DOSE:	2.0 mg	oral	Pharms - Alprazolam	(pill / tablet)
	15 mg	oral	Pharms - Zolpidem	(pill / tablet)

BODY WEIGHT:

280 lb

For a brief period during my Freshman year of college I had a slight 'pills kick.' The circumstances that facilitated this phase were rather simple, and I'm sure most everyone has experienced them: At the time, my grandmother had a large quantity of Hydrocodone, Alprazolam, and Ambien which she was not taking. Being broke and looking for some sort of psychoactive recreation, I stole as many pills as I could while visiting her one day in late October. In all I took probably 10 Lortabs (5mg), 9 Xanax (.5mg), and 6 Ambien (5mg), and was planning on taking them all over the course of Halloween weekend, which is a big party holiday at my (and probably anyone else's) university.

Anyway, the nights leading up to Halloween were rather enjoyable--I took any number of the three pharms in any combination I could think of, and most nights I would top it off with some binge drinking. I tried to be at least a little safe about it, and one should realize that I weigh 280 pounds, so what borders on being dangerous for the normal user of recreational drugs might not be so dangerous for me. I will admit, however, that I had no knowledge whatsoever of the dangers of combining the three pharmaceuticals with themselves and was very ignorant about combining them with alcohol. Luckily, I caused no harm to myself whatsoever, but I would recommend that anyone who combines medications of any kind should research their drugs and make sure there will not be any adverse consequences of their mix.

With that aside, I will now go into my story: a tale of the events of October 31st, 2005.

It was around 9 PM, and I had just gotten out of the last class of the day. This class ran unusually late on Mondays, because after the lecture session, we had a required video screening where we watched propaganda films (such classics as The Red Scare, Red Dawn, and Rambo III). I was anxious to get back to my dorm and take some pills and go party, since it was Halloween and all. When I got back to my room, I took 4 Xanax (2mg total) and 3 Ambien (15mg). It was still early enough in the night that most people hadn't gone out yet, so I had some time for the pills to kick in and to mess around with my floormates. The effects came on within 30-45 minutes, and I was playing kickball in the hallway with some friends. It was hard to keep my balance, and I felt a little dizzy, but mostly it was very mild, I had a light Xanax buzz and the Ambien had had no noticeable effect on me as of yet.

About an hour after taking the pills, I stop playing around in the hallway and go to talk to some of the people I'm about to go partying with. I mention to one of them that I had taken 4 Xanax and 3 Ambien. I neglected to mention the strength of the pills I was taking, but it wouldn't have mattered either way, since the person I was talking to wasn't particularly educated in the subject of pharmaceuticals (not that I was, either!). Anyway, after talking to her, I decided I would go outside to have a cigarette. I walked to the side of the building to be alone with my pleasant Xanax buzz, and smoked probably 3 or 4 cigarettes in a row before deciding to go back up.

As I walked to the front of the building, I noticed an ambulance and two police cars parked in the Circle Drive. I felt sorry for whoever it was that had gotten drunk enough to get put into the hospital this early on one of the greatest party nights in the year, but didn't stick around to see what was going on. I went inside my dorm, rode the elevator up to my floor, and noticed that several of my floormates were gathered in the far end of the hallway talking about something. I also noticed a police officer on the opposite end of the hallway, standing outside a person's room. I began to feel a little worried for my floormate who lived in the room and immediately went down the hall towards my friends to find out what was going on. They told me that our friend who lives in the room the cops were searching was reportedly fucked up out of his mind and in danger of dying. Coincidentally, this friend had the same name as me.

I'm guessing it was the pills, but at the time I had no concern that perhaps the police were actually there looking for me, and that there had been a mixup stemming from the fact that the two of us had the same name. The thought that I could be in trouble *never even crossed my mind*. I simply thought, 'hmm. That sucks. I hope Ryan's okay.' I left my group of friends to go to my room, but on the way there, my RA stopped me and told me that the police needed to talk to me. I was still completely oblivious to the fact that I might be in trouble and simply thought they wanted to ask me a few questions about my friend down the hall, so I naturally complied and calmly went to talk to the officer.

At this point I found out what was really happening. The cops and the ambulance were there for me, and I was in deep shit. Apparently, the person whom I had told about the pills I took got scared, told my RA, who immediately called Poison Control. The RA told Poison Control how many pills I could take (they did not, however, know that the pills I had were the lowest strength produced), and Poison Control told my RA that I could die! Following this, my RA (a very nice person with whom I would trust my life--he had no intent to get me into trouble, he was simply concerned about my health) called 911.

The officers searched my room and found the remaining Xanax (I had taken all of the Hydrocodone and Ambien by this point in the week). I was taken to the hospital, found to be in no immediate danger, and was eventually filed into holding at the county jail. The entire time I felt very calm because of the drugs, and even the first few hours of holding were okay, because I figured I would be let out without any charges but Public Intox. However, what I didn't think about was that the police knew and had proof that I was in possession of a controlled substance, and that I was about to be charged with a felony!

After the drugs began to wear off, I realized the severity of my situation. I spent 28 hours in holding, and was finally processed into real jail. Our jails are so overcrowded that I was given a mat and was told to sleep on the floor of the common room with about 30 other inmates who were likewise unfortunate enough to not get cells. I spent 3 days in jail, and was released with no charges. Apparently, my mother had trial in drug court the same day as I did (she is an alcoholic who was on a voluntary program in which she went to drug court every week in order to assess her sobriety for the week). She talked to the judge (a notoriously harsh one, from what she says) after her trial, told him my situation, and asked him if there was anything he could do to lessen the charges. The judge, for some reason sympathetic to my cause, had dropped all charges, and I was free to walk.

This was the greatest day of my entire life. Having almost thrown away my college career (my education is funded in its entirity by the government--ANY drug charges, even misdemeanors, result in total termination of federal financial aid), I was now free to take my second chance at life! I learned many lessons from this experience, but most notable are these two: ALWAYS know what you are taking, and how it will react with any other substance you have consumed, and NEVER tell ANYONE that you do not ABSOLUTELY TRUST what you've taken, or that you've taken anything. Even if you do trust someone, make sure they are as educated or more educated on the topic than you yourself are before telling them anything! I could have gotten in a lot of trouble simply because I let my big mouth fly to ONE person! Do not let this happen to you!

Exp Year: 2005	ExpID: 56456
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Mar 14, 2008	Views: 121,353
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Police / Customs (60), Pharms - Zolpidem (143), Pharms - Alprazolam (98) : Various (28), Train Wrecks & Trip Disasters (7)