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| Home / Jan/Feb 2010 / Feature Stories / After being lost in the dark and deadly world of methamphetamine for so long, Jason Wells is finally finding his way |
Jan/Feb 2010
By Tina Thurmond
It was not really a party, and the friend who invited him was not really a friend. It was more like a casual gathering with some people he barely knew. In the end, he found out the free powder they gave him was not exactly free, either. It came with a heavy price. With just one try, Jason Wells unknowingly plunged himself into a nightmare of hellish proportions that would last eight horrifying years, and cost him everything he had, everything he loved, and everything he was.
The powder Wells tried was the deadly and highly addictive drug known as methamphetamine. “I was instantly hooked,” says Wells. “I suddenly felt like I was right where I always wanted to be, and I fit in.” From that moment on, the kid who always felt out of place around other people, lived to get his next dose of the drug that made him feel so good and made his troubles seem so far away.
Growing up, Wells tried hard to fit in with other kids, but never thought he did. His father, Jerry Wells, was a minister, so Wells spent a lot of time in church where he directed the choir and played piano. He also loved politics and, despite his insecurity, was very active in local campaigns.
When he graduated from Ider High School in 1997, he accepted a music and vocal scholarship from Northeast Alabama Community College. He began making new friends and, like any other kid on the threshold of adulthood, Jason had big dreams and a bright future.
The only thing that kept Wells from being completely happy with his new life were the old ghosts of insecurity and social anxiety from his childhood which still haunted him.
It was an ordinary night when 17-year-old Wells found himself at the home of a virtual stranger and feeling nervous. His new friend handed him the white powder and simply said, “Try this. You’ll like it.”
Unfortunately for Wells, and almost everyone who knew him, he was right.
“My drug addiction got so bad, so fast,” he says. “The drugs were so important to me that everything I loved no longer mattered. All that mattered was meth. Period.”
By the time he was 18, Wells was using needles to inject himself with meth several times a day. He left his church, dropped out of college, and began to steal anything he could, from anyone he could just to pay for his mounting drug costs.
Although he has since made amends for his wrongdoings, it is still painful for him to remember the lengths he went to in order to get methamphetamine. “I don’t like to think about it,” he says. “But, all of my personal morals I eventually broke for the drugs.”
The next seven years were a blur. While he doesn’t remember everything, one thing does stand out in his mind. “People on that stuff never have any sense of peace. They are just constantly restless, looking for that next fix,” he says. “That’s how I was.”
At the height of his addiction, he was spending over $300 a day on the drug just to keep from going into withdrawal. Because methamphetamine destroys receptors in the brain, after a time, the user cannot feel the ‘high’ that made them start using the deadly drug in the first place.
After so many years on meth, that is exactly what happened to Wells.
“I couldn’t get high anymore,” he says. “No matter how much I did, I couldn’t get high at all. At night, I would curl up in a ball and cry because the pain was so bad. I would pray to stop, to just not want it anymore. Sometimes I would get up and destroy my drug paraphernalia and pour my drugs down the sink, praying that I wouldn’t use anymore,” he says.
“But in the morning, I would get my stuff and repair it, and go get more drugs,” he adds. “I just couldn’t stand the pain, it was too intense.”
In early 2004, Wells was arrested for drug possession. He says he spent two days in jail, and when he got out on bond he promptly disappeared — failing to show up for court. He was arrested again later that year and held for 30 days in the DeKalb County jail.
“Those 30 days were a blessing,” he says. “It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
Through a plea agreement he went into Drug Court, an intense court-ordered drug program where he was frequently drug tested and put through other rigorous screenings. The program also required him to go to recovery meetings designed for addicts.
It was at one of these meetings that Wells says his life was saved. He happened to see a woman he had used drugs with many times in the past, who was now clean and in recovery. She looked into his eyes and said, “Jason, you don’t have to live like this anymore.”
“For some reason,” Wells recalls, “something clicked in my mind, and I believed her. I suddenly knew I could overcome the drugs.”
With renewed hope, Wells began putting his full efforts into the twelve-step recovery program he was in. By the time he celebrated 90 days without drugs, he applied for a job with a local plastic repair manufacturer.
He told his new employers, brothers Kurt and Keith Lammon of Urethane Supply Company in Rainsville, all about his history, and they decided to take a chance on him.
“It’s obviously a risk to hire somebody with that kind of background,” says Kurt Lammon, “ but it worked well in the end for all of us. We are just happy to have provided a place for Jason to focus his energies on something positive,” says Lammon. “We are proud of him.”
Wells, who started out as a part-time helper in the plant, says his growing confidence led him to take a bold step one day. “ I had been with the company for one year,” Wells says. “And I said to Kurt and Keith, ‘Hey, I can do more for this company if you give me a chance,’” he remembers. Once again, the brothers put their trust in Wells.
He was given a full-time job in the office, and worked his way up to be their Customer Service and Exports Manager. He has since completed college, and is even involved in local politics again.
“I have been clean for a little over five years now,” he says with pride. “I found hope through 12-step fellowships,” he says. “They taught me how to have a happy and productive life without drugs. I learned how to love others again, and how to love myself. I also know that God works in my life every day.”
Because he feels it is important to give back, Jason spends a great deal of his time helping other addicts and their families get away from drugs. “There are solutions,” he says. “It’s not hopeless. If you want a way out, there is a way out.”
MAMas Fight Back
On July 4th, 2000, Dr. Mary F. Holley suffered a devastating personal tragedy. Her younger brother, Jim, killed himself after being addicted to methamphetamine for two years. Dr. Holley, an obstetrician, fought back by starting Mothers Against Methamphetamine, or MAMa. She left practicing medicine and works full-time giving seminars and talks to people in churches to educate them about the dangers of methamphetamine.
According to MAMa’s mission statement, their goal is to provide competent and compassionate drug education and rehabilitation resources that reflect the mercy of Jesus Christ for the addict, his family, and the community.
The organization has an excellent resource catalog with a number of pamphlets, dvds for churches and Christian-based organizations.
There are also numerous secular materials available in the catalog. The organization realizes the need to educate the community and children in the public school system, and these materials are written and designed for that purpose.
Dr. Holley has also written a book called, ‘Crystal Meth: They Call It Ice”. According to MAMa’s resource catalog, the book is a definitive study on methamphetamine. It gives a detailed description of what meth is and what it does. It also describes the ordeal of the children of meth addicts.
To contact MAMa or obtain resource materials, go to MAMasite.net or call 1-866-293-8901.
What to look for in your neighborhood...
• Residence with blacked-out or covered windows.
• Large flow of traffic in and out of homes at unusual times.
• Garbage with multiple empty bottles of chemicals (like Red Devil Lye, Drano, iodine, HEET), piles of unlit matches, coffee filters, broken jars, rock salt boxes, empty cold medicine boxes or bottles, numerous empty medicine blister packs.
• Unusual or obnoxious odors
THERE IS HELP, THERE IS HOPE
IF SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS ADDICTED TO METH, PLEASE CALL FOR HELP TODAY: 256-845-8550
After being lost in the dark and deadly world of methamphetamine for so long, Jason Wells is finally finding his way
Back
Jason Wells overcame an eight-year addiction to methamphetamine through the help of a twelve-step program. Now he helps others find hope of recovery.
By Tina Thurmond
It was not really a party, and the friend who invited him was not really a friend. It was more like a casual gathering with some people he barely knew. In the end, he found out the free powder they gave him was not exactly free, either. It came with a heavy price. With just one try, Jason Wells unknowingly plunged himself into a nightmare of hellish proportions that would last eight horrifying years, and cost him everything he had, everything he loved, and everything he was.
The powder Wells tried was the deadly and highly addictive drug known as methamphetamine. “I was instantly hooked,” says Wells. “I suddenly felt like I was right where I always wanted to be, and I fit in.” From that moment on, the kid who always felt out of place around other people, lived to get his next dose of the drug that made him feel so good and made his troubles seem so far away.
Growing up, Wells tried hard to fit in with other kids, but never thought he did. His father, Jerry Wells, was a minister, so Wells spent a lot of time in church where he directed the choir and played piano. He also loved politics and, despite his insecurity, was very active in local campaigns.
When he graduated from Ider High School in 1997, he accepted a music and vocal scholarship from Northeast Alabama Community College. He began making new friends and, like any other kid on the threshold of adulthood, Jason had big dreams and a bright future.
The only thing that kept Wells from being completely happy with his new life were the old ghosts of insecurity and social anxiety from his childhood which still haunted him.
It was an ordinary night when 17-year-old Wells found himself at the home of a virtual stranger and feeling nervous. His new friend handed him the white powder and simply said, “Try this. You’ll like it.”
Unfortunately for Wells, and almost everyone who knew him, he was right.
“My drug addiction got so bad, so fast,” he says. “The drugs were so important to me that everything I loved no longer mattered. All that mattered was meth. Period.”
By the time he was 18, Wells was using needles to inject himself with meth several times a day. He left his church, dropped out of college, and began to steal anything he could, from anyone he could just to pay for his mounting drug costs.
Although he has since made amends for his wrongdoings, it is still painful for him to remember the lengths he went to in order to get methamphetamine. “I don’t like to think about it,” he says. “But, all of my personal morals I eventually broke for the drugs.”
The next seven years were a blur. While he doesn’t remember everything, one thing does stand out in his mind. “People on that stuff never have any sense of peace. They are just constantly restless, looking for that next fix,” he says. “That’s how I was.”
At the height of his addiction, he was spending over $300 a day on the drug just to keep from going into withdrawal. Because methamphetamine destroys receptors in the brain, after a time, the user cannot feel the ‘high’ that made them start using the deadly drug in the first place.
After so many years on meth, that is exactly what happened to Wells.
“I couldn’t get high anymore,” he says. “No matter how much I did, I couldn’t get high at all. At night, I would curl up in a ball and cry because the pain was so bad. I would pray to stop, to just not want it anymore. Sometimes I would get up and destroy my drug paraphernalia and pour my drugs down the sink, praying that I wouldn’t use anymore,” he says.
“But in the morning, I would get my stuff and repair it, and go get more drugs,” he adds. “I just couldn’t stand the pain, it was too intense.”
In early 2004, Wells was arrested for drug possession. He says he spent two days in jail, and when he got out on bond he promptly disappeared — failing to show up for court. He was arrested again later that year and held for 30 days in the DeKalb County jail.
“Those 30 days were a blessing,” he says. “It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”
Through a plea agreement he went into Drug Court, an intense court-ordered drug program where he was frequently drug tested and put through other rigorous screenings. The program also required him to go to recovery meetings designed for addicts.
It was at one of these meetings that Wells says his life was saved. He happened to see a woman he had used drugs with many times in the past, who was now clean and in recovery. She looked into his eyes and said, “Jason, you don’t have to live like this anymore.”
“For some reason,” Wells recalls, “something clicked in my mind, and I believed her. I suddenly knew I could overcome the drugs.”
With renewed hope, Wells began putting his full efforts into the twelve-step recovery program he was in. By the time he celebrated 90 days without drugs, he applied for a job with a local plastic repair manufacturer.
He told his new employers, brothers Kurt and Keith Lammon of Urethane Supply Company in Rainsville, all about his history, and they decided to take a chance on him.
“It’s obviously a risk to hire somebody with that kind of background,” says Kurt Lammon, “ but it worked well in the end for all of us. We are just happy to have provided a place for Jason to focus his energies on something positive,” says Lammon. “We are proud of him.”
Wells, who started out as a part-time helper in the plant, says his growing confidence led him to take a bold step one day. “ I had been with the company for one year,” Wells says. “And I said to Kurt and Keith, ‘Hey, I can do more for this company if you give me a chance,’” he remembers. Once again, the brothers put their trust in Wells.
He was given a full-time job in the office, and worked his way up to be their Customer Service and Exports Manager. He has since completed college, and is even involved in local politics again.
“I have been clean for a little over five years now,” he says with pride. “I found hope through 12-step fellowships,” he says. “They taught me how to have a happy and productive life without drugs. I learned how to love others again, and how to love myself. I also know that God works in my life every day.”
Because he feels it is important to give back, Jason spends a great deal of his time helping other addicts and their families get away from drugs. “There are solutions,” he says. “It’s not hopeless. If you want a way out, there is a way out.”
MAMas Fight Back
On July 4th, 2000, Dr. Mary F. Holley suffered a devastating personal tragedy. Her younger brother, Jim, killed himself after being addicted to methamphetamine for two years. Dr. Holley, an obstetrician, fought back by starting Mothers Against Methamphetamine, or MAMa. She left practicing medicine and works full-time giving seminars and talks to people in churches to educate them about the dangers of methamphetamine.
According to MAMa’s mission statement, their goal is to provide competent and compassionate drug education and rehabilitation resources that reflect the mercy of Jesus Christ for the addict, his family, and the community.
The organization has an excellent resource catalog with a number of pamphlets, dvds for churches and Christian-based organizations.
There are also numerous secular materials available in the catalog. The organization realizes the need to educate the community and children in the public school system, and these materials are written and designed for that purpose.
Dr. Holley has also written a book called, ‘Crystal Meth: They Call It Ice”. According to MAMa’s resource catalog, the book is a definitive study on methamphetamine. It gives a detailed description of what meth is and what it does. It also describes the ordeal of the children of meth addicts.
To contact MAMa or obtain resource materials, go to MAMasite.net or call 1-866-293-8901.
What to look for in your neighborhood...
• Residence with blacked-out or covered windows.
• Large flow of traffic in and out of homes at unusual times.
• Garbage with multiple empty bottles of chemicals (like Red Devil Lye, Drano, iodine, HEET), piles of unlit matches, coffee filters, broken jars, rock salt boxes, empty cold medicine boxes or bottles, numerous empty medicine blister packs.
• Unusual or obnoxious odors
THERE IS HELP, THERE IS HOPE
IF SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS ADDICTED TO METH, PLEASE CALL FOR HELP TODAY: 256-845-8550
