon, who asked that his real name not be used, began using alcohol and marijuana as a teenager. Growing up in a middle-class household, at 15 he started selling drugs on occasion to help pay for his habits. When he discovered how easy it was to make a lot of money really fast, he went into it full time.

 

His heavy alcohol use started getting him into trouble during this time, and over the next few years he received numerous tickets for underage drinking. 

 

At 18 Devon was introduced to heroin by a friend and it instantly became his drug of choice. He quickly realized in order to continue getting high he was going to need more and more of the drug, and he was going to need a lot more money to pay for it. He started selling heroin almost exclusively.

 

Life was good for the next six years until he was arrested for class four felony heroin possession. That was the moment his life started a downward spiral.

 

A $10,000 bond got him out of jail and thousands more got him a lawyer. It took two and a half years before the case was finished; by agreeing to intense drug probation he only spent three months in county jail.

 

The probation required him to wear an ankle monitor, see probation officers every week for drug testing, and allow them to come into his house at any time without warning.

 

Needing money Devon started selling again, which led to him using again. He stuck the needles in areas not easily noticed, like between his toes.

 

He started sneaking clean urine in to take his drug tests with. This went on until he got a DUI, which cost him his driver’s license and revoked his probation.

 

Facing four years in prison, he was offered a deal for six months of prison time followed by boot camp. He took it.

 

In 2013 Devon was back out and wearing another ankle monitor. He started dating a young woman named Jenny.

 

Once again needing money, he contacted one of the drug hookups he had met during his time in prison and started selling and using once more. 

 

Months later his probation officer made an unexpected visit to his house, where she found heroin and drug paraphernalia. Devon and Jenny were both charged and sent to jail.

 

Released on a $2,500 bond, he was caught using twice more and was sent to rehab for 30 days. He got out, was caught using again and sent back.

 

Getting out yet again he figured out moving around and changing his address got him out of physical meetings with his parole officers. He finally managed to finish his parole. 

 

He and Jenny stopped using but it didn’t last; a year later they relapsed. One night they overdosed. Devon woke up. Jenny didn’t. The paramedics managed to get her heart beating again but it was too late. Two days later her parents took her off life support. 

 

Devon sank into deep depression and for nearly a year tried to kill himself by intentionally overdosing. It didn’t work.

 

He finally quit and was clean until he met up with the friend who had first given him heroin when he was 18. He started again. He stopped again. He started again. 

 

When he stopped again a year ago alcohol took its place.

 

He estimates he’s overdosed 15 times over the years; five of those times he actually died but was brought back. Once his mom saved his life using mouth to mouth resuscitation.

 

All of the friends he grew up with are dead, two from heroin overdoses, the rest from car accidents and suicides. Today Devon is determined not to let this be his future, but every day is a fight to stop it from happening.

 

This is the reality of addiction.