FROMPAINPILLS TO HEROINADDICT: EX-AREA MAN NOW FOCUSED ON HELPING OTHER By: Dave Hinton
A ndrew Dewey’s life was a mess. A survivor of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, he moved back to Illinois in 2006 and went through a divorce. His wife left to live in Bowling Green, Ky., taking their son with him. “It spiralled me deeper and deeper, and I ended up being a drug addict and alcoholic,” Dewey, a rural Penfield native, said. The drug use all started from an opioid drug prescription to help him deal with pain from a back injury. “(My doctor) had me on a prescription drug killer with no exam, no MRI.Then he up and closed his office, and I started detoxing,” Dewey said, noting that he started on vicodin, then graduated to oxycontin and then to morphine with oxycontin.At one point he was taking 20 tablets a day as his body became immune to the drug.
Opioid addiction is both a physical and psychological addiction. - Andrew Dewey
Unable to get more pain reliever, Dewey was desperate.That’s when a friend offered to help.
“He said,‘I can make you feel better.’ It was a shot,” Dewey said.
The shot was heroin, and his battle with that drug began.
Dewey lost 100 pounds in six months. He wasn’t eating. Only using.
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