Justin Krompier: Heroin, Xanax, Ambien, Robbing Dealers, and his path to Yosemite and Recovery | Wednesday DoseJustin Krompier: Heroin, Xanax, Ambien, Robbing Dealers, and his path to Yosemite and Recovery | Wednesday Dose
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Timestamp notes Time 00:01 Dopey theme and introduction 01:00. Spirituality, different paths to recovery, and DopeyCon preparations 02:29 Vegan food, new beanies, and introducing Justin 04:00. Austin’s voicemail: childhood inhalant use 07:00 Losing his vision while huffing gasoline 09:24 Patreon comments, listener support, and correcting the theme-song credit 13:54 Justin joins Dave; adventure, creativity, and twelve-step anonymity 16:16 Maintaining recovery while traveling 18:28 Growing up in New Jersey and looking back at family dynamics 22:31 ADHD diagnosis and Justin’s experience with prescription stimulants 29:11 An intense Ambien experience and romanticizing drug culture 31:34 Weed, The Drug Years, Blow, and the hippie fantasy 36:09 Wisdom teeth, painkillers, and Trainspotting 40:45 Blues at Hofstra and using his film budget to fund addiction 43:02 Making a senior thesis film about an overdose 47:28 Losing friends and opportunities after college 49:35 Cosmetic testing to buy pills 51:39 Using at work, taking family money, and parents trying to help 56:05 Offering dealers gas and repeatedly trusting a scammer 59:05 Robbed at knifepoint; dislocating his shoulder in the struggle 01:01:22 First rehab and rejecting recovery suggestions 01:03:36 Seeing former using friends clean at a meeting 01:05:50 Peach Festival plans and reservations about psychedelics 01:08:09 Mushroom chocolates, cocaine, and a return to opioids 01:10:26 Heroin addiction and crying on the way to score 01:13:00. Sneaking into dealers’ houses to steal drugs 01:14:44 Xanax, blues, a totaled car, and using pills before police could find them 01:18:43 Christmas with his cousin and finally admitting his addiction 01:20:39 Wild, the possibility of change, and voluntarily seeking treatment 01:25:19 Willingness, surrender, and accepting treatment recommendations 01:27:38 Meetings, Oxford House, and rebuilding from scratch 01:30:02 Delivering pizza to the man who rejected him for a production job 01:32:19 UPS, adventure podcasts, and developing a photography portfolio 01:34:38 Yosemite and Big Sur change his direction 01:36:47 Deciding to leave UPS 01:39:10 Early recovery, laughter, and an opening in production 01:41:24 Taking risks and sharing creative work online 01:43:38 Finding support, selling prints, and learning the photography business 01:46:05 Buying a van and preparing to hit the road 01:48:30 Building the van with help from his recovery community 01:50:46 Turning recovery experience into confidence to pursue bigger dreams 01:53:08 Dave and Justin compare their creative journeys 01:55:25 Life on the road, photography, and traveling solo 01:57:43 Sharing recovery publicly and inspiring others 02:00:00 Keeping recovery first 02:02:12 Dave’s connection to photography and the outdoors 02:04:34 Interview ends; DopeyCon, Patreon, and closing announcements 02:07:02 Sign-off and closing song
2:09:55•30 Sept 2026
From Heroin and Robbing Dealers to Yosemite Sunrises: Justin Krompier’s Wild Recovery
Episode Overview
- Admitting being an addict came from comparing his chaotic life to a cousin who could still party and function, not from other people’s labels.
- Early ADHD medications normalised pharmaceuticals and introduced withdrawal and obsessive thinking long before street drugs entered the picture.
- Robbing dealers, dangerous meetups, and driving while high show how quickly opiate dependence pushes people into extreme risk-taking.
- A voluntary stay in rehab, followed by strict meeting attendance and Oxford House living, gave Justin a foundation strong enough to build on.
- Quitting a secure UPS job, building a van, and pursuing photography were only possible because recovery stayed the top priority above all else.
“Being a recovering addict is better than if I never had the disease of addiction at all.”
What drives someone to seek a life without heroin and turn it into a life chasing sunsets? This Wednesday Dose on Dopey follows Justin Krompier, a New Jersey kid whose story swings from huffing pills in college bathrooms to shooting Yosemite at sunrise from a camper van. The episode opens with a raw voicemail from Austin about huffing gasoline as a seventh‑grader until his vision went black and psychedelic fractals filled his field of view.
That grim memory is followed by the twist that Austin later wrote in to say he had a year sober, setting the tone for stories that are sad, funny, and quietly hopeful. Then Justin joins Dave and talks about growing up in Morris County with supportive parents, getting diagnosed with ADHD, and being put on Ritalin and Adderall. He describes obsessing over his pills, crashing into depression as they wore off, and raiding medicine cabinets for Ambien and painkillers.
By college at Hofstra, he’s snorting “blues” (Perc 30s), making a senior film about a kid who overdoses, and burning through money meant for his thesis on actual drugs. Things get darker: middlemanning pills, robbing dealers’ stash spots, being held at knifepoint in a park, and nodding off on Xanax and opiates while driving and totalling a car – only to snort the remaining pills before the police reach his window.
From Princeton House rehab to a relapse at an Allman Brothers festival, Justin keeps circling back to oxy and heroin until a Christmas visit from a high‑functioning cousin finally makes him admit, "I'm an addict." A voluntary stay at Ambrosia/Pinelands, deep commitment to a 12‑step fellowship, Oxford House living, pizza delivery, and a grim stint as a UPS driver gradually give him enough stability to chase a bigger dream.
A trip to Yosemite and Big Sur cracks everything open; he quits UPS, builds a van with help from recovery friends, and hits the road as a landscape photographer with his "just passing through" journey. If you’ve ever thought sobriety might mean a smaller life, this episode might have you asking: what dream would you chase if you stayed clean long enough to believe it’s actually possible?
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