PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — When Tammy Kruwell started using heroin, she said it cost her $10 a day.
“It was cheaper than finding pills,” she said. “Fentanyl was not yet out, and I was watching that person do it, and I said I wanted to try. And that was it.”
She said the first time she injected provided the intense feeling that she chased for 20 years. By the time she decided she wanted to quit, Kruwell said she was spending $350 a day.
“The whole time I knew it was a problem,” she said. “Every day it was a problem, but I didn’t act on it.”
Kruwell tried to get sober several times, but said she often relapsed within the first 24 hours.
“I just couldn’t do it,” she said. “Once I would start throwing up, that’s when I would give in and I would go get it.”
Kruwell and her husband decided to quit the same month, and separately went to detox centers for a week to get clean. After that, Kruwell said she went to the methadone clinic for three years.
Both have been sober for 13 years.
Dennis Bailer with Project Weber/RENEW said the drug supply has become much more dangerous since then.