Billy Woodward was 18 when he first tried heroin, after experimenting with a string of drugs for seven years that included marijuana, mushrooms, ecstasy and prescription pills.
Heroin, he said, was different.
“I tried everything else but that was the drug that really took me down, because that was the one right when I started doing it that I knew I was not going to be able to stop,” he said.
Five years later, Woodward is now recovering from his drug addiction after having gone through treatment at the Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Woodward, a DJ, artist and drummer, wants his story to be a cautionary tale of the effects of heroin and the ease of which it’s obtained in Colorado.
Heroin addictions are common at CeDAR, said Steven Millette, executive director. Staff at the 6.5-acre inpatient facility treat about 45 people at any given time, many of whom are addicted to opiates like heroin.
“Of those who have opiate addiction, a large percentage of those are heroin addicts — people who have progressed in their disease to the use of heroin,” Millette said.
Opiates include prescription pain killers like Oxycodone and morphine, which are often four or five times more expensive — and harder to get — than heroin, Millette said.
Heroin is made from naturally grown opium poppies, and is usually exported from Mexico and South America, he said.
Addicts have a long road ahead of them if they want to recover from any addiction, but at a young age, it’s even harder to kick the habit.
“It’s doubly difficult for people like Billy or young people who are in a situation where just the normal course of their social experience puts them into constant contact and access to alcohol and drugs all the time,” Millette said.
That was the case for Woodward, who tried to justify his heroin intake any way he could.
At first, he started smoking it because he thought that would be safer than injecting it.
Some dealers marketed heroin as opium, which seemed more acceptable and less life threatening, he said.
In the beginning, the feeling of being high was pure ecstasy and lasted for about three or four hours at a time, he said.
“At first it’s kind of like lying in a comfortable bed and floating about three inches off the sheets,” said Woodward, who is now attending Metro State College of Denver where he will earn a degree in psychology in 2013.
Toward the end of his heroin use, he barely felt anything at all, even though he was using about two grams per day.
A quarter of a gram, which could probably kill a person that doesn’t use drugs, costs between $10 and $20, he said.
And it’s not hard to get.
“It’s way easier than you actually think,” he said. “It happens very nonchalantly.”
His go-to places to score heroin were northeast Aurora and southwest Denver. Eventually, he went from purchasing it to dealing it so he could get it in bulk.
Millette said other patients at CeDAR also say heroin is easily found in the Denver metro area.
“It finds its way pretty easy to the college communities throughout Colorado,” he said.
People have common misconceptions about the drug and its potency, he said.
“It’s more prevalent to see heroin users smoking heroin or snorting it and believing that ingesting the drug that way makes it less addictive than injecting it. But that’s a falsehood,” he said.
When heroin addiction sets in, it’s typical for people to get violently ill, depressed and dysphoric, making the urge to use heroin almost impossible to resist, Millette said.
Woodward decided to ask for help when he began feeling the effects of withdrawal. He spent 30 days at CeDAR and then transferred to another rehabilitation center in New Mexico, where he spent nine months.
He said he learned a lot about himself and the stigma of being a drug addict during that time.
His advice for other people struggling with addiction: There’s a way out.
“Life is so much better on the other side,” he said. “It’s beautiful and wonderful and worth living. You don’t ever have to feel the way you’re feeling right now, ever again.”
Woodward said it’s time for people to push for an overhaul of drug legislation that includes legalizing drugs and boosting awareness of treatment programs.
“People are going to use it regardless,” he said. “It’s going to happen. So we should start looking toward the solution as opposed to the problem.”
Millette said it’s important to look at addiction as a public health issue.
And changing people’s perceptions about drug addicts like Woodward is also going to be part of the solution, he said.
“One of the things that prevents people from seeking help at the early stages is the stigma that surrounds people who have addiction,” he said. “Most people think of the junkies and winos under the bridge when they think about addicts. But they’re you and me and they’re all around us.”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.