Dopey 591: Shooting Coke! Pierced Penis! Getting Shot! Heroin & Redemption with Dopey OG Ben CroxtonDopey 591: Shooting Coke! Pierced Penis! Getting Shot! Heroin & Redemption with Dopey OG Ben Croxton
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
TIMESTAMP NOTES 00:00 Dave opens the show, talks about the latest Dopey merch, the obsession with collecting weird memorabilia, and catches everyone up on what's happening with Dopey. 03:15 Thoughts on recovery, addiction treatment, and the changing landscape of getting help. 06:30 Dave reflects on gratitude, the Dopey community, and why the show continues to matter after all these years. 09:30 Listener voicemail about loving an addict, codependency, and learning how to detach with love. 16:00 Dave shares his thoughts on relationships in recovery, boundaries, acceptance, and why you can't save someone who doesn't want help. 21:30 More listener feedback and the importance of the Dopey community supporting each other. 24:15 Dave talks about telehealth recovery, modern addiction treatment, and resources available for people struggling today. 26:00 How Dopey has grown from a tiny podcast into a worldwide recovery community. 28:45 Ben Croxton joins the show. 30:00 Ben explains how he found Dopey and eventually became part of the team helping build the show's online community. 36:30 Growing up homeschooled in rural Alabama. 42:30 First experiences with marijuana and alcohol. 49:30 Working at grocery stores, stealing, and teenage hustles. 56:30 Getting kicked out of homeschool after getting caught smoking weed. 1:03:00 Restaurant life, Outback Steakhouse, and discovering serious drug culture. 1:12:00 First OxyContin experience. 1:20:00 Prescription pills become an obsession. 1:29:00 Cocaine enters the picture. 1:36:00 Shooting cocaine at eighteen years old. 1:46:00 Methamphetamine, paranoia, and escalating addiction. 2:03:00 Friends murdered during a meth deal. 2:15:00 Smoking meth from homemade light bulb pipes and complete chaos. 2:27:00 Heroin takes over. 2:40:00 Crime, arrests, and surviving addiction. 2:53:00 Finding recovery and rebuilding life. 3:05:00 Becoming part of Dopey, helping grow the community, and staying sober. 3:12:00 Final thoughts on gratitude, recovery, and hope.
3:08:49•10 Jul 2026
Shooting Coke, Getting Shot and Getting Sober: Ben Croxton’s Ridiculous Redemption
Episode Overview
- You cannot save someone who doesn’t want help; the healthiest option can be to detach with love rather than stay and resent.
- Codependent partners of addicts often feel shame and isolation, but their pain is real and deserves support and community.
- Drug use escalates quickly from "fun" experimentation to dangerous behaviour such as dirty shots, meth labs, crime and overdoses.
- Even long‑term atheists can find recovery in 12‑step fellowships by starting from simple honesty: accepting they don’t know everything about God.
- Staying sober long‑term is strongly linked to service: sponsoring others, bringing meetings into rehabs, and staying active in a recovery community.
“How the fuck do you know if there is or isn't a God?”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This episode brings classic Dopey chaos with a heavy dose of honesty, dark humour, and hard‑won sobriety. It opens with Dave riffing on his online shopping obsession, dodgy Knicks merch, and why social media algorithms are out to fleece him. Underneath the jokes, he talks about gratitude, the Dopey community, and why the show still matters after so many losses.
You also hear a powerful voicemail from someone loving an active addict, wrestling with codependency and asking, “What does it mean that he stole from me so much?
Does it mean that he just didn't value the relationship or is that just part of the disease?” Dave’s response is blunt and compassionate: you can’t save someone who doesn’t want help, and sometimes the only sane choice is to “detach with love.” The main event is long‑time Dopey legend and behind‑the‑scenes helper, **Ben Croxton**.
Ben takes you through a lifetime of using: shooting coke at 18, smoking meth out of light bulbs, endless pill mills, endocarditis from a filthy shot, getting *shot* in the arm during a drug deal, and somehow still turning up for work as an electrician.
His stories range from grim (friends murdered in a meth deal, overdoses, years of shoplifting to fund heroin) to totally unhinged (a pierced penis used to fake a drug test, and, yes, drinking other people’s urine in a strip club). But it isn’t just carnage.
Ben talks about atheism blocking him from 12‑step recovery, then finally reaching a point where he could say, “How the fuck do you know if there is or isn't a God?” That tiny bit of openness, plus a sponsor and the steps, leads to real change: showing up for his kids, bringing meetings into rehabs, and helping run Dopey’s online community. If you like your recovery content funny, filthy, and absolutely unvarnished, this one will stick with you.
What parts of Ben’s story sound uncomfortably familiar to you?
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