How Homelessness Led Me to Heroin, Fentanyl & Almost Losing My Life | Ep 217

Get a Grip Podcast

Jasper shares his harrowing journey from a violent childhood to severe opioid and fentanyl addiction. He details the progression from alcoho

Key takeaways

• Jasper witnessed a family friend being shot and killed at the age of eight.
• A back injury sustained while working at Amazon led to a dependency on OxyContin.
• He experienced a near-fatal fentanyl overdose that resulted in him seeing 'nothing but black'.
• His recovery journey included stints at Mary Haven, Minerva Park, and Lighthouse rehabilitation centers.
• Jasper has maintained sobriety for over two years and currently works at Biscuit Belly.

Main topics

• Childhood trauma and violence
• Opioid and fentanyl addiction
• Homelessness and street life

Notable quotes

There are things worse than death.

Conclusion

A powerful testament to resilience, illustrating that while addiction

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) And then I found a small little trap house in Parsons from all the homeless people that hung around and stuff or whatever. And that's where I got introduced to Zanz and stuff like that. And I got introduced also to heroin. And heroin was kind of like my go-to the whole time, Speaker 2 (0:20) you know. How did you do it when you first tried it? Speaker 3 (0:23) I was scared for a minute because it was a thing where it's like uh injections. Oh Speaker 2 (0:28) you were you just went straight to Speaker 3 (0:29) shooting? Yeah I went straight to shooting. Damn. And it was like a thing where I was a little scared for a minute or whatever but you know I was homeless like I didn't get shit to lose kind of thing. Speaker 2 (0:39) Right. So. Speaker 1 (0:53) Hey, Lou, I've got a story I want to share on the podcast. How do I do that? Speaker 2 (0:56) Well, you can email us at getagrippodcast614 at gmail.com or fill out the form, fill in our link tree. What Speaker 1 (1:01) about if I just want to show our boys some love and support the podcast? You can Speaker 2 (1:04) follow us at official getagrippodcast on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook to follow our short clips or YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts for our long forms. We're also on iHeartRadio. We're Speaker 1 (1:14) everywhere. What about a behind-the-scenes look at getagrippodcast? Snapchat's the place for that. I heard all the kids are doing it. Smash that like button and subscribe. Boop. All Speaker 2 (1:22) right, we are back with another episode of Get a Grip Podcast. Excited to have Jasper Callis with us today. Jasper, thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. Much appreciated. I know that you know Aaron through treatment. You guys went through treatment together. Unfortunately, he's not here today. But we are going to start at childhood and how that kind of transformed you into the man you are today. So kick it off at childhood and let us know how that was. Speaker 3 (1:49) Yeah, so... Speaker 3 (1:53) It was crazy because there's moral memories, little memories that I remember through the time I was a kid. I can only remember from the time I was probably like six, seven, somewhere around there, maybe whatever. But my upbringing was kind of like up and down. I had moments where it was great. And the next moment, it was very disturbing, some degrees or whatever. Is there violence? Yeah, a lot of violence and stuff. At eight years old, I saw a family friend get shot and killed in front of me. Damn. So that was... You know, like right there. Yeah, I was laying right there on the porch playing with this little beach ball. I remember whatever. And it was I think it was about like something about like money or something or whatever. And then I heard a gun blast next to, you know, saw blood like just streaming down and streaming down the concrete or whatever. And obviously I ran inside or whatever and got completely disturbed by it, you know. But yeah, it was like one of those kind of kind of things. And then. You know, growing up where seeing my mom getting beaten by duns of shitty men through Speaker 2 (3:03) the process. Speaker 3 (3:04) Just fucking, Speaker 2 (3:05) she had a bad picker. She picked the wrong guys every time. She Speaker 3 (3:08) always picked the wrong ones. That became like a reoccurring theme growing up. Because some would put her in financial jeopardy and some would physically assault her at times or whatever. Being around that kind of stuff or whatever and just seeing that submerge further into what will be later in my upbringing. Speaker 3 (3:37) teenage life and adult life and stuff. So just a lot of, a lot of weird disturbing situations, but good moments too. You know, did Speaker 2 (3:45) you go to school? Speaker 3 (3:46) Yeah. I went to a Cassidy elementary. Okay. Me as a kid, which is on, um, I think like Agler. So, so like near Gahanna or somewhere. Did you Speaker 2 (3:55) do okay? Speaker 3 (3:56) Yeah, I did. Okay. I think academically I could have done better in math and stuff. Um, but I, Speaker 3 (4:04) I have a learning disability, so I was on an IEP and stuff. Okay. And everything. And ironically enough, you know, English wasn't my first language. Oh, really? Yeah. Actually, it was Arabic. Really? Yeah, I took like two ESL classes growing up. Huh. Yeah. So I was trying to get more ahead in my academics and stuff or whatever because like growing up, that was kind of an end goal of everybody and everything. Speaker 3 (4:32) That came about a lot more than from what I wanted to do later on, but it was a thing where it was pretty okay. Speaker 2 (4:42) How about moving into high school? Because that's the normally tumultuous time where it's like, okay, I want to fit in. How do I fit in? What do I do? Yeah. How was that? Speaker 3 (4:55) Freshman year was okay. I remember just kind of getting acclimated with the place or whatever and everything. And then within three months of being a freshman or whatever, I met this girl. And we dated for a while and everything. And later on, just kind of submerged into different things. And also, that actually started around the same time that I actually drunk my first beer. Speaker 2 (5:25) Okay. Speaker 3 (5:25) Yeah. Freshman year? Yeah, freshman year. My grandfather had little glass bottles of Corona right there in the fridge or whatever. My curious mind was like, oh, I want to give this a taste or whatever. Yeah, give it a try. Give it a try or whatever. Speaker 3 (5:45) tastes like piss yeah to the highest degree and i yeah i did not like it at all and and i got super shit face just from one because my little because my little little fragile body couldn't take it because that was my first time never doing it so i got hung over for after one from one beer yeah it's like and it's crazy because like my grandfather knew it knew that i did it and he like was giving me shit for it all day about Speaker 2 (6:18) being hungover yeah that's what my dad did to me when i got caught the first time yeah how you feel son he was no he would like Speaker 3 (6:29) do like these little i mean these like little mannerisms like do Speaker 2 (6:33) you Speaker 3 (6:35) feel that now yeah and i actually would be like oh god i gotta puke now like that kind of shit you know yeah um sophomore year again still with the same girl or whatever and then her sister come he comes through or whatever and um we hate a she hated the hell out of me and fun and ironically enough that would that would eventually she would eventually become my girlfriend really Speaker 2 (7:02) yeah Speaker 3 (7:03) eventually become my girlfriend and also and also further along my um Speaker 3 (7:11) becoming a thing on my fiance i i actually got engaged what by the time i was like 16 so wow yeah did Speaker 2 (7:18) you smoke weed dabble in any other drugs oh yeah for Speaker 3 (7:21) sure earlier for sure we need yeah yeah sophomore years was the first time uh that i experimented with like Speaker 3 (7:33) acid, dabs, weed, things like that or whatever. Do you like it? Marijuana was probably my biggest kind of thing or whatever. Your favorite. Yeah. It was probably the most potent, I guess, regarding to the... I was coherent enough to remember things still or whatever and I slept great. But all the other psychedelics or whatever, those trips were fucking rough. Really? Yeah, it was super rough. Like, I thought I was a fucking pirate running around High Street, running around High Street, thinking Speaker 2 (8:10) that a Taco Bell was a space station. You were on High Street? Speaker 3 (8:13) Yeah, so a little friend of mine, me and my friend took two tabs or whatever of it, and we ran all through High Street. Well, she drove, but, like, we stopped to get something to eat, and we looked at a Taco Bell of all places, or whatever. And I thought it was a space station. That's how much I was tripping. I thought it was a space station. I thought the fucking menu was like a spaceship or whatever. Like, that's how much I was tripping balls. So I didn't really enjoy that kind of thing. Yeah. Me or whatever. But then again, it was like, I don't like this. Let's do it again. Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:50) That's how it is. Yeah. Yep. That's Speaker 3 (8:52) how Speaker 2 (8:52) it goes. Speaker 3 (8:54) So. Speaker 3 (8:56) I dibble-dabbled in a few things or whatever, and then at 15, I experienced seeing my first overdose. Oh, really? Yeah. Apparently, my friend was doing Zans behind my back and everything. None of us in our circle knew that he was doing this stuff, me or whatever. Speaker 3 (9:15) I didn't know what Narcan looked like. I didn't know how to use it or anything or whatever. But I had to use like four of them to revive them and stuff or whatever. So that was a scary situation and everything. And it kind of became like a precursor to what I would endure later on, you know. Speaker 3 (9:37) By the time I was like 16 or 17, I was already drinking heavy. Okay. Yeah. Daily or daily? Speaker 2 (9:49) Daily. Speaker 3 (9:49) I was basically drinking like five, seven beers every morning before I go to school. Jesus Christ. And I would be hungover while I was at school or whatever. And I had to go back home constantly and everything. They helped me back academically or whatever, but then I just suddenly stopped for a little bit and tried to get well and graduate and everything. And all that time or whatever, it was a very, very rough time, just from early on as a what? Early on, you know, because... Me and my significant other at the time was having a child on the way or whatever, and she passed away from illness. Oh, wow. Yeah. So not only did we go through losing a kid or whatever, we and her were going through family battles or whatever because my family didn't like her family and her family didn't like my family or whatever because of different religious practices and stuff. um so that was there that was there and on top of that losing a kid and everything and then my drinking going out of fucking control after that and uh by