Here's Andy Roy talking candidly about Heroin addiction in '03. Andy has cleaned up a couple of times and is hopefully done with this beast for good. Was stoked to see him have a guest trick in the Deathwish video. Again, the original Skateboarder article is HERE. Photo: Tobin Yelland
ANDY ROY:
“They (Skateboarders) don’t have no responsibility, you know. They just get paid to go skateboard. You don’t have no schedules. You can sleep in if you want. You don’t got no one telling you what to do. There’s all the traveling you know and you’re on the streets. Then you got like the street drug dealers. They’re always out to make money.”
“What happened to me was, I grew up with all my friends, and they didn’t have an opportunity to go and do what I did, like traveling and skating, so they just stuck around Santa Cruz and they would drink and smoke weed. The next thing you know heroin hit my crew big time. I came back from a skate trip and they were like here try it. I tried to smoke it and at first I didn’t understand it, I didn’t like it. I would keep coming back from trips and one time I broke my foot, went home to visit, and just never left. I got sucked in.”
“It’s a physical drug. I got hooked. At first we were just smoking it and then eventually you don’t get high anymore so you take it to the next level. The first time I shot up was with Jay (Adams). It’s a heavy thing. Its like whatever pains you have, physical or mental, it takes them away. Its like the best high at first. But then you do it three days in a row, and if you stop, you’re going to feel it. You get anxiety, you get cramps in your legs, you can’t sleep at night. All you do is think of that drug, that high, and than you’re body just freaks out and you have to go do it. You’re like a complete slave to it.”
“Its everywhere. It’s in every town. You can’t believe it. Business people do it, like some people you can’t even imagine. Some people can just hold it, and other people can’t. Me, whatever I do, I take it to the fullest. Heroin led me to the gutter. I lost everything.”
“Finally, I’m doing good. I’ve relapsed so many times and said that I’m done with it. But I’m 31-years-old now. I’ve met a new girl that doesn’t mess around. She’s beautiful. I don’t have that craving no more. I’ve been threatened with prison, like, if I get in trouble again, I’m gone. I’m just tired of running around and just hustling for money everyday. Its so stressful that you can only take so much. I think my body has just given up. I can’t do it no more. It wore me out.”
“It doesn’t take all those rehabs and all that to be done with it. You just have to decide in your head.”
“I’ve seen people give up all their belongings. I’ve seen people steal from their own parents. I’ve seen people give up their dignity. I’ve seen men do sexual favors you know, its just gross. The horror stories wouldn’t even make it into your magazine. It’s just disgusting. It makes you into an evil person. It takes your pride and your soul, and you just wait for that next fix. You’ll do whatever it takes. I was on the streets. I went from traveling and skateboarding to having nothing. It’s such a violent world—just straight gutter.”
[BEN RAYBOURN]
