Dopey 578: She Shot So Much Heroin in her Butt, Half of it came off! And now she is a sober lawyer! Sara ClarkDopey 578: She Shot So Much Heroin in her Butt, Half of it came off! And now she is a sober lawyer! Sara Clark
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
TIMESTAMP NOTES 00:00 – Dopey intro song + Oro Recovery ad 03:08 – Dave returns from Dopeywood + meeting reflection 05:25 – Listener email: prison, relapse, and recovery 07:52 – Dave at Howard Stern vinyl party (Baba Booey, Chuck D) 10:03 – Neil Young “After the Gold Rush” + memory lapses 12:20 – Relentlessness in recovery and Dopey 13:27 – Mountainside ad 14:20 – Axel voicemail: weed dealing, fire, and burnt dick 18:22 – Braeburn ad (Reframe & Reclaim) 19:05 – Spotify comments (LJ Ruggiero episode reactions) 23:07 – More comments + DopeyCon music talk 24:10 – Orchard on the Brazos ad 25:28 – More comments + Dopey Nation shoutouts 29:00 – Recovery Unplugged ad 30:00 – Dopey Film Festival + DopeyCon update 31:00 – Guest intro: Sarah Clark Sarah Clark Interview 32:00 – Sober Girls group chat origin story 39:48 – Childhood: drug-addicted father + unstable upbringing 42:04 – Early addiction exposure + father’s drug use 44:06 – First drug use: alcohol → Xanax 48:45 – Arrests + first rehab attempt (runs away) 57:48 – Relapse → pills → heroin introduction 01:09:00 – First time shooting heroin (no effect → more) 01:11:35 – IV use escalates: neck, forehead, desperation 01:18:25 – Hustling, robberies, and chaos 01:27:54 – Abscess story → loses part of butt 01:30:07 – Hospital stay + immediate relapse 01:34:40 – Cycle of rehabs + running away 01:39:15 – Final decision to go to treatment 01:41:36 – Actually working steps for first time 01:46:25 – Sober living + first job 01:48:50 – Law school journey begins 01:53:28 – Getting accepted → charges dismissed 01:55:47 – Becoming a lawyer 01:55:47 – Adopting stepdaughter + breaking family cycle 02:00:20 – Life today: marriage, kids, recovery 02:02:27 – Outro + Safe Spot info + Dopey wrap-up 02:05:00 – Outro song (“Good So Bad”) 🎯 SEO KEYWORDS (cut & paste) Dopey podcast, Sarah Clark Dopey, heroin addiction story, IV drug use, shooting heroin neck, addiction recovery story, female addiction recovery, lawyer in recovery, sober success story, drug addiction podcast, abscess heroin story, opioid addiction, Xanax addiction, relapse and recovery, AA recovery, NA recovery, sober living story, addiction trauma childhood, junkie stories podcast, Dopey Nation, recovery podcast, fentanyl awareness, addiction and law career, heroin abscess surgery, addiction transformation story, sober influencer story
2:07:27•17 Apr 2026
From Heroin Abscess to Courtroom Success: Sarah Clark’s Wild Turnaround
Episode Overview
- Addiction can twist family roles early, leaving children feeling responsible for keeping an addicted parent safe.
- Tolerance and denial often mean people don’t recognise how serious their using has become until there are medical emergencies or legal consequences.
- Giving recovery a genuine 100% effort, including step work and sober housing, can shift someone who believes they’re incapable of staying clean.
- Honest disclosure of past arrests and using history may still lead to professional opportunities, especially when backed by consistent sobriety and hard work.
- It’s possible to create a stable, loving home for children while still acknowledging and including their biological parents in a safe, boundaried way.
“You don’t ever have to be that girl again if you don’t want to.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of addiction, chaos, and unlikely redemption as Dave sits down with Texan attorney Sarah Clark, whose heroin habit once cost her half a butt cheek. The chat swings between laugh-out-loud dark comedy and genuinely harrowing details. Sarah talks about growing up with a loving but heavily addicted dad who had her knocking on strangers’ doors asking if they could sleep there, and a mum who was a straight-arrow CPA but deeply codependent.
You’ll hear how she went from late-start teenage drinking to falling in love with Xanax, sliding into oxycontin, and then straight to IV black-tar heroin with a dealer who ended up living with her. Her using gets graphic and very real: veins blown out so badly she’s shooting into her neck and forehead, and finally “muscling” heroin into her butt cheek in a car park.
That shot leads to a massive infection, multiple hospital visits brushed off with antibiotics, and eventually emergency surgery where, as she puts it, “they take half of my ass cheek.” The second half of the conversation shifts hard into recovery and rebuilding. Sarah describes running away from rehab seven times, thinking people like her couldn’t stay clean, then accidentally getting sober by giving the programme 100% just to prove it wouldn’t work.
A first step packet, a brutal but freeing fifth step, and moving into an Oxford House become turning points: “You don’t ever have to be that girl again if you don’t want to.” From there, she works low-paid jobs, goes back to university, gets her criminal record in front of a judge, and is finally allowed into law school.
Alongside that, she and her husband LJ gain custody of his young daughter, later adopting her and supporting her biological mum into sobriety too. If you’ve ever thought you’re too far gone, too messy, or too damaged for a proper life, Sarah’s story might make you rethink everything. What if you’re closer to a fresh start than you think?
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