Dopey Podcast is the world’s greatest podcast on drugs, addiction and dumb shit. Chris and I were two IV heroin addicts who loved to talk about all the coke we smoked, snorted and shot, all the pills we ate, smoked, all the weed we smoked and ate, all the booze we consumed and all the consequences we suffered. After making the show for 2 and a half years, Chris tragically relapsed and died from a fentanyl overdose. Dopey continued on, at first to mourn the horrible loss of Chris, but then to continue our mission - which was at its core, to keep addicts and alcoholics company. Whether to laugh at our time in rehab, or cry at the worst missteps we made, Dopey tells the truth about drugs, addiction and recovery. We continually mine the universe for stories rife with debauchery and highlight serious drug taking and alcoholism. We also examine different paths toward addiction recovery. We shine a light on harm reduction and medication assisted treatment. We talk with celebrities and nobodies and stockpile stories to be the greatest one stop shop podcast on all things drugs, addiction, recovery and comedy pathfinding the route to the heart of the opioid epidemic.
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Dopey Podcast is the world’s greatest podcast on drugs, addiction and dumb shit. Chris and I were two IV heroin addicts who loved to talk about all the coke we smoked, snorted and shot, all the pills we ate, smoked, all the weed we smoked and ate, all the booze we consumed and all the consequences we suffered. After making the show for 2 and a half years, Chris tragically relapsed and died from a fentanyl overdose. Dopey continued on, at first to mourn the horrible loss of Chris, but then to continue our mission - which was at its core, to keep addicts and alcoholics company. Whether to laugh at our time in rehab, or cry at the worst missteps we made, Dopey tells the truth about drugs, addiction and recovery. We continually mine the universe for stories rife with debauchery and highlight serious drug taking and alcoholism. We also examine different paths toward addiction recovery. We shine a light on harm reduction and medication assisted treatment. We talk with celebrities and nobodies and stockpile stories to be the greatest one stop shop podcast on all things drugs, addiction, recovery and comedy pathfinding the route to the heart of the opioid epidemic.
Dopey 550: The Anesthesiologist Who Shot Adrenaline and Fentanyl, Dr. Jason Giles, Hitler, Freud, Halsted, Addiction Recovery
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
2 hours 38 minutes 45 seconds
1 month ago
Dopey 550: The Anesthesiologist Who Shot Adrenaline and Fentanyl, Dr. Jason Giles, Hitler, Freud, Halsted, Addiction Recovery
Dopey Nation Emails and Voicemails! Dopeycon News! Dopeycon themesong challenge!
Santa Monica/Culver City; father a quart-a-day gin drinker; mother deeply codependent; father later sober ~35 years but “dry/angry.”
Teen: ska/mod (Specials, Selecter, Untouchables, Madness), Vespa rides, alcohol/weed/amphetamines.
Berkeley & Free Clinic
Chose Berkeley (also accepted to MIT); Berkeley Free Clinic mentorship; lineage to Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic (David Smith; bands funded care).
Purpose & “hero’s journey” framing; service as “primary purpose.”
Anesthesia / pain medicine
Charmed by physiology-in-real-time and the human connection (esp. parents in pediatric cases).
Basics: take away pain & anxiety/memory (e.g., fentanyl, Versed); use relaxants; manage airway/complications.
Favorite contrast: from tiny trigger-finger release to replacing the aortic arch.
Fentanyl descent (1999)
Diverted via paper logs; carried 2 mL for a month before first sterile IV use; loved the warm/relief/confidence.
Waited ~6 weeks, used again; escalated to “after work only,” leading to daytime withdrawal and concealment (long gown to hide arms/weight/sweat).
Experimented separately with other drawer drugs (e.g., propofol, pentothal; hates ketamine → “crumpled cellophane” feel).
Sufentanil even more potent but dangerously narrow window.
Intervention & recovery
Chairman’s page about missing fentanyl; offered help, not punishment; referenced prior resident death.
Bathtub cold-turkey detox; called a sober doctor; went to an AA meeting of doctors; felt less alone; kept going; “ultimate challenge is handling success.”
Treatment feedback groups taught honest feeling-language and service; newfound congruence.
Finished residency (board made it 2 years), married, child, then shift to treatment medicine in Malibu; “fish met water.”
Substances & side topics
Adrenaline/epinephrine: synthetic now; shooting it feels “weird/anxious.”
Hitler: amphetamines + opiates (references Blitzed); late-stage junkie logic/psychosis frame.
Halsted: cocaine mapping nerves → heroin maintenance, long IM use with periodic retreats; even “stable” heroin isn’t smooth.
Crowley: “infinite supply” idea discussed; brain adapts—no stable bliss.
Benzos vs. opiates
Opiate withdrawal: nausea/diarrhea/sweats/chills/aches/runny nose/goosebumps unique to opiates.
Benzo withdrawal: anxiety/fear, same feeling benzos treat → especially hard; seizures risk (Dave shares lived seizures).
Memory / benzos / awareness
Benzos disrupt hippocampal consolidation, but recall can still occur (e.g., intraoperative awareness with strong stimuli).
Kratom
Opiate-like activity; ~1/3 minimal withdrawal, ~1/3 rough as fentanyl, rest in-between (his experience).
Often uses Suboxone to transition; prefers to wait/see which group before MOUD.
Suboxone vs. abstinence
MOUD prevents death/harms; some should stay indefinitely; for most: “cast/training wheels” until life is rebuilt + real recovery connections in place.
Fentanyl now
Overall OD deaths have ticked down recently from the peak, but fentanyl involvement is sky-high; he says he’s seen fentanyl in other drugs, counterfeit Percocet common; heroin is rare now.
Economics: opium supply changes; fentanyl is cheap; heroin cachet remains among some.
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Dopey Podcast is the world’s greatest podcast on drugs, addiction and dumb shit. Chris and I were two IV heroin addicts who loved to talk about all the coke we smoked, snorted and shot, all the pills we ate, smoked, all the weed we smoked and ate, all the booze we consumed and all the consequences we suffered. After making the show for 2 and a half years, Chris tragically relapsed and died from a fentanyl overdose. Dopey continued on, at first to mourn the horrible loss of Chris, but then to continue our mission - which was at its core, to keep addicts and alcoholics company. Whether to laugh at our time in rehab, or cry at the worst missteps we made, Dopey tells the truth about drugs, addiction and recovery. We continually mine the universe for stories rife with debauchery and highlight serious drug taking and alcoholism. We also examine different paths toward addiction recovery. We shine a light on harm reduction and medication assisted treatment. We talk with celebrities and nobodies and stockpile stories to be the greatest one stop shop podcast on all things drugs, addiction, recovery and comedy pathfinding the route to the heart of the opioid epidemic.
