Drugs Did This

Send us Fan Mail Rob Murdock is an Asheboro native who had his first taste of beer when he was just a kid, 13 or 14, and later developed an addiction to alcohol that ebbed and flowed throughout college and several decades after he graduated. He never seriously considered his drinking as a problem until he lost his job. And then, his mother asked him if he would go to treatment if she paid for it....

Send us Fan Mail Paul Sanders carried his years-old addictions with him to college, where they blossomed. He got the boot from school but when granted a second chance, he earned a degree. Unfortunately, his substance use continued through it all. Eventually, drugs robbed him of his wife, family, and a six-figure career. He has lived under a bridge, in a homeless shelter, and in prison, when he spe...

Send us Fan Mail John Kelly will mark 13 years in recovery in December 2025. At the age of 16, in an effort to fit in with his peers, he smoked marijuana for the first time. A year later, he was in prison. Until he was 53, using drugs to escape reality seemed like the solution to his problems. Then, he checked into rehab. Now, he credits his higher power, his sponsor in a 12-step program, and his...

Send us Fan Mail A California native, Blake Easley smoked marijuana in high school, then drank cough syrup to achieve a buzz (almost every day) until his mother found a stash of empty cough syrup boxes hidden in their house. She marched him over to the 99-cent store where he was buying the over-the-counter cold medication and made certain they would never sell her son cough syrup again. He moved o...

Send us Fan Mail A California native, Blake Easley smoked marijuana in high school, then drank cough syrup to achieve a buzz (almost every day) until his mother found a stash of empty cough syrup boxes hidden in their house. She marched him over to the 99-cent store where he was buying the over-the-counter cold medication and made certain they would never sell her son cough syrup again. He moved o...

Send us Fan Mail Amber Poe was in her late 20s until she experienced her first-ever buzz from drinking alcohol. The unexpected intoxication was linked to how her body metabolized alcohol following weight-loss surgery. She liked the way alcohol made her feel, but over time her alcohol consumption increased to an unmanageable level that led to consequences she did not like. She lost jobs. She lost h...

Send us Fan Mail Growing up in West Virginia, Treston Dickerson struggled with his self-image. The first time he smoked marijuana, at 12 or 13, he felt better. Through his abbreviated years in high school, Dickerson thought he and his buddies who used drugs were cool. School and drugs were not compatible. He dropped out. His mother took him to his first 12-step meeting to help him reclaim his youn...

Send us Fan Mail Erik Kuykendall has always had the ability to look on the bright side, even when his life was grim due to poor choices on his part -- and there have been plenty of those times. For 20 years, Kuykendall ingested and injected a laundry list of substances -- alcohol and other drugs -- in an effort to numb his feelings. These days, he does not have to try as hard to find sunshine: Tha...

Send us Fan Mail Capt. Bradley Cooper and Sgt. Jason Burgess know one aspect of how drugs impact Randolph County: They are employed with Randolph County Emergency Medical Services, and county EMS personnel responded to 784 overdose calls across the county in 2022. Cooper and Burgess talk about how dramatically overdose calls have increased since 2008 and what happens after someone calls 911 to rep...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Bob Shackleford says he did not understand anything about the disease of addiction when his son went to treatment for the first time. He still did not understand much when his son left that 28-day program. Years later, he is still learning. In this conversation, he talks about some of the myths about addiction and how a loved one's substance use affects the family.

Send us Fan Mail By the time he was in the fifth grade, Scott Smith was drinking most weekends with his buddies. Several of them were years older. But his future addiction did not involve alcohol. It was opioids that ensnared the Asheboro native and eventually led to a period of IV drug use, even though he never learned how to give himself an injection.  

Send us Fan Mail James Michael Martin drank his first beer at the age of 15. Twenty-three years -- and the ongoing use of alcohol and a laundry list of other drugs -- later, he had lost virtually everything save his life. And he did not care whether he lived or died. This is his story of addiction and recovery.

Send us Fan Mail David Mabe stopped using drugs while working to get himself in shape to go to bootcamp. After he entered military service though, addiction reclaimed its grip on the young man.  Struggles with substance use followed him back into civilian life. Eventually, drugs robbed him of everything but his life. Today he is a peer support specialist who uses his life experience to help others...

Send us Fan Mail Amber Mabe was almost 29 years old and operating a thriving graphic design company when addiction took hold. She lost her business. She lost her children. She lost herself. This is her story of reclaiming her life.

Send us Fan Mail  Susan E. Hunt is a co-founder of Keaton's Place, a recovery resource center in Asheboro, N.C., which was established to make a difference for individuals and families living with addiction and to honor the memory of her son, Keaton Scott Hunt. She shares Keaton's story and journey with drugs before he died after a fentanyl overdose in the summer of 2019 at the age of 20...