The Cocaine Episode with Ingrid Casares, freebase, making Sex with Madonna, Miami, Club Life, Addiction, Rehab, Recovery - Dopey's Greatest HitsThe Cocaine Episode with Ingrid Casares, freebase, making Sex with Madonna, Miami, Club Life, Addiction, Rehab, Recovery - Dopey's Greatest Hits
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Timestamps 00:00 Opening song: "Everybody Does Cocaine" 02:07 Dave celebrates the success of the first Dopey Recovery Short Film Festival 03:30 Good Day New York appearance and plans for future festivals 05:20 Upcoming Patreon Zooms and vacation schedule 05:55 Introducing the Ingrid Casares Greatest Hits episode 06:35 Listener email celebrating six years sober 07:45 Patreon comments on the Danny Trejo episode 09:15 Spotify comments, Patreon, stickers and Knicks talk 11:00 Dave debates Tesla versus ska music 15:15 Introduction to Ingrid Casares 17:30 Meeting Madonna for the first time 19:45 First experiences with marijuana and alcohol 22:15 Having someone take her SATs 24:40 Fake illnesses, allergic reactions and early addict behavior 28:45 Discovering cocaine in early-1980s Miami 33:30 First rehab experiences at Palm Beach Institute and Alina Lodge 39:45 Doing cocaine in NA meetings 42:00 Stealing an ounce and a half of cocaine from a college dealer 49:30 Becoming a cocaine mule between Miami and North Carolina 54:00 Freebasing, paranoia and near disaster 58:45 Returning to treatment and finding Concept House 01:06:00 Building a year of sobriety 01:08:30 New Wave music, college and another relapse 01:15:00 Drug dealing through college 01:22:00 Smuggling cocaine before a planned Europe trip 01:24:30 Final cocaine collapse and entering treatment again 01:29:00 Meeting Sandra Bernhard and Madonna 01:33:30 Relapsing after years sober 01:35:45 Cocaine with celebrities and Sean Penn stories 01:42:00 Launching Liquid and helping create South Beach nightlife 01:45:30 Running world-famous clubs while staying sober 01:49:00 Chris Paciello's arrest and the end of an era 01:52:00 Prescription opioid addiction after surgery 01:56:45 Alcohol relapse years later 02:00:00 Recovery today, lessons learned and life after nightlife 02:01:40 Dave wraps up one of Dopey's greatest cocaine stories SEO Description Dopey's Greatest Hits revisits one of the most legendary episodes ever recorded as Miami nightlife icon Ingrid Casares shares her unbelievable story of cocaine addiction, rehab, Madonna, South Beach nightlife, Sean Penn, celebrity excess, relapse, recovery, and helping build the Miami club scene. Dave also recaps the hugely successful first Dopey Recovery Short Film Festival, reads listener comments, debates ska music, and celebrates another week of Dopey. If you love recovery stories, cocaine history, celebrity interviews, and unforgettable addiction tales, this is an all-time classic Dopey episode.
2:05:27•2 Jul 2026
Cocaine, Clubs and Madonna: Ingrid Casares on Addiction, Relapse and Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Addiction can be intense and chaotic long before someone is ready to accept they have a problem.
- Early rehabs may stop the using temporarily but can also become places to learn more about drugs and hustling.
- Success, fame and powerful friendships do not remove addiction; they often just make the stories more glamorous.
- Medication like Subutex can stabilise a life, but stopping it abruptly can be extremely difficult and painful.
- Sobriety remains the only approach Ingrid describes as actually working for her after trying every other combination.
“"I used to run like an addict… I found my drug of choice, which was cocaine, and I was off to the races."”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This wild "greatest hits" replay with Miami nightlife legend Ingrid Casares is jam‑packed with cocaine chaos, rehab war stories, and the messy reality of long-term recovery. Dave hosts with his usual mix of dark humour and honesty, first chatting about the Dopey Recovery Short Film Festival, TV appearances, and banter with the Dopey Nation, before handing the mic to Ingrid’s marathon cocaine saga.
From smoking weed with a rehab cab driver to freebasing up the East Coast, stealing an ounce and a half of a college dealer’s stash, and crashing in New York’s Milford Plaza after days without sleep, her stories are relentless. You’ll hear how a privileged, clever, and "natural hustler" slid from Catholic school manipulation into full‑blown addiction, jail‑diversion rehabs, and therapeutic communities where she smoked Newports and played spades while being broken down and rebuilt.
She talks about meeting Madonna via Sandra Bernhard, posing for the Sex book, and later co‑creating South Beach superclub Liquid while staying sober so the business wouldn’t collapse. Ingrid is candid about later relapses: years of pill use leading to Subutex, and a tequila-only phase that turned into full alcoholism after 16 years off drink. Her take on medication (“Nobody is an expert on your sobriety.
Whatever works for you, works for you”) will resonate with anyone juggling pain, recovery, and real life. This episode is ideal if you like your recovery content unfiltered, funny, and brutally honest, with plenty of glamour, wreckage, and self‑awareness. It’s less a neat redemption arc and more a reminder that addiction can coexist with success, and that sometimes the safest place to be is boring old sobriety. What parts of your past chaos are you still romanticising?
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