Joe was in his early 20s when he first took prescription opioids. He got in a serious car accident, landing him in the hospital, where doctors prescribed him OxyContin and morphine. His injuries took some time to heal, but his addiction to the pills stayed with him for years to come.

Chris first experimented with prescription opioids as a teen, when he discovered a bottle of pills in his mom’s medicine cabinet. He continued to experiment and use throughout his teens. So years later, when Chris got hurt on the job while working as a plumber’s apprentice, his doctor wrote him a prescription for opioids—the drug he had experimented with as a teen.