Adam Allmon craved the euphoria and confidence of a high so much he would “rob you, steal from you and manipulate you” to get what he wanted.

What he wanted was drugs. First cocaine. Then meth. When he awoke in a trauma unit after a car wreck, he became enabled by a new intoxication. Painkillers.

The crash happened on a clear October afternoon in 2005. Released from rehab just hours earlier, he sat reclined in the passenger seat of his friend’s 1998 Honda Civic. Feet on the dash. No seat belt. A car pulled out in front of them on the highway. They collided at 70 miles an hour. The impact ejected Allmon out the front window. He broke his back and his leg. He blacked out, and hours later woke up in the hospital where doctors offered relief from his pain.

“When I came to I found something I really liked,” Allmon said of the meds. “It did what I wanted it to do.”

As his addiction grew, he told the doctor he hurt more. “The accident gave me a gateway to get what I wanted legally,” he says.

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