I want to write about the first time I did a pill. It was a turning point, one of those things you’ll think you’ll never forget. But I can’t. I don’t remember. I don’t remember any of my first-time meetings with drugs except for OxyContin.

It was my junior year of high school and OxyContin was showing up everywhere, in the hallways at school, parties on the weekend and in medicine cabinets all over central Appalachia. I was with my cousin Eric, who was like a brother, the first time I did an OC. It was fall and we were riding around in the hills when we came across a mutual friend. He was eager to share. OxyContin was unlike anything else. At that time people were excited to introduce anyone they could find to this new drug. We sat in the cab of his truck and split a 20-milligram pill bet

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