183 - JARED BLAINE FROM THE BLAKLIST PODCAST

Chuck (00:02.294)
Hello everybody, watchers, listeners, supporters, the whole whack of you. Welcome to another episode of the Ashes to Awesome podcast. I'm your host, Chuck LaFlandre, and with me in virtual studio today is Jared Blaine. Now Jared Blaine is the host of what is becoming a very popular podcast down south of the border, The Blacklist. That's B-L-A-K list, not C-K. Otherwise you're going to end up listening or watching to something about the TV show, The Blacklist, and as entertaining as that is, it's not what we're looking for. So yeah, I heard that happen to somebody else once, but.

Anyway, how you doing today, Jared?

Jared Blaine (00:35.582)
Man, you already got me. Well, I am doing good, brother. I'm doing good. Thank you for having me on.

Chuck (00:37.462)
Hahaha

Chuck (00:41.926)
Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. So I was behind the curtain. We actually recorded for Jared's But it's not gonna be on till 2026 sometime I think before I'm actually gonna be on the blacklist So when you're enjoying this you'll get to hear my story on his podcast sometime after flying cars are invented. So I think he said January or something like that, right? So yeah. Yeah. Yeah, right so

Jared Blaine (01:00.249)
We'll try to move it up a few years.

Jared Blaine (01:06.299)
Yeah, yep, mid-January.

Chuck (01:11.434)
It's funny, the recovery content creator world is getting smaller by the minute, it seems. As our platforms grow, you know, it kinda seems to be getting smaller, you know, as far as who's who. I had heard about you on, from Matt, no, yeah, Matt, excuse me, from Matt Keegan the first time. He had mentioned being on your show. And then it's not even a week later, and.

all of a sudden I'm listening to you on Dan's show. Of course, I really like Dan's show. I was on it myself, and we live in the same part of the world, so hard knocks talks that is. And then, don't you reach out to me like the next day. And I went to go listen to your podcast, and of course that's when I ended up, or that friend of mine ended up listening to a whole episode about the Blacklist TV show. Right? That's when I did. So before I even got a chance the next day to turn yours on, you had messaged me about doing a guest exchange. So small world, right?

Jared Blaine (02:08.766)
And that's crazy. That is really crazy how the universe was aligning up.

Chuck (02:10.015)
Right, isn't it though?

Yeah, yeah, right, right. Some things are just meant to be. Another great example of that was yesterday morning, right? Yesterday was my one year, right, clean, and thank you, thank you, thank you. And I was stressed out. My two co-hosts were at the Canadian Symposium for Addiction Medicine, which is a big deal to be at, so they couldn't make it for the weekend. And I can't wait for.

Jared Blaine (02:23.514)
Congrats, by the way.

Chuck (02:40.546)
for the insights and things that they bring back to the show for that, right? Dr. Lisa's a psychiatrist, of course, and Attica is a harm reduction full-time worker with her own non-profit and that in the area as well. So the two of them there, you know, just amazing. But I'm a procrastinator, might be some ADHD behind that. And all week I was like, okay, I could do this, I could do this, I could do this, I was like, oh shit, it's tomorrow. And I was bummed right out Saturday morning that I didn't have anything put together and kind of pissed off at myself for not getting on it.

So I had considered asking Chantelle Huell from Trap House Testimonies. The night before I thought about it, I was like, no, she already told me she was gonna be busy until this date, I won't bother her. And then I'd made a post, I don't know what it was exactly. Oh, my one year post. She liked it and I thought, ah, she's online, I'll ask her. What she can say is no. When I messaged her, she was in the middle of commenting on my post. And she's like, that's meant to be.

Okay, well I guess I'm going on the podcast in my pajamas and so she came on the show. So it's just, some things are just meant to be, man. Right, you know? Right, it's right. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so you've got a crazy story, man. And like we were talking about before we recorded, there are some things obviously I wanna talk about on this show, right? But first, before we get into that, how do you get into podcasting? How does that start for you?

Jared Blaine (03:47.602)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. We just gotta roll with it. Let it happen.

Jared Blaine (04:10.726)
I mean, I've always, from the jump, I've always been a huge, you know, YouTube podcasting. I love to just, that's what I do at work, just listen to different podcasts or watch different YouTube videos or whatnot. And when I got sober, at the time, there wasn't as many as there are now. There wasn't as many recovery slash mental health based podcasts. Now there's one on every corner, which is great. But at that time, you know, five years ago, there wasn't.

And I was like, you know what, like, I would really love to just share my story and then have others and just share their stories to other people. And really, that's just, that's where it did. I mean, I made the Facebook page for it and I kind of sat on the idea for like a year and a half, honestly, before I even did anything. I did. And then I just kept telling myself every, because I just, I was like, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. I don't have a team, blah, blah. Like I had the ideas.

Chuck (04:39.819)
Yeah.

Chuck (04:57.43)
Really? Yeah. Why?

Jared Blaine (05:08.594)
but I just didn't know, like, I just didn't know where to begin. And I just told myself year after year after year, you're either going to start it or you're not. And so finally, at the end of 2021, right before 2022, I was like, you know what? It's now or never. Like, it's either going to happen or it's not. So January of 2022, just jumped in full force. I met a lot of people. I had the logo made, the different things. And yeah.

that whole year was like a like a beta mode it was testing it was testing that the waters and I did a couple of small episodes to kind of see what it was gonna do and it wasn't until this year to 2023 that I actually got my got in my mojo and we've been pretty successful this year after starting it

Chuck (05:53.595)
Okay, okay.

Nice, nice, right? That is such different, like mine was like, mom suggested a podcast, I listened to a couple episodes at Dopey, and then three days later, I was just hammering away and started a podcast with no idea, no equipment, it was a borrowed Windows 7 laptop. This is 10 months ago, this is not 10 years ago, this is 10 months ago, I had a borrowed Windows 7 laptop. No headphones, no headsets, no nothing, and I was just like, okay, I just started.

beacon off into a computer really is how that played out, right? I've had to learn in a different way than you did. I didn't, you know, right? Which is funny because with our histories, we're both risk takers, right? So, right? It's kind of funny that it played out that way. So, yeah.

Jared Blaine (06:35.644)
Yeah. Yep.

Yeah. I mean, but look at where you're at now compared to when you started.

Chuck (06:43.354)
It's kind of crazy man, it's kind of crazy right? You know, I got one year under my belt, I'm off to Thailand, right? So I do want to talk about that in a self-serving kind of way real quick, because you know, whatever. It's my show, I can do shit like that, right? Yeah. So, fantastic, I can't even believe I didn't even think to suggest him as a guest to you, Yachter Centre, Mike Miller at Yachter Centre. He's one of the most amazing people I've ever had attached to the show, he's incredible.

Jared Blaine (06:49.904)
awesome.

Jared Blaine (06:53.67)
Yeah, yeah, let's go for it. Hey, do it.

Chuck (07:12.21)
So the Autra Center is a trauma treatment center in Phuket, Thailand. And I had Mike on the show on his 20th year anniversary, actually, for being sober. He decided to come on the show, that was some months ago now, and talk about trauma therapy, how it relates to recovery, you know, kind of his story. And when I hit stop after we're done recording, he says, man, you've got some shit you need to deal with. Right? And I was like, oh, is that obvious? He's like, well, yeah.

Jared Blaine (07:21.282)
Okay, nice.

Chuck (07:40.462)
Because he would be talking about something to do with trauma and all that. He could see that psychosomatic, you know, when the brain is making the body do something, he could see it like building up in me, right? And, you know, and I kind of welled up a few times and, I mean, making me cry during an episode is nothing. It's like whatever. It's not even an episode if I don't cry. But he said, man, you got some shit you need to deal with. And he said, if you can get here, I'll offer you the one month residential program on scholarship. I was like, what?

And that's a big deal, right? So that was months ago, and when you're choosing between rent and groceries as often, it's not a trip, like getting to Thailand might as well be getting to the moon, right? But fortunately, and this is something I'm sure you can relate to, I know almost everybody in any sort of long-term recovery can, is my family who now trust and believe in me, and you know, like isn't that the most priceless thing in the world, man? You know, like, ah.

Jared Blaine (08:32.506)
It is, it is like, wow, you just sit back and you look and I'm like, the one person that they couldn't trust, you know, they would have to hide their keys or hide their money or hide this or that. And now, without a shadow of a doubt, they just, they believe in us and trust in us. It's crazy.

Chuck (08:48.094)
Right? That to me is like, because I moved out to Calgary, my mom lives in Moose Jaw, which is like eight hours away drive. We don't see each other that often. And I'm gonna see her here when she picks me up this week. And I'm just like, to look her in the eye, and to really look her in the eye when I'm talking is a big fucking deal for me, right? So I'm pretty amped up about that. But any event.

Things played out here the way they played out. I had to move right away. I don't have damage and rent because I'm getting kind of screwed up. Whatever, it doesn't matter. So I call mom and ask for help as I tend to do. We'll get to talking. She's like, by the time I help you with damage and rent, it keeps you halfway to Thailand. Why don't we start talking about that, right? Oh yeah. Well, I got one way to get booked. I'm off, right?

I don't have a fricking clue what I'm doing after the next, it's the first month that I'm there. There's some ideas being batted around. I'm definitely gonna work on the podcast, but I can do it from a place where the cost of living is like so much better, right? So much better. So I'm pretty amped up about that.

The thing is, and the reason I say self-serving when I start talking about this is I need a little bit of help, like there's a big deficit. Mom's helped me with airfare and that's about it, which is a huge help, like a huge, like it's no small thing, I don't mean to say, you know. But I need some help, because I'm gonna be on the other side of the world with no fucking money, man. So there's a GoFundMe link, it's on the Facebook, it's on the website, and it'll certainly be in the show notes here. So if anybody can, you know, 525, 100 bucks,

Jared Blaine (10:13.523)
Mm.

Chuck (10:23.664)
changed my life, right? These are like, those small amounts of money are big amounts of money in Thailand. Right? So like it goes a long way and helps me to keep spreading the message. Cause you know, I love the message. Right? So anyway, that's my first commercial, right? Of course you will. I have no doubt you will, man. I do, you know, much love for that. So that's enough of my story.

Jared Blaine (10:32.104)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (10:37.008)
Yeah, and I will share it on my platform, so I will make sure to share that.

Chuck (10:48.366)
Do you want to give us the kind of quick synapses of yours? And I'm probably going to interrupt it anyway, but you know, how do you get to a point where recovery is the podcast that you want to make?

Jared Blaine (10:59.819)
Oh. I mean, well, one, I gotta back up, two, you know, I started using it. Go for it.

Chuck (11:05.85)
Oh, I'm gonna interrupt you. The first question I love to ask everybody, first time you tried a substance.

Jared Blaine (11:12.094)
First, I was eight when I had my first shot of whiskey. And then I was, I didn't want to do it. But it was basically, my mom was married to a guy who was just off the rocker. And so he gave me my first shot of liquor. And then he gave me like my first, you know, chew in my mouth and my lip. And that was like, like Copenhagen. And I was just like, oh my God.

Chuck (11:18.306)
how to make you feel.

Chuck (11:38.382)
Your first dip, your first dip, yeah.

Jared Blaine (11:42.406)
Um, I don't remember, honestly, to be honest with you, like the first, the first shot I ever had, I don't remember, but my first messed up was, yeah, I was, um, 11 smoking weed and I went and smoked weed with my next door neighbor and I was, holy crap, I didn't know you can get as high as you got. And I go home next door and I have to go immediately to the bedroom. And my m-

Chuck (11:48.918)
First time you got messed up, do you remember that?

Chuck (11:54.43)
Yeah. Okay.

Jared Blaine (12:10.79)
My mom was with another guy at this point. And he knew, he come in and he goes, you good? And he could tell right away and he's like, I'm like, don't tell my mom. He goes, okay. And I probably, I was in that room for like eight hours. I was so out of it. Wow. At that time, yeah, because I was, yeah, I was just, I was going through a lot of crap at that time, even at 11 years old, to be honest with you.

Chuck (12:18.455)
Ha ha.

Chuck (12:21.783)
Ha ha ha.

Chuck (12:27.478)
So did you enjoy it?

Chuck (12:40.254)
So the question that I'm inevitably getting to when I go down this vernacular is, were you self-aware enough at the time to understand what it was doing for you?

Jared Blaine (12:49.698)
Not it was probably when I was About 14 when I really like really realized and understood and I didn't really touch anything until I was 16 But it was just weed at 14 and then I realized it like all right like this feels good I can get high I like it. It just it takes makes me feel good, and it makes me feel relaxed. You know blah

But then when I was 16, I wrecked, I was in a motorcycle accident at 16. The first day of summer break, very first day of summer break, my friends wanted me to go ride with them and it wasn't even my bike. It was my friend from school, it was her dad's. And my uncle was like, no, like, cause I lived with my aunt and my uncle at that time. He's like, no, you don't have health insurance and like, what happens if you wreck? And I'm like, I'm good, I ain't gonna wreck.

Chuck (13:26.035)
Yeah.

Chuck (13:32.183)
Ha ha ha.

Oh.

Jared Blaine (13:43.706)
And here I go, I wrecked. And I broke, right, right? But then I broke both arms, my pelvis, my collarbone. I had to be, I had to be air-evac to the hospital. They actually didn't think I was actually gonna make it. They had the chaplain in the room when I got there. The only thing that saved me was my helmet, but my helmet was shattered in pieces. They pull it off, I'm bleeding out my ears, my nose, my mouth.

Chuck (13:46.414)
Of course you did. Yeah, yeah. It's probably your uncle's fault because he said it, right? Like that, let's be honest here. No, I'm just kidding, obviously, yeah.

Chuck (13:57.863)
Oh wow man.

Chuck (14:06.285)
Okay.

Jared Blaine (14:13.84)
Um...

Chuck (14:14.538)
What happened?

Jared Blaine (14:16.246)
So, I mean, we were going on this back road. And normally when you ride, you want to ride staggered, just in case something happens, you don't fucking run into the person. And so when it happened was we were going staggered, I was in the middle, one was in front of me and one was behind me. And we were on a dirt road, so dirt's kicking up, it's hard to see. Well, I guess we were supposed to be making a left-hand turn and I didn't know that. And so the one...

my friend that was in front of me she ended up instead of going she slowed down and when she slowed down all I saw was brake lights and dust. I went I was probably going about 60 so I went in the back of her at 60. I went straight up and straight down and when I landed I landed head and hands first which is why I broke all my arms and everything. And we were on a tee next to a canal was running a long ways I was two feet from a canal and the bike was six inches from landing on top.

Chuck (14:52.127)
Oh yeah.

Chuck (15:05.696)
Yeah.

Chuck (15:14.966)
Holy f- Wow. Sure.

Jared Blaine (15:15.898)
So, naturally that introduced me to the opioid world. I was getting, you know, perks and dialysis. What the fuck am I talking about? Deloaded, Percocet, morphine, fentanyl, you name it. And I went through three surgeries, a year and a half of physical therapy. I went three months in a wheelchair. So I was fed all that medication. So it wasn't until

Chuck (15:23.79)
Oh yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Chuck (15:34.071)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (15:44.606)
close to 18 when I finally started getting off the medication like being prescribed that I finally was like actually like this a little too much

Chuck (15:55.498)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you decided to taper off the medication at that point? Or you understood that you liked it too much?

Jared Blaine (15:57.062)
and that's just kind of where it went.

Jared Blaine (16:03.896)
Um...

Uh, yeah, like I liked it way too much and so I was like, you know what, I kind of need to... Yeah, I just knew because my whole family is, we have addictive personalities. And so I already knew that I liked it because I was getting to a point where instead of taking it as prescribed, like I take an extra one. Just, oh, I'm hurting a little bit too much so I would take an extra one. I just make an excuse to justify it.

Chuck (16:19.585)
Yeah.

Chuck (16:29.131)
Yeah.

Chuck (16:33.49)
Yeah, yeah. So what happens then? Then once your prescriptions are over, where do you go from there?

Jared Blaine (16:38.99)
Um, naturally, naturally it was, it was just withdrawing my first time. Like I never had, I've never withdrew my entire life. Didn't know what that was like. Didn't know what the experience was going to be. And even though I was tapering, it was still like I was tapering, but I wasn't disciplined enough to be off of it to myself. So I felt that I felt that withdrawal and I was of course sick. Um, but I was like.

Chuck (16:58.762)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (17:09.586)
This is what it feels like coming off. I actually did. I was like, I don't want to be on this shit no more. If that's how it is, I don't want to be on it. And I went a couple years. I went a couple years. I had a kid and got married and did all that good stuff. And then I got hurt at work. When that happened, I was always anti-medication. If I had to go to the hospital, I literally would like, nope, nope.

Chuck (17:16.33)
Yeah.

Chuck (17:20.17)
Okay.

Jared Blaine (17:36.862)
do please do not give me any opioids. I don't want it. I just hated the way that it made me feel. I turned my whole thought process around. And then I got hurt at work one day and the doctor was like, you know, I told him, he goes, listen, I understand that you feel that way. He's like, but I think this warrants you to like take some medication. So I mean, he gave me a five milligram percocet, a five, I laugh at that now, but a five milligram percocet, he goes, here's 10. I said, well, can I just take 10? I take one.

Chuck (17:42.419)
Okay, okay.

Jared Blaine (18:06.634)
Yeah, just take one and if you feel it, you know, if you feel a little bit more later, then take the other one. So I took the 5 mg. Whew.

Chuck (18:14.594)
Do you think that's changed now? You think that same doctor, given the information that's happened since those days, would be much more concerned about your misgivings? You know what I mean about taking a medication like that?

Jared Blaine (18:16.462)
Oh, absolutely.

Jared Blaine (18:28.674)
I think yeah, because in the beginning, you know how it was, man, in the beginning, the doctors, they were going around and they were just, they were getting kickbacks for all the prescriptions that they were, that they were selling. But now any, any respected doctor that has a reputable practice and that actually is, takes the motto and the mission to help patients, that yes, I think, I think it has changed. But back then they were just handing it out like candy because Purdue Pharma was going around telling them.

Chuck (18:38.314)
Yeah, right, right. Yeah.

Jared Blaine (18:57.71)
You know, yeah, there's non addictive personality, blah, blah. But.

Chuck (18:59.254)
Right? Right. I remember, in Canada, it was kind of the same thing, but the difference is this in Canada, much more regulated the healthcare system is, right? So like doctors don't get kickbacks from pharmacy here. It never happens. Not in a million years would that happen here, right? So that incentive wasn't there, but still, I think Purdue and the other companies had done such a good job of promoting it.

Jared Blaine (19:10.278)
Yeah. Okay.

Chuck (19:29.694)
And just making it sound like, and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around that. And maybe, like I never got into opiates either. So that's important to add to my perspective because I never did them. I never, you know, once in my life, I did a hydromorph because I like really fucked up my leg really bad one night. And I was like, okay, well that made it feel better but that's enough. Like I don't ever want to touch it again. So my thing was cracking that, right? But so maybe I don't have the greatest understanding of it. But.

how did all these doctors get wrapped into this shit and not see it? Is it greed? Because here it wasn't, but all around me, people were being prescribed left, right, and center. There was a mass, it was like, how did doctors keep prescribing? I've never met anybody who's not addicted to this. Of course, the people I was hanging around had something to do with that. It's not like I'm hanging around soccer moms, right? But I don't know, go ahead, yeah, yeah.

Jared Blaine (20:12.406)
I truly... Right.

I think truly, I think they were truly just given misinformation that, that I really think that. I think they believe that they were really trying to help people and the representatives for Purdue and all the other companies, they were, but again, think about it. The representatives that were going selling these medications to, to the doctors, they were under misinformation as well.

Chuck (20:23.87)
They just blindly believed, right? Like...

Jared Blaine (20:46.162)
You know, you gotta think, in the beginning, they were only working with what they were given. Now, there is a point where they did finally realize like, wow, like this is actually bad, you know, people are getting addicted to this and... But, honestly, in the beginning, I think it was innocent. I think they were just truly trying to help people and... And then, then they found out and then when they continued is when the greed and everything took over. That's what I...

Chuck (20:46.611)
This is true.

Chuck (20:51.362)
Yeah.

Chuck (20:57.612)
Yeah.

Chuck (21:14.626)
Fair enough, that makes sense to me, right? Yeah, I would like to believe that's the case, right? Like, yeah, you know, it makes sense to me. And it does explain why here where you don't have the same financial incentive, why the problem blew up the way that it did, right? You know, like, I think it was worse on your side of the border, but that doesn't make it good here by a long shot, right? By a long shot, you know? And then, so.

Jared Blaine (21:15.134)
And that's just my personal opinion.

Jared Blaine (21:19.791)
I would, yeah.

Jared Blaine (21:29.138)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (21:37.307)
Right.

But I think so, yeah, yeah.

Chuck (21:43.914)
You're back on, you got some 10 perks, 10 five milligrams. What happens after that?

Jared Blaine (21:50.37)
And it's at that point where just one thing leads to another, you know, I got back on it. I said, man, this shit feels really good. And it was the longest run of my addiction I could ever until I got sober. Just one thing led to another, man. It just one thing, whether, you know, I'm making up an excuse to go in, oh, I got kidney stones or I got this, I mean, I'd play the system. I'd go in and I'd tell them that I, you know, I got, I feel like I got a,

Chuck (21:54.431)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (22:18.938)
appendicitis and or I feel like I got a kidney stones and I'm allergic to NSAIDs, you know so I can't take any ibuprofen or any of that and I Doctor shopped a lot. I used to travel for work and This this was my night if I was out in the middle nowhere traveling for work My night would be let's go spend the six hours now in the ER just so I can get shot up with some fentanyl Or some delight diluted or some morphine or something like that was my night, bro

Chuck (22:48.266)
Wow, man.

Jared Blaine (22:49.559)
And in every place I went to, and this was before doctors really like were communicating with each other, I used to just go to, and I would go to these small hospitals. Not these big chains, but these small hospitals in the middle of nowhere. If my hotel was in a major city, I'd drive an hour and a half to a little hole in the wall place just because I would know I'd be able to get a little bit more. But it just got to the point at that point where I was X'd from all the hospitals. I was.

Chuck (22:54.806)
Yeah, right.

Chuck (23:06.967)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (23:18.394)
They knew if I came in, I had a red flag on my name. And yep, exactly. And just to keep the story short, I got introduced to some members of, you heard my story on Hard Knock Sox, I got introduced to some members of the Sinaloa Cartel that were pushing drugs up from.

Chuck (23:22.919)
drug-seeking behavior, yeah, right?

Chuck (23:36.896)
Yeah, yeah.

Jared Blaine (23:44.654)
Mexico up to Phoenix. I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. And let me, and also to the other thing, I'm half Hispanic. So I speak Spanish fluently and I'm white. So for me, that's why I didn't explain that on Hard Knocks, but that's kind of how I got in with these people was because I was, I was able to communicate that way. And I was able, it wasn't just some white guy coming up off the street either, but I was introduced by another family member. And that kind of is what led me

Chuck (23:53.28)
Okay, okay, yeah.

Chuck (24:13.362)
Okay. All right, so, well, let's just get to it. Let's just talk about the thing, man, because that's some messed up shit. What happened? What happened that, you know, tell us that story. You know what story I'm talking about.

Jared Blaine (24:20.667)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (24:27.546)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, um, so I kind of I made some money. I was I was I was offered some runs to be able to go down to Mexico, pick up, come back, just transporting, you know, all the fentanyl, whatnot. And then just trying just transporting all the fentanyl. Yeah, it did. It did.

Chuck (24:41.002)
just transporting all the fentanyl and whatnot. There's, the bar has moved a little bit there, right? So, and that's, and that's you, like you're driving the car down there, they do their thing, you drive the car back.

Jared Blaine (24:52.638)
Uh, yeah, yep, drive it down, drop it off at a motel, go out, go eat, do something, go back, pick it up. You know, and then you make 10 grand, 10 grand, you know, in a night. And I, and I'm not, and I'm going to be clear. I, I was only associated with people. I was never in it. I was never considered a member. Nothing. I was just strictly associated with people. Um.

Chuck (25:00.374)
Wow.

Chuck (25:04.798)
Wow.

Chuck (25:19.522)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (25:19.946)
I've had people, I'll tell you the truth man, I've had people sit there and just say, oh no, that's bullshit, that didn't happen, well that's your opinion, but we all have a story to tell and this is my story. So all I was just associated with this and what ended up getting me out of it, I was, man, I was bad, I had a $300 a day habit, I went from making a crap ton of money to being on top to, you know, just, just within, you know, getting fronts, this, that, the third.

Chuck (25:27.69)
Yep. Yeah, right. Right. So.

Yeah.

Chuck (25:45.846)
The fall from grace, I call it. Yeah.

Jared Blaine (25:48.254)
To where I got into debt, I ended up having to sign titles over. I mean, I went and bought cars, motorcycles, trucks. I went and did stupid stuff. And I ended up with the very same people that I was making money with, I ended up getting in debt with them. Where they were broken into my house, they were ransacking everything, they were trying... I owed money, and I had to sign over my titles to everything. I was signing titles over to my here, all right, here goes, this is for $800 worth, and then here's this and here's that.

So I was losing everything as quick as I got it. But the biggest thing for me at the end of it, what happened was because I traveled so much for work, I had a hotels.com, I was a gold member, which I got like a good 20, 30% off. And so every now and then some of the guys would come to me and be like, hey man, can you use your discount on a motel? We wanna hang out. And that's what happened. They wanted to go to a resort in town. I said, yeah, sure. I had to re-up the day.

Chuck (26:21.291)
Yep.

Jared Blaine (26:46.03)
that same day he wasn't answering the phone so I showed up, I drove down there, I saw the car was in the parking lot, I went up to the room, I knocked on the door, and the guy's wife answered and she tells me in Spanish, you know, she goes, Jared, if you don't get in there, they're gonna kill him. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, they're gonna kill who? And she's like, you just need to get in there. And I go in, I go in the back, and there's a mutual friend of ours who made money with plenty of times and he was hogtied.

onto the towel rack, pistol whips, big old gash, blood running down his head and there's you know, four guns to his head. And I'm just like, what the hell is going on? And they tell me that, you know, they caught him trying to steal in the middle of the night. And obviously that's a big don't know. But he was trying to rip off some of the people that were there. And so they told me, they're like, Jared, you got two choices. We're either going to shoot him right here on the floor and deal with it, or we're going to put him in your truck.

We're gonna drive him to the desert. I'm gonna take care of him. And of course I don't want no dead guy on the floor of a hotel room. That's in my name. And I look at him and I'm telling him, I'm like, bro, you know I don't have a choice. Like, I don't wanna do this. But they're like, no, those are your two choices. And I told him, I said, you, I looked at the guy in the eyes, our mutual friend. And I said, bro, you know I don't have a choice. He goes, he goes, I'm dead anyways. Put him in a truck. We went out to the desert.

Chuck (27:52.089)
Obviously, yeah, yeah.

Jared Blaine (28:13.658)
and I had two guys that went with me and they held guns to them the whole entire time. I stayed in the truck and uh, did the rest of this history. And that, I'll tell you the truth, that scared the absolute living shit out of me. Man, I had been in some stuff, man I've robbed people, jumped people, this, that and the third. I ain't never seen, now mind you, you know, I've...

Chuck (28:28.723)
Yeah, right.

Jared Blaine (28:37.39)
seen death and i've had some pretty wild shit happen to me i've seen you know my stepdad died in front of my eyes when i was 13 years old different things like that like i've seen it but i never been to that point where like this is fucking real because the same thing that they did to him they could do to me now naturally i'm not you know and i'm like i'm not gonna make that mistake but at the end of the day i was making stupid decisions so i ended up half i paid all my debts off i made sure i had all my debts paid off

Chuck (28:51.37)
No shit, man.

in a heartbeat.

Chuck (29:01.393)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (29:07.046)
and I walked away I was like, nope, I'm done. Like I don't want none of this shit. I moved 1,100 miles away from Arizona to Texas and that's absolutely, because I tried, I tried for like two months to get sober and I wouldn't make past 24 hours. It was either I was calling somebody to pick up or they were calling me like, yo, you need? And at that point, it sucks. Yeah, and like I'm really like, oh my god, like.

Chuck (29:09.718)
No, shitting.

Chuck (29:14.622)
And is that why you moved was to get away from? Yeah.

Chuck (29:29.555)
I hate that man. I fall I hate that I still get those messages, right? I still get them

Jared Blaine (29:36.278)
But for me, when I moved on from those members, I started, for that lack, I said that two months I tried, I started fucking with some other dealers in the area. And they all like coincided with each other. But word got around eventually like, don't fucking sell to him because I got bad. I mean, my own dealers literally told me, dude, you need help. Like you fucking need help. But it did, it got around. Like I, one dealer told the other and the other and just said,

Chuck (29:47.511)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (30:04.734)
Do not sell to this dude, no more. At that point I was physically cut off. I had no choice, no options, no nothing. And yeah, I withdrew off fentanyl for two weeks. Cold turkey, no medic, not being in a facility, none of that.

Chuck (30:18.606)
Wow. Wow, man.

Chuck (30:24.626)
Yeah, how was that for you?

Jared Blaine (30:26.37)
Oh absolutely hell. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. I would not, I mean... Ugh.

Chuck (30:30.498)
So do you think now?

Having lived that experience, and I know everyone's journey's different, so I'm not gonna ask you to say what other people should do. But having lived that, can you say that it's a strong part of what keeps you sober is knowing what that felt like? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jared Blaine (30:49.534)
Absolutely. Yep, the two things that keep me so that keep me from going back to that the two things is a Is knowing what the withdrawal was like and knowing how Sick you would be and be I'll tell you this I I'm if even if I wanted to go use I'd be terrified to use because everything is cut everything is cut now I knew I was using fentanyl, but

Chuck (31:16.45)
Yeah, man. Yeah.

Jared Blaine (31:19.634)
Here we go five years later. Imagine if I went and tried to go do the same, you know, snort a couple thirties or, you know, can you imagine? Like my cousin, my cousin, my cousin just died last week. I just found out the other day from a fentanyl overdose. And he had been sober and he had went on a streak and then it just happened. But me and my other cousin, we were talking and we were like, man, no, like we're terrified to use even if we wanted to.

Chuck (31:27.39)
Yeah. No, doesn't work that way anymore, right? Yeah.

Chuck (31:35.032)
I'm sorry, man.

Chuck (31:38.705)
Ugh.

Jared Blaine (31:48.818)
Because you don't know what the hell is in this shit no more. No. Like, in the beginning, I mean, this is way different from dealing with, you know, just, just weed and, and perks and all that. Like, it's a whole nother game, especially with the carfint and all, and the tranquilizers and all that shit that's out there.

Chuck (31:49.546)
Yeah. No, you don't.

Chuck (32:05.386)
how they take the worst drug the world has ever seen and make it worse, right? Like what kind of, what brand of evil, you know? Keep up in that game.

Jared Blaine (32:08.498)
Yep. And that's all they're ever gonna do. They're just gonna keep doing it.

So those are the two things that remind me not why I did not to use ever again. Because I don't have another relapse in me. Five years, yeah.

Chuck (32:20.575)
And you got what, just over five years now, right? Is that right? Yeah, congratulations on that, man. That's a, yeah, right.

Jared Blaine (32:26.194)
Thank you.

Chuck (32:33.078)
The supply, right? The toxic supply now. It is something I do like to talk about because it needs to be talked about, not because I like talking about it.

The days, you know, the just say no days, right? You can thank Reagan for that, and you know, the Reagans for that just say no, and war on drugs and all that crap. It obviously doesn't work. I think we can all agree to that now. It just doesn't work, right? The war on drugs. But they're back. They're back out of necessity. Like you can't experiment anymore. Like kids, just say no. Please, just say fucking no, because we're just not, that one and done thing. I had a guest on some months ago, Joseph Fourier.

Jared Blaine (32:52.2)
Yeah.

Chuck (33:14.546)
He himself had been in heroin addict for 20, 30 years. Got clean four years. Got clean with the help of his son, Harlan, actually. His son, Harlan, was 26 when he quit, or when he got clean. And then when, so four years later, he's 30 years old, great kid.

This kid, same roofing company for 10 years, since he was 20 years old. How often do you hear that about a 20 year old having the same job for 10 years, right? So it really speaks to who this kid was, right? Harland Fortier was his name. He's a great kid. He went up to help his sister in a town, you know, a couple of hours north of where they were at, do her roof. Him and some of his old buddies decided to go to the bar together. They bought some ecstasy, went in the bathroom, crushed it up, do a line. All four of them hit the floor.

Jared Blaine (33:39.038)
Right. Absolutely.

Jared Blaine (34:03.209)
Mmm.

Chuck (34:03.858)
He died, his three friends managed to live through it, but Harlan himself died, right? One and done. That's where we're at now, right? The days of having fun are just, it's not a thing anymore. You know, the worst thing that happened, when I was 20 and I bought Ecstasy, the worst thing that would happen to me is it turned out to be a fucking Tylenol with the T rubbed off, you know, right? Like that was the worst thing that would ever happen. And now though, right, like, it's just so goddamn sad, right?

Jared Blaine (34:12.634)
Nah. Yep.

Jared Blaine (34:25.898)
Yeah. It- yeah. It- you don't even know what the hell you're getting anymore. You don't.

Chuck (34:30.238)
No, no, and God forbid if you want to buy an opiate, there's no such thing, unless it comes right from the pharmacist's hand, I don't care what bottle it's in, unless it came from that pharmacist's hand, you're doing fentanyl, right? Like that's just the reality of it, you know.

Jared Blaine (34:39.622)
Yeah, yeah, they're, I mean, everything is fucking, I remember, you know, be like, well, it's stamped with this and it came out of this bottle, it don't, man, they're pressing everything. Like, so I agree, I agree. They're doing fentanyl and heroin and Xanax bars and in Ativan, you know, and Perks and Coke and meth, every, they're, fentanyl's in everything these days, man. It's in everything, yeah.

Chuck (34:49.31)
Yeah, right. Yeah.

Chuck (35:03.55)
Yeah, yeah, and that's just our reality, right? You know? Yeah, it sucks, it sucks. We used to do Memorial Mondays every week to people that were lost in an effort to remind people that the people we lose are so much more than a statistic or how they passed, you know? But the weight of that.

stop me from doing it. You know, like I just, I can't, we do them sometimes now, but I can't do that every week. I can't immerse myself in somebody else's sadness every single week, right? Like it's just, ah man. And you don't even like, ah, it's crazy. It is, it's absolutely nuts. Four times the amount of people died in 2022 that did in car accidents. Four times the amount of people are fentanyl. We have never, COVID didn't even scratch the surface.

Jared Blaine (35:32.21)
But there's so many, there's so much.

Chuck (35:52.062)
right, didn't even scratch the surface, and here we are, right.

Jared Blaine (35:53.497)
And everyone wanted to say this fucking pandemic with COVID.

Chuck (35:56.714)
Yeah, right, well what's this opioid thing happening then? If that's, you know, if that's that, this is the plague, man, this is like, this is as bad as it gets, right? And I just, I hope people understand. But the stigma that surrounds it, if you even think of the word, on Wednesdays I have Ryan Bathgate, who, you know, he's just a gifted therapist, but he brought to my attention the other day that overdose itself is not an okay term anymore.

Jared Blaine (36:01.863)
Yeah.

Chuck (36:25.07)
Remember when you were growing up and the kid drank too much, went to the hospital? Was that an overdose? No, that was a poisoning. Why? Stigma, that's the difference. That is the difference and the only difference is the stigma behind drugs and the stigma around alcohol. Two different things, right? Yeah, yeah, right? So maybe if we start, and words really do matter, and I'll tell you what, man, a year or two, definitely three or four, five years ago,

Jared Blaine (36:28.083)
Mm-hmm.

Wisoning.

Jared Blaine (36:41.926)
And that's what we're dealing with now.

Chuck (36:51.57)
I would have been like, ah, now you're just splitting hairs, being a little high maintenance there. But no, actually, it does matter. It matters a lot, right? Because if we stop using overdose and start saying drug poisoning, maybe it can affect the culture and the culture can affect the stigma, right? Perhaps.

Jared Blaine (36:54.143)
Mm-hmm.

Jared Blaine (37:01.542)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (37:06.938)
Well, what opened my eyes to that was I had Michael Fiore and Andrea Thomas on my show, and they basically travel all over the United States educating people about fentanyl poisoning. And they basically told me, which they basically said, there's no such thing as a fentanyl overdose. It's a fentanyl poisoning.

And that's really what started changing my mind because yeah, like you're not overdosing on fentanyl, you're getting poisoned. And so... yeah.

Chuck (37:35.918)
Damn straight.

Chuck (37:43.474)
Absolutely. Hey, I've just I got to cut you off for a quick second here. Jared, sorry, I'm going to hit stop.

Chuck (00:02.762)
All right, Jared, we're back from the break. And just before we left, we were talking about how words matter. And for me, where I'd come across that realization that was really pointed out to me was we never called alcohol poisoning an overdose. So why the hell do we call drug poisoning an overdose? And because of the stigma. And before we were cut off, you had something you were starting to say about a couple of guests that you had on and kind of enlightened you. So I want to talk about that.

Jared Blaine (00:27.567)
Yeah, yeah, so like I was, because in the past, like I'll be honest with you, in the past, it was all about alcohol, you know, we was talking about overdosing, fentanyl overdosing, but I had a couple of guests that came on, Michael Fiore, Michael Fiore and Angela Thomas, and they're from FacingFentanylNow.org and Inspire to Inspire, and they travel around the whole globe talking about educating people on fentanyl poisoning.

And that really, learning that term really changed my thoughts about it, because it's not an overdose, it's a poisoning.

Chuck (00:56.478)
Yes.

Chuck (01:00.942)
damn straight.

Yeah, yeah, without a doubt, without a doubt. So, and again, words matter, man, they really do. And there was a time, not that time long ago in my life, when I would have been like, ah, you're just being whiny. Right, but no, they really do matter, they do. And it's something that I'm starting to learn and get better about anyway, you know? If memory serves, last time we were talking, or maybe I caught it on Hard Knocks Talks, you talked about going to counseling.

Jared Blaine (01:24.152)
Yeah.

Chuck (01:33.29)
or therapy of some sort. Is that something you still do? Yeah? Yeah. What role does that play in recovery for you?

Jared Blaine (01:37.667)
I do. I do. I-

Um, it's, it's kind of a, it's a, yeah, no, it's, it's a big thing because I just started doing it maybe about three months ago. It's something that I've always needed to do, but I never did because I realized I have a lot of traumas and there's a lot of things that I need to talk about, which goes back into like using, you know, why do we use what we use to escape, to, to escape reality. And, and, and there's a reason why we start.

Chuck (01:44.93)
how important of a role, I guess, maybe.

Jared Blaine (02:10.927)
Well, you can get sober, but if you don't ever deal with the root of the problem, you're never going to find a solution. So for me, going to therapy and learning why I am the way I am and why I'm doing that, it helps me understand more in my recovery. And it makes me understand more than just, I grew up and I was a drug addict. So it really helped me understand more.

Chuck (02:17.646)
true story.

Chuck (02:30.956)
Yeah.

Chuck (02:36.098)
Ah, right, right. Yeah. Um, 12-steppin'? Are you a 12-stepper?

Jared Blaine (02:44.951)
I've done it. I'm not, I'm not actively, I've gone through the steps, but I'm not actively like, I don't, I don't actively push it on anybody. To be honest with you, I don't, I did it, but then I was never, I just never really like did it again after that, you know? There's some people, they do it for the rest of their lives. I just didn't do it. This is me though. This is my experience. When I went through treatment, when I went through treatment, man.

Chuck (02:51.449)
Yeah.

Chuck (02:55.478)
No, fair enough, fair enough, right?

Chuck (03:04.54)
Hahaha

Yeah, and that's fair. That's fair. And... Yeah.

Jared Blaine (03:14.595)
or when I went through my recovery and getting sober, I didn't go to treatment. I never did, I didn't do T-Tox. I didn't do none of that. I was able to do it all with, I never went to meetings in the very, like in the, you know, after a while, I just, but that was like my own personal experience. Not everybody can do that. Some people, they need like 90 meetings in 90 days and they need to do, they need to actively participate.

Chuck (03:20.226)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (03:40.635)
with the sponsors and this and that. I personally didn't need to do that, but that was my personal recovery. So don't take that into account with just, it's just me.

Chuck (03:46.686)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, and I never, yeah, I'm careful never to try and tell somebody else how they should get sober, right? I mean, it's so different for all of us. And I mean, it really is, it really is so different for all of us. Myself, I'm not a 12-stepper. Part of that was counting days though. When I relapsed, the shame that had, like I couldn't go back to zero.

Jared Blaine (03:55.587)
Yep.

Chuck (04:11.358)
And that's what stopped me from going back to meetings again when I find it. You know what I mean? Like I just hated that idea of going back to zero. But all of that said, the first 30 days for me doesn't happen without the rooms. Right. There's no way there is no way I made it that first 30 days without that fellowship, without those people that got it. You know what I mean? Right. I'll tell you an interesting thing, and maybe this is something you can really relate. In my mind, in my experience, the.

Jared Blaine (04:28.311)
Yeah, absolutely.

Chuck (04:39.85)
drug scene has changed so dramatically.

in the last 10 years or so, since fentanyl and meth came together on the scene. You've got fentanyl, one drug that people would do literally anything for, physically and psychologically addicting beyond anything the world has ever known. It's the worst drug to ever hit the street. And then you have meth, a drug that'll keep them awake for two weeks at a time doing those things. And that perfect storm of drugs now has hit. And the level of violence just like...

Jared Blaine (04:56.785)
Mm-hmm.

Chuck (05:11.754)
skyrocketed, at least for me here, right? It just went fucking nuts, man, you know? So the world has changed, and when I went, so the city I was in, it was a very small city, there was four meetings a week for Narcotics Anonymous, three days, and it was a three day stretch, it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, no meeting.

And when I was like, that's a long time for me right now not to have a meeting. That's a really, like that's, could we stagger those days? Could we do that? Because like, why do I have to go three whole days without a meeting, man? Like that's crazy. And I found it really tough. So I thought, okay, and you know, we'll go to an AA meeting because there's lots of those. And I'll tell you what, man, I walked in there and I felt like I was at a swap meet with my grandpa.

Jared Blaine (05:43.812)
Mm.

Chuck (06:01.462)
was that everybody was sold. And I thought to myself, and maybe you can relate to this, maybe you can't, man, was.

Jared Blaine (06:02.223)
Mm.

Chuck (06:07.25)
All of these people have no idea what it's like now. None of them can relate to the stories. Like I will blow their socks off with the shit I'm about to talk about. You know what I mean? Like it's just so much different than it was. You know, I have to say, if you've been clean for even five years, you really don't know what's happening out there right now. Things have changed really, really fast and they got really, really bad. So I just couldn't relate. Is that something you can relate to or touch base on? Or I mean, where you kind of, you know.

Jared Blaine (06:25.88)
No.

Jared Blaine (06:29.473)
Yep.

Jared Blaine (06:35.107)
I mean, I'm in the dark when it comes to like, yeah, you're right. I'm in the dark when it comes to what's out there. I mean, now there's all these new drugs that are on the scene that I've never fucking heard of. And, no, I agree. So, you know, and it's funny because I help people with resources to get into treatment and I've helped people get into sober living homes and resources as far as, you know, jobs, this, that, and the third. But just because I'm helping people.

get off the street and get into treatment, I still don't know half the shit that's out there.

Chuck (07:09.798)
Nope, nope, nope. But it doesn't stop you from helping either. And I think maybe that was some of my own resentments or biases that I was kind of, you know, pushing into things back then. So maybe it wasn't that big of a deal the way I was making it out to be, in any event, right, that first 30 days. You just said something I wanna touch base on now too. One of the abilities we have being in a public platform and getting attention is that thing where you get to connect people, right? So,

Jared Blaine (07:12.132)
doesn't stop me.

Chuck (07:38.269)
I've had.

people in California message me and say, I don't know what to do. So I put them in touch with somebody from Florida. I know it's a whole country away, but at least you're in the same country. And maybe that, and then that guy helps them find some resources there. And then, you know what I mean? Like this community, this network of people just continues to grow and we're all finding each other. And then, so now that I know you in the New York area, now I can like, hey man, I got somebody down there reaching out, is there something you know, or you can help out? And you can do the same in my part of the world.

Jared Blaine (07:47.504)
Mm-hmm.

Chuck (08:09.94)
We can all do that. To me, that's where a lot of the power happens, right? In what we're doing and where we can really make the biggest difference. And for that part, I am like, I feel so blessed. Every single time, every single time a mom calls me or messages me, it says, I don't know what to do, my kid, my kid. And it's just like, what did I do to deserve that? Right? Like what, like, you're, you know, to me it's just the most amazing feeling, right? You know, to, to.

Jared Blaine (08:38.327)
Oh yeah, you get those, you get those emails and you just, and it just says, you know, like, how do I help my son or how do I help my daughter? And you're just sitting here like, wow, like somebody's asking me? Like they're asking me, somebody at five years ago, I didn't know what the hell I was doing with myself. And it, and there's, I'll be honest, man, there's times I get a little, like, I'll get a little like, oh,

Chuck (08:39.266)
be assholes things, right?

Chuck (08:54.131)
Yeah, yeah, right.

Chuck (09:00.786)
Right?

Jared Blaine (09:06.715)
What do I say? You know, there's times like that. I'm like, I don't know how to respond.

Chuck (09:09.142)
Right? Because you don't want to say the wrong thing. And then, you know, you keep talking about a mother and her son or a mother and a daughter. Like, what do you, you know, what do you possibly say? But.

Jared Blaine (09:18.255)
That's when I have my girlfriend and I'll ask her, because she does this with me, and I'll be like, listen. I was like, can you respond?

Chuck (09:23.503)
You can't go wrong getting a woman's perspective on anything you're about to say. I need you to be a filter for me. Could you do that please? Yeah. Stop me from being a dumbass. Right. Yeah. If only I had a woman in my life to stop me from being a dumbass. It's not for lack of volume in my life. It's just, you know, yeah, you know what? I'll speak about that. I will.

Jared Blaine (09:26.6)
Exactly.

Jared Blaine (09:31.523)
Yep.

Jared Blaine (09:38.835)
One day, man. One day.

Jared Blaine (09:48.312)
Yeah, go for it.

Chuck (09:50.854)
Sex and drugs, right? And when you're in it, it's a different thing, right? So to me, the two things were so closely related for so long, you know what I mean? Like it was just like, shit man, it was less than a year ago that I had sex for the first time that I can remember sober ever as an adult, I'm 46 years old. You know what I mean, right? Like, and it's crazy. So now it's almost turned into like this weird aversion thing for me. Know what I mean? Where I'm like.

I don't know, we'll talk and we'll see and maybe we'll date. I don't know, some things and some stuff, but like I don't even know that I'm capable of doing that now. You know what I mean? Like it's a really weird thing that I'm kind of avoiding and I have been for some time, right? As women and relationships and all that jazz. And it's a curious thing, eh? I don't even know why I brought that up, but well. You know.

Jared Blaine (10:39.319)
No, I know it's but that's the thing though. It's just

Sex and drugs, you're right. I mean, it's- it's... They were hand in hand for the longest time, so... Sex, I'll- yeah, will you touch it on it? Fuck it, we're talking about it. Um, sex sober? Completely different than sex on drugs. Just... night and day.

Chuck (11:01.29)
Right? You know? Yeah. Right. And I can't even, honestly, I can't like, you know, there's only a handful of times even that I have in the, you know, in a condensed short time to boot, right? It's weird, man. The whole thing is weird. So, yeah.

Jared Blaine (11:15.643)
Well, and then there's the long-term repercussions from using with sex, you know, like, from a male's perspective, you know, whether it's performance or it's this or it's that, and it really does, man, it really... So, it is nerve-racking, bro, when you go from being high and having sex and then you get sober and then you actually get into a committed relationship and you're wanting to be intimate, but you're now dealing with issues.

Chuck (11:27.004)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (11:41.103)
that, you know, whether it's ED or this or that because for so long they were masked by the drugs. And it's embarrassing, but shit.

Chuck (11:41.858)
Yeah.

Chuck (11:45.915)
Real talk, man. Yeah, right? I shit you not, bro. At my peak, as a crack smoker and coke sniffer, two Viagra a day, every single day, 200 milligrams a day. Other guys are using drug-seeking behavior, go to the doctor and get more opiates. I'm trying to figure out how to get them to give me more fucking Viagra. I shit you not, that's where I was at, man. You know what I mean? Because life was just such a... It was a...

Jared Blaine (12:08.803)
out.

Chuck (12:11.706)
star life right but and not healthy and I don't miss it some of the stories are kind of fun to tell now but they're not it's certainly nothing I miss or I'd want to go back and repeat right you know certainly not any of that stuff just crazy it's crazy right so yeah I want to make sure we're not going over on you because I know you've got another recording coming up so

Jared Blaine (12:23.194)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (12:32.655)
Yeah, we're good right now.

Chuck (12:34.61)
Yeah, yeah, we still got about half an hour, right? But I mean, that said anyway, we're getting to the hour mark total recording time. So, you know, kind of where we need to be. But if you had to say anything to anybody, you know, let's do two things. I'm gonna try something new with you right now, Jared. A, if you had to say something to anybody in active addiction right now, what would it be?

Jared Blaine (13:00.611)
Um, I actually just shared something like this the other day, um, and it was, hold on. Just hold on, because it may not seem like right now that there's light at the end of the tunnel, but I guarantee you that there is. The pain will, it'll pass. The joy will come out.

when we do these to share hope and positivity to others is to help let people know they don't have to stay in that. They don't have to live like that. And again, I know it's hard. I know it's easier said than done. Most people are like, but you don't know my life, but you don't know this, you don't know that. You're right. I know. I can only go, I can only speak for myself. But if I do know anything, it's that.

There's not- This season's gonna come to an end. And if you truly, truly want it, you gotta- This is the other thing, you have to truly want it. If you truly want to change your life for the better, just fucking hold on. And don't let go, because it's gonna be rocky for a minute. But I guarantee you, if you can hold on through it-

there's brighter days on the other end. And I know it's cliche to say this and that, but it truly is one day at a time. It really is. It's one day, it's one moment. Focus, listen, it's focus on this next minute. Now focus on the next hour. Now the next day, next month, next thing you know, days turn into weeks, to months, to years. So just, it's there, pain ends. You just gotta keep holding on.

Chuck (14:16.458)
Wow.

Chuck (14:23.854)
Fuck it. Sometimes it's one moment. Yeah, right. Yeah, demonstrated this. Yeah.

Chuck (14:38.283)
Yeah.

Chuck (14:45.592)
So the next part, and we never really touched base in this episode, but I feel like you and I are gonna have a lot more conversations to talk about a lot of things.

Chuck (14:54.754)
We do a lot of work on the families. We talk a lot to the families of people that are suffering, right? The mothers that have lost that fight, the mothers that are still in that fight. I call them conscripted soldiers and warriors of love, right? There's nobody ever told, like.

Man, you know imagine being your whole like everything your whole your mental health your everything about you being attached to the choice of somebody Else is making like what a what a nightmare that must be for some of them, right? So I feel pretty strongly about reaching out and letting them know that we're there If you had to say something to the to the loved one to a mother of somebody who's suffering what would that be?

Jared Blaine (15:34.039)
Um, one, you have to learn. You definitely have to learn the boundaries. Um, I know that they're your child, but you can love somebody from a distance. Obviously, you're never gonna turn your back on them. The biggest thing is never walk away, never turn your back, because you might be the last hope that they're holding on to, and if you walk away or turn your back, it could be the end of somebody's world. But...

Basically the way I look at it and I tell people you let you let your loved one know I Love you. I'm here for you when you're ready. I will 100% be all hands on deck however, I Will not enable you I will have to love you from a distance But just know when you are ready, I will be there without a shadow of a doubt So it's just learning that it's just learning that you don't have to enable. I know

Chuck (16:28.886)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (16:33.303)
I know they don't, you know, as a parent you don't want to see your child sick and hurting and this that. But at the end of the day all you're doing is making it worse. I mean let's be honest about it. At the end of the day you're making it worse. Because you're allowing, we're addicts, okay? You and I know this mentality. We know that if we can manipulate my mom or dad or so and so into, you know, giving me twenty dollars by me just crying about it, then I know that I could, but...

Chuck (16:59.755)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (17:00.963)
Honestly the best thing that I was ever that my loved one ever did for me was literally to tell me I love you But no, I'm not giving you nothing. I'm not giving you a vehicle to drive. I'm not giving you any money I'm literally not I'm not paying for your phone. I'm just anything That right there is what pushed is what pushed me but pushes a lot of people to just be like, okay And we may hate that person in the moment, but it's tough love But at the end of the day we look at it now when you sober

Chuck (17:18.071)
Yeah.

Jared Blaine (17:30.351)
And we're like damn, everything that they did was to better, was from love. Because what if they gave me $20 for that last time? What if they gave me their car to go pick up for the last time, and that was the last time, and I died, you know? So love them from a distance, and have that, and have that accountability, but being able to just let them know, I am here for you and I love you, but I will not support you as far as in your habit.

Chuck (17:33.966)
from love. Yeah.

Chuck (17:44.362)
Yeah, right. Yeah, man, yeah.

Chuck (17:59.062)
Well said, man, well said. I love that, I love that. That brings us to my favorite part of the show and that is the daily gratitudes. So what you got for gratitudes today?

Jared Blaine (17:59.911)
CLEARS THROAT

Jared Blaine (18:10.115)
Man, my- squeeshees, this is- I'm grateful to be sitting here talking to you. No joke. Well, it- Man, dealing with fentanyl, 50-50 chance that you were- you're gonna live or die. 50-50 chance. I had- I've had EMTs, doctors all tell me one day you're gonna wake up, you're gonna use fentanyl, and you're gonna go to sleep and never wake up.

Chuck (18:17.415)
Nothing cliche about that, bro. Nothing cliche about that, man. Right? You know.

Jared Blaine (18:38.351)
The fact that I gambled with my life every single day multiple times a day and I'm here. Man, I'm a buck fifty. You know what? There was people, I would be snorting two thirties and I'd be chilling and there'd be somebody three hundred pounds that would snort a quarter or a half knocked out. So the fact that I'm here and that I'm alive and that I'm sharing my story on this amazing

Chuck (18:46.541)
Yeah.

Chuck (18:59.562)
North City, yeah.

Jared Blaine (19:07.063)
make connections with you and everybody else and man, I am so fucking grateful because that means God allowed me to live another day that I'm not finished yet here on this earth and that's my gratitude, man.

Chuck (19:07.559)
Thank you.

Chuck (19:22.414)
Yeah, that's no small thing. That is no small thing. Certainly not nothing. Not by a long shot, right? So for myself, my god, it's another amazing guest, right? The world just works out, man. Like, you know, just time and time again, whenever I think that, you know, I'm frustrated.

things aren't gonna play out the way I want them to, they always play out the way I want them to in the end. Maybe not the way I planned on it, but always the way that's worked out, and this is no different. Meeting you has been another great thing that's happened in the show here. I am so grateful to my mother. Right, so grateful, right? This trip is everything to me. And last and so far from least is.

Jared Blaine (19:54.022)
Absolutely.

Chuck (20:06.666)
every single person that is still listening, watching, and supporting. You guys like, share, comment, smash that subscribe button.

If you can go to the website, you can leave a voice message on the website. I didn't even know that till recently and I keep forgetting to mention it, but absolutely you can. If you're on Spotify, leave a comment. I love seeing the Spotify comments and it tickles the balls of the little Spotify algorithms for us too. So please, please do that because, you know, who doesn't like the balls tickled? Anyway, anytime you do any one of these things, you're getting me a little bit closer to living my best life. My best life is to make a humble living spreading the message. The message is this.

If you're in active addiction right now, today could be the day that you start a lifelong journey. Reach out to a friend, reach out to a family member, call in to detox, go to a meeting, do whatever the hell it is you've got to do to get that journey started, because it's so much better than the alternative. And if you have a loved one who is suffering an addiction right now, just taking the time to listen to our conversation. If you could just take another minute and message that person, let them know they are loved. Use the words.

Jared Blaine (21:06.863)
You are love.

Chuck (21:09.154)
That little glimmer of hope just might be the thing that brings them back. Boom.

Jared Blaine (21:14.351)
Thank you.