From left, Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne and Tommy Streeter of Warsaw. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels

This is the third in a five-part series on addiction, based on an interview with Tommy Streeter of Warsaw and Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne, both former heroin addicts.

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — More than 900,000 people have died of overdoses since the beginning of the drug epidemic in America, around 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tommy Streeter of Warsaw and Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne spoke about how they transitioned to heroin due to the rising cost of pain pills.

“I didn’t just decide one day that I wanted to try heroin,” Streeter said. “I was already physically, mentally and emotionally addicted to prescription painkillers, prescribed from a football injury in 10th grade. I abused them, but I was already getting high at times. When I got those pills, I didn’t know how addictive they were, what I was going to feel like when I didn’t have them … and by the time I realized, it was too late.”

He began seeking out pills on the street.

“At that time, doctors were writing tons of prescriptions for pills, when the opioid crisis was really bad. And then that all stopped one day. The doctors got in trouble and suddenly there weren’t tons of prescriptions on the street. At that point, pills got a lot more expensive,” Streeter said. “I woke up one day really sick. Someone told me they could get heroin and it would help me not feel sick anymore, so that was the first time I did heroin.”

“The price on the street went from .25 cents per milligram back in the day to $2 per milligram at some point. So, say you’re using 10 pills a day of Oxycodone 30 mg. You need $300 to $600 a day now to fund your habit,” Moellering said.

One day, Moellering’s supplier was out of Oxy pills. 

“He said he had something else. When I asked what, he said, ‘It’s heroin. I know that sounds scary, but it’s not. I do it’ and he did a line in front of me,” Moellering said. “He said he could sell me a half gram for $50. So I bought it. Right then I made the transition to heroin because it was so much cheaper.”

“People need to understand what this disease actually does to a person, why it is in fact a disease and what it takes for a person to truly recover,” Streeter said. “There are so many people who refuse to acknowledge there’s a drug problem in Warsaw and even more people who believe it’s real, but they don’t understand it at all.” 

“I had a great family. Nobody in my family drank or did drugs, I went to private schools, I played high school football,” Moellering said. “I lost three college football scholarships because of addiction. I just gave it up. I disappointed my parents, robbed them and the only thing I could think of every time I screwed up was as long as I get high, I’ll be okay – like if I can just get my substance it’s gonna make everything better and then we’ll figure out what to do. When I got arrested for heroin, all I could think was I gotta get high. I won’t be feeling bad and I’ll be able to figure this out.”

Although Streeter and Moellering agree it makes no sense, an addict believes that only a fix can save them. The compulsion overtakes all logic and self-interest.

“I remember when the addiction really started to take hold, where it was beyond physical. It became psychological to a crippling point,” Moellering said.”When I knew I was going to get drugs, my hands would shake, I would sweat, I would almost become manic. My only focus would be on getting the substance. Similarly, if you’re in a life or death situation, all you can think about is getting to safety.”

“To kind of explain, our brains told us if we didn’t get heroin, we were going to die. There are natural instincts everyone is born with: food, water, shelter, love and sex. What the disease of addiction does is puts heroin, meth, cocaine or alcohol above all of that,” Streeter said. “So the number one thing my brain knows that I need to live is heroin. If I’m absolutely starving, haven’t eaten for three or four days, but I just got $20, I’m not going to buy food. No matter how hungry or thirsty I am, I’m going to spend all $20 on heroin. I’m not gonna buy a $10 bag of heroin and a few cheeseburgers … I’m going to spend that entire $20 on heroin every single time. And it’s not because I want to. It doesn’t matter how bad I want to eat or how bad I want a drink of water, I have to do this.”

Streeter and Moellering said this is what many people don’t understand when they say addiction is a choice. 

“Did I make the choice to get high initially? Absolutely. What I did not choose was to become so physically, mentally and emotionally addicted to it that it ran my life and every single decision I made,” Streeter said. “No one would choose that. No one would choose to be homeless. No one would choose to continually hurt their family over and over again. No one would choose to knowingly do a drug that is probably going to kill them. So that’s kind of where initially it is a choice, absolutely. But if you’re an addict, as soon as you flip that switch on in your brain, you lose all control. You lose the power to make that choice.”

Many people struggle with understanding how someone could become addicted to drugs. Some believe addicts lack moral principles. Others view failure to recover from addiction as a lack of willpower.

Research has shown that willpower alone is not enough to overcome addiction. Addicts require treatment and a support network in order to achieve and maintain sobriety.

“Many things need to change,” Streeter said. “And it all starts with the community backing those who need help instead of judging and laughing at them.”

Read parts one and two here.

Part four in the addiction series will be posted on the InkFreeNews website Thursday at 5 p.m.