Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905 PATREON SAVES on DOPEYCON TICKETS: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on the Dopey Dose! Dave opens the Wednesday Dose of Dopey with gratitude, recovery reflections and a reminder that it is possible to restart your day at any moment. A Canadian listener recounts ceremonially burying—and urinating on—his remaining cocaine while tripping on acid, while Northeast Ohio Bob remembers the drug-fueled chaos of Nelson Ledges Quarry Park. Then Stephanie Wittels Wachs joins Dave to discuss her new book, Last Day, and the death of her brother, beloved Parks and Recreation writer and comedian Harris Wittels. Stephanie remembers growing up and experimenting with weed, mushrooms, acid and whippets alongside Harris, his obsessive love of Phish and the moment his casual drug use became an urgent dependence on pills and heroin. Harris admitted spending $4,000 a month on pills while his career was exploding, entered treatment twice and died from an overdose shortly afterward. Stephanie explains how losing Harris transformed her into an advocate for harm reduction, overdose prevention and drug-policy reform. She and Dave discuss SafeSpot, Kimber and Stephen Murray, supervised consumption sites, the shame that forces people to use alone and the importance of keeping people alive without demanding that they become sober on someone else’s timetable. The conversation closes with an honest discussion of grief, therapy, purpose and gratitude. Stephanie describes how writing and caring for her daughter gradually helped her build a larger life around the permanent loss of Harris. All that and more on the brand new Wednesday Dose of Dopey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507 PAtreon can save $15 on tickets: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode summary: This week on Dopey Total Replay! Dave circles back to Dopey Episode 42—the first appearance of his lifelong friend Devan. Before the replay, Dave celebrates eleven years in recovery, reflects on acceptance, gratitude and friendship, makes amends for sharing too much about a sponsee, and responds to listeners inspired by the Hunter Biden interview. Then Dave, Chris and Devan revisit their teenage years in New York City, including Dave and Devin’s first acid trip at a Grateful Dead show, the pug that looked like an alien, a disastrous baby-powder fight and their organized campaign to steal CDs from HMV. Chris remembers Surfer Mike, addiction before the drugs and his dangerous childhood experiments with model rockets. Finally, an Australian listener tells the insane story of an overdosed friend who was dumped in a phone booth—only to wake up hours later and call the people who left him there. All that and MORE on the total replay episode of the good old dopey show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dopeycon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507 Patreon Saves $15: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Summary Dopey Greatest Hits: Actor and storyteller Ned Van Zandt returns to promote his one-man show, Lost in Dell Valley, and revisit his astonishing life in addiction and recovery. Ned describes being recognized in jail by the leader of the Texas Aryan Brotherhood, who traded him protection and OxyContin for acting lessons using scenes from Lost and Prison Break. The episode then replays Ned’s original Dopey appearance: doing heroin with Andy Warhol’s circle, living at the Chelsea Hotel alongside Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, eating Burger King with Sid on the day Nancy died, and being in their room hours before her murder. Ned explains why he believes Sid was innocent and identifies the drug dealer he suspected may have been involved. Ned also recounts driving a cab while addicted to heroin, getting slashed during a robbery, buying drugs on the devastated Lower East Side, descending into meth addiction in Long Beach, and knowing dealers who smuggled exotic birds. After nearly 13 years clean, one glass of wine led to a cocaine overdose four days later and another seven-year run. His final arrest, time in jail, and a trip to treatment in Hawaii ultimately gave him another chance—although he arrived with Valium, Vicodin and OxyContin sewn into his clothes. Today, Ned has nearly 20 years clean, works at Transcend NYC, and performs all 19 characters in Lost in Dell Valley. Way More on the New Episode! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Full Episode only on: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thedopeyfoundation/2345507 Summary / show notes Dave reveals that filmmaker Jason Cabello is making a documentary about Dopey—and recently followed him to California for a still-secret mission. Jason also sits down with longtime friends Brad and Jeremy to investigate the real history of Dave’s addiction and the creation of Dopey. Before the documentary preview, Dave remembers musician Mark Hudson, announces the DopeyCon Theme Song Challenge, runs through the growing DopeyCon lineup, reads listener updates, celebrates recovery anniversaries, and receives an exceptionally detailed complaint about his disgusting habit of eating into the microphone. The teaser ends with Brad boldly claiming that Dopey wouldn’t exist without him—and Dave promising Patreon listeners the resentment-filled story behind it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen without ads: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast DOPEYCON TICKETS: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2345507 This week on Dopey! Viral comedian and school custodian Jimmy Cash joins Dopey to tell a funny, painful, and unmistakably Dopey recovery story. Jimmy grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts, surrounded by addiction and Alcoholics Anonymous. His father—a high-school janitor—died from an overdose when Jimmy was nine, while his mother cycled through addiction, recovery, and relationships with other janitors. After watching The Basketball Diaries as a child, Jimmy became obsessed with getting high before he had even tried a real drug. By his teens, Jimmy was smoking weed, drinking, taking psychedelics, using cocaine and ketamine, getting arrested, and fighting with police. He recalls punching a cop who was kindly driving him home, attacking the weak knee of a college RA—or at least being accused of it—and causing a coked-out disaster at an IHOP that ended with him breaking the handle off a police car and being beaten in custody. Court-ordered AA eventually became genuine recovery. Jimmy got sober in 2003, built a family, became a custodian, and pursued his lifelong dream of stand-up comedy. His janitor videos went viral, leading to national attention and an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. But after more than 20 years without drinking or using, divorce, career pressure, grief, isolation, and insomnia left Jimmy sleeping on his younger sister’s couch. He began “nibbling” cannabis edibles, quickly recognized that he was getting high, and made the humbling decision to return to AA and pick up a new 24-hour chip. Plus: a listener steals a car and escapes police through a freezing pond, questions about the experimental opioid compound SR-17018, a precipitated-withdrawal horror story, spicy reactions to the Roy Donk episode, drugged dogs, dead parrots, Phish fans, and DopeyCon business. All that and more on this weeks new MASS edition of Dopey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905 Get Discounts and Good Stuff on PAtreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Summary Interventionist, social worker, author and longtime Dopey favorite Joe Schrank returns to record with Dave in person for the first time since the early days with Chris. Joe explains why he believes the traditional rehab industry often confuses compliance with actual healing—and why recovery should be measured by improvement, reduced harm and staying alive, not only perfect abstinence. Dave and Joe dig into Brad Pitt’s decision to drink moderately after years of sobriety, whether alcoholics can ever successfully return to controlled drinking, and why celebrities speaking publicly about recovery matters. They also discuss kratom and 7-OH addiction, medication-assisted treatment, cannabis in recovery, mental health care and the danger of treating relapse as a moral failure. Joe shares memories of employing Chris, how he responded to Chris’s relapses and the shame Chris carried afterward. Plus: a drug-addled FedEx driver steals a customer’s mailbox, Dave’s painfully awkward encounter with Seth Rogen, Joe’s upcoming book and screenplay, DopeyCon, Andy Cohen, baseball and the possible return of Rehab Confidential. ALL THAT AND MORE! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast DopeyCon Tickets: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905 Summary: On this Dopey Total Replay, Dave revisits episode 41—the first episode he and Chris recorded with an actual microphone and one of the earliest shows to explore bipolar disorder, mania, drug-induced psychosis and mental illness. First, Jason tells a mile-a-minute story about visiting an escort in a boarded-up Seattle trap house after relapsing on meth. After smoking crack for the first time, he returns from the bathroom to discover that the escort has taken his phone, wallet and keys. She demands $400—including a mandatory $50 tip—and summons a huge man armed with a nine iron. Held hostage and threatened with death, Jason secretly texts his roommate, who sends the police crashing through the door. Then Dave and Chris return in 2016 with their brand-new Yeti microphone. They debate potential sponsors, remember Leonardo DiCaprio completely ignoring Dave, and discuss the grim reality of losing friends to overdoses. Chris tells the story of a longtime friend whose drug use triggered manic and psychotic episodes. After hearing Dave describe Leonardo DiCaprio as “Teflon,” the friend is approached by police while behaving erratically, tears off his shirt and repeatedly screams, “I’m Leonardo DiCaprio!” The conversation expands into bipolar disorder, substance-induced mania, grandiosity, Jesus delusions and the difficulty of getting someone appropriate psychiatric care when they can appear normal for an hour. Dave’s friend John then calls with recordings of his frightening former roommate. John survived the living situation by recording every confrontation with his phone—including an incredible argument in which the roommate becomes convinced that John bought a scratched, secondhand toilet seat online. The episode finishes with early Dopey shenanigans: Chris’s abandoned mindfulness calendar, Dave receiving weed as a Secret Santa gift immediately after getting sober, and a mysterious half-ounce of marijuana left underneath a table at Katz’s. All that and lots more on this new but also old episode of dopey. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

LISTEN WITHOUT ADS on PATREON: Buy discount Tickets to DopeyCon only n Patreon: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Summary On this Dopey Greatest Hits, Dave brings back one of the wildest and most cinematic stories in the show’s history: Louie Mandrapilias, author of Flew Too High. First, Dave gives a DopeyCon update and plays a voicemail from Hannah, who manipulated her dog’s medical records to build a second Xanax prescription in her pet’s name. What began with six bars for an anxious dog eventually became regular prescriptions that Hannah took for herself—until her veterinarian offered to double the dosage and Hannah realized how far the scheme had gone. Then Louie takes us from 1970s New York City to India, Bolivia and Bangkok. A young gay art student arrives in Manhattan, takes MDA, dances at Studio 54, sees Andy Warhol, shoots his first speedball and falls in love with a small-time drug dealer. That relationship sends him to India, where he visits an opium den, joins Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s ashram and begins an unexpected romance with a German woman. When Louie becomes stranded with an unpaid hotel bill, he tracks down an opium-addicted dealer named Tascar and agrees to smuggle pure heroin back to New York inside a condom wrapped in electrical tape and hidden in his body. At JFK, DEA agents strip-search him but somehow fail to find it. Louie sells half the heroin for $50,000—and quickly becomes addicted to the rest. Next comes a trip to Bolivia for a kilo of pure cocaine. Unable to conceal the package the way he planned, Louie divides it between his cowboy boots and skin-tight jeans. This time, the DEA immediately notices. He is arrested, faces federal charges and avoids prison after his father puts up the family home and helps him receive probation. But even that isn’t Louie’s bottom. After returning to drugs, he joins an elaborate Bangkok heroin-smuggling operation that hides the shipment inside an airplane lavatory for another courier to retrieve on a domestic leg of the flight. By Christmas 1983, Louie is living in luxury but feels completely dead inside. A seemingly minor argument produces a life-changing realization: “You don’t have to live like this.” He returns home, kicks heroin and enters treatment on January 1, 1984. A year later, he tests HIV-positive at a time when the diagnosis was widely considered a death sentence. Louie stays sober, builds a creative life, finds an HIV-positive recovery community in Los Angeles—and remains sober 40 years later. All that and more on this brand new yet old Classic Episode of that good old Dopey Show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

LISTEN TO THE FULL (unfull) Jason Mewes interview go to www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode summary On a new Dopey Tuesday Teaser, Dave celebrates Hardcore Dope Eric’s four-year sobriety anniversary before explaining the strange history of his long-awaited interview with Jason Mewes—Jay from Jay and Silent Bob and films including Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. After nearly ten years of trying to book Jason, Dave finally recorded with him—only for Dave’s internet to fail around an hour into the conversation. Six months of attempts to schedule the rest of the interview went nowhere, leaving Dave to confront the blurry line between persistence and becoming unbearably annoying. He decides to stop pursuing Jason, make amends in spirit and release the unfinished conversation exclusively on Patreon. Jesse contributes a classic Xanax blackout story: he drives to a gas station, nods out with his foot on the brake and wakes up safely in bed with no idea where his car went. When he reports it missing, the police remind him that they drove him home, helped him climb through his window and parked the car for him. Abby shares her journey from winning a sixth-grade DARE essay contest to alcoholism, a suicide attempt, an out-of-state DUI and eventually nine years of sobriety. The daughter of two addicts who met at an AA barn dance, Abby describes praying for 90 days until her desire to drink finally lifted. Today, she is a mother, business owner and active member of the recovery community. Dave also reads Spotify and Patreon reactions to the Reddit Roundup, including praise for his increasingly elaborate guided meditations, more DopeyCon game-show suggestions, criticism of Heart Attack Doug, a possible reconciliation with Cat Marnell and an idea for episodes built around music from different periods of Dave’s addiction. The teaser closes with the beginning of the elusive Jason Mewes interview before the rest disappears behind the Patreon paywall. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen without ads and buy DOPEYCON TICKETS ONLY ON SALE ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey! On a sprawling new episode of Dopey, Dave celebrates recovery, remembers members of the Dopey Nation who have died, and welcomes Good Baklava founder Roy Donk for an unbelievably chaotic conversation about drugs, Phish, entrepreneurship and sobriety. The episode begins with Australian Dope Maddie B celebrating one year without alcohol after years of severe alcoholism, seizures, psychosis and repeated attempts to stop. Her message about continuing to try leads into a remembrance of Annie Ellie on the anniversary of her death. Dave plays Annie’s old recording about discovering Dopey while she was still using and how Dave, Chris and the Dopey Nation helped make recovery feel possible. Dave also explains Dopey Day, the annual social-media tribute honoring Chris, Todd, Annie, Brian and the other dopes the community has lost. Taylor checks in with a darkly funny voicemail about why Dopey’s willingness to laugh at addiction, death and other painful subjects still matters. Dave then reads responses to the Christmas episode with Chris O’Connor’s former partner Annie, including messages about grief, relapse, lost loved ones and the idea that grief never disappears—we gradually build a larger life around it. Minnesota Matt contributes the episode’s first major drug story: after spending days smoking crack alone, he wakes up naked, bloodied and bruised beside a broken guitar and realizes he overdosed while playing along with the Allman Brothers. A tape recorder captured the collapse, but after listening to the evidence, he loads another crack pipe and continues smoking. California Miles then sends an update about the end of his 38-year marriage and his attempt to replace self-pity with acceptance and the Serenity Prayer. The featured guest is Roy Donk, founder of Good Baklava and the Knicks fan who became a viral presence outside Madison Square Garden. Roy recounts growing up Orthodox Jewish in New Jersey, smoking K2, stealing cologne, dropping out of high school, working bizarre Hasidic jobs and eventually discovering Phish and psychedelics. His story escalates through cocaine dealing, life in a San Diego drug house, a dog accidentally eating acid, selling drugs on Phish tour and getting arrested at Mohegan Sun after doing ketamine at the slot machines while dressed in a Phish robe. Court-ordered rehab initially fails to convince Roy that he is an addict, and he quickly returns to nitrous, cocaine, ketamine and touring. During the pandemic, he moves to Mexico and maintains a remote marketing career while using heavily. A Tulum work trip becomes a massive binge, culminating in Roy accidentally uploading uncensored photographs of the debauchery to his employer’s shared drive. After losing the job, Roy walks into an English-speaking AA meeting in Mexico and begins working with a sponsor. He eventually admits that he cannot control his drug use, returns to Phish tour sober and discovers that recovery doesn’t require surrendering the music or community he loves. When he needs a legal way to make money on tour, he buys three containers of grocery-store baklava and sells them at a show. That spontaneous hustle eventually becomes Good Baklava, importing unbaked baklava from Turkey and building a growing business from New Jersey. All that and more, more, more, more on a sweet phishy new dopey episode of that good old dopey show. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Full Episodes on PAtreon without ADS: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast On this very special Wednesday Dose of Dopey, Dave remembers two beloved members of the Dopey Nation: Annie Ellie and Brian “Hot Wheels” Connolly. First, we revisit Dave’s conversation with Annie—a radiant, hilarious force in the community who helped bring people together through Dopey Zoom. Annie shares her journey from England’s rave scene and recreational heroin use to opium dens in Laos, backstage chaos with Oasis, years of addiction, and finally finding recovery through NA and the Dopey Nation. Then we return to Brian “Hot Wheels” Connolly’s unforgettable appearances with Dave and Chris. Brian tells the devastating story of breaking his neck after diving through a frozen pond, learning to inject heroin despite quadriplegia, and struggling to build a meaningful life in recovery. In an especially painful moment, Brian calls Dopey while craving heroin—and Chris helps talk him through the night. It’s an episode about grief, community, relapse, survival, and the people whose lives continue to matter after they are gone. And MORE! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dave revisits Dopey Episode 39, one of the strangest and most influential episodes from the show’s early years. Before the replay, he announces his latest attempt at a Dopey Fitness Challenge, shares a DopeyCon update, untangles the increasingly confusing Patreon tiers, reads listener reactions to the infamous Modi episode, and reflects on what this recording revealed about his relationship with Chris. In the original episode, Dave and Chris recover from their disastrous interview with Modi by eating Vietnamese food and chocolate, arguing about whether Dave is a control freak, and repeatedly attempting to sing the Chili’s baby-back-ribs jingle. Chris tells the story of traumatizing his epileptic Portuguese water dog, plays an accidentally stolen Howard Stern prank, and recalls buying cocaine from a garbage bag in an abandoned Caribbean house—before lighting his hair on fire. The episode eventually turns toward recovery, connection, and the importance of calling another sober person when things get dark. Then, naturally, Dave and Chris destroy “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” A chaotic early Dopey classic that captures exactly why their partnership worked. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

FULL SHOW NO ADS ON PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Episode Summary This week on Dopey's Greatest Hits! What may be the greatest Dopey episode of all time: the unbelievable story of tattoo artist, punk-rock survivor, bank robber and Dopey legend Shane Enholm. Before the replay, Dave announces that DopeyCon is officially happening October 3, celebrates the publication of his kratom piece in Rolling Stone, and reads a listener’s story about Bristol’s open heroin market. Then Shane’s story begins. Raised by an addicted mother, arrested alongside her at 12 and homeless as a teenager, Shane hitchhiked across America before finding punk rock in late-1970s Los Angeles. He crossed paths with Darby Crash and the Germs, became involved with Crash’s former girlfriend Casey, developed a devastating heroin addiction and began robbing pharmacies. After entering adult prison at 18, Shane escaped a Synanon-style treatment program and returned to heroin, cocaine and crime. When Shane and Casey lost custody of their children, he robbed his first bank with a toy gun. Over the next six months, he became the FBI’s “Ponytail Bandit,” robbing 29 banks—including one $36,000 score—while financing an enormous heroin habit. Shane describes robbing banks with his children in getaway cars, a dye pack exploding inside a taxi, his arrest in San Francisco and the eight years and 23 days he subsequently spent in federal prison. Inside, he developed another heroin habit, dealt drugs, swallowed and concealed balloons of heroin, and survived the violent racial politics of high-security federal institutions. After prison, Shane found his daughters living in horrific conditions, regained custody and slowly attempted to rebuild his life. He survived hepatitis C, cirrhosis and bacterial endocarditis, found stability through methadone, recovery, tattooing and art, and eventually became a respected historian of antique tattoo machines. The episode ends with Shane performing “Making Mud Pies,” the heartbreaking song he wrote in prison about Casey, followed by Trinity's cover of “Good So Bad.” Plus more! more! more! on the new old Dopey show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.