Surviving the Heroin Epidemic with Sarah Spier.Surviving the Heroin Epidemic with Sarah Spier.
The Elevate Experience
Former IV heroin user Sarah Spier shares her journey from speedballs and hepatitis C to leadership in adolescent treatment and opioid advocacy. The conversation also examines fentanyl, system failures in care, and why long‑term, trauma‑aware support matters for real recovery.
1:10:43•4 Jan 2022
Surviving Heroin, Facing Fentanyl: Sarah Spier on Recovery and Real Change
Episode Overview
- Romantic relationships and attachment can strongly fuel addiction and relapse, often more than people realise.
- IV use isn’t just about the drug; the ritual and needle rush can become a powerful addiction in itself.
- Health fallout from opioid use, such as hepatitis C, can be severe, yet long‑term clean living and medical support may improve outcomes.
- Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid now driving overdose deaths, often turning up unexpectedly in other drugs bought on the street.
- Short‑term detox and medication alone rarely address addiction; long‑term, trauma‑informed, whole‑person care and proper funding are key for lasting recovery.
“Today is not the day you're going to die. This is not how our story ends.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation on The Elevate Experience follows Sarah Spier’s story from IV heroin use and speedballs to directing a major adolescent treatment facility and campaigning for change in opioid care. Sarah shares how a teenage romance with a “bad boy” slowly pulled her from a promising film career into heavy opioid use, prison culture, and eventually a full-blown heroin and cocaine habit.
She speaks openly about the pull of needle rituals, contracting hepatitis C from shared syringes, and an overdose that left her in a coma for three days. Her mother’s fierce presence became a lifeline; as Sarah recalls, her mum sat by her bed saying, “Today is not the day you’re going to die. This is not how our story ends.” From there, the talk shifts into bigger questions that anyone touched by addiction will recognise.
Sarah and hosts Angie Manson and Dallas Terrell compare their experiences with speedballs, relapse, and early recovery that looked more like cigarettes and fast food than green juices and yoga. They then step back to look at the wider opioid landscape: fentanyl as the leading cause of death for US adults 18–45, synthetic supply chains, and why Sarah bluntly says people using drugs need to “know where you get your drugs” because of fentanyl-laced batches.
You’ll hear about Follow the Poppy, Sarah’s opioid-focused platform, her research into international drug policy, and her push for trauma‑informed, long‑term care that’s more than just a prescription pad. She unpacks how insurance, decriminalisation without infrastructure, and lack of transitional housing undercut real recovery, and shares ideas for systems that actually support people for the long haul.
If you’re curious how lived experience, science, and policy can come together to challenge the heroin and fentanyl crisis, this one might get you thinking about what real change could look like — in families, in programmes, and across entire systems.
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