Chasing the Dragon

“Nobody wakes up and says ‘I want to be addicted to Opioids today because that sounds like a great lifestyle'” – Dr. Tonkin

In an effort to help educate students and young adults about the dangers of opioid addiction, the FBI and DEA unveiled a documentary called Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict. To read the full media release click here. It’s a documentary about the slippery slope that opioids can be. In the film you’ll hear from:

• Katrina, a former business executive and mother who became addicted to opiates after self-medicating with pain pills and alcohol and whose own daughter died of a drug overdose. “You can’t go back and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ or set a better example, or talk ‘em out of it,” she says. And of her own addiction, she explains, “The spiral down is so fast…and I lost everything. I lost my daughter first and foremost. So all the work I did, all those dreams I had, it’s like I’m starting over again with a huge weight on my shoulder…all for a pill.”
  
  
• Matt, who began using marijuana at age 11 and became addicted to opiates at age 15. “In the beginning,” he explains, “I would always try to get pills because you know what you’re getting. Eventually, that just got too expensive….so then you’d go for heroin because it’s cheaper.”
  
  
• Trish, whose daughter Cierra—an honor roll student at her high school—died after a heroin overdose. “Cierra did not take life for granted until she started using,” says her mother. “It is much stronger than you, and it will win.” Noting the broader impact of addiction, Trish adds, “It affects everyone in your family for the rest of their life…we’re the ones stuck missing you.”