A mum who could have bought a house with the amount she spent enough on drugs has revealed how her life spiralled out of control – and how she completely turned it around.
Ashlee Coffin says she was once hooked on cocaine, opioids and fentanyl, blowing thousands of substances she used to numb her pain.
Her addiction began after she suffered an ectopic pregnancy, which led to emergency surgery and the loss of one of her fallopian tubes.
The 30-year-old says she was left heartbroken, jobless and betrayed when her relationship also broke down while she was still in hospital.
Struggling to cope, she began taking the painkillers she’d been prescribed after surgery.
When they ran out, she turned to the streets, and what started as occasional use quickly spiralled into full-blown addiction.
“I felt like a ghost,” Ashlee told Need To Know.
“I felt like I was in this skeleton frame of this thing that didn’t exist.
“It’s hard to exactly describe what I felt – I felt everything but nothing at once.
“I felt so empty.
“I felt unlovable.”
Ashlee says her addiction initially started with painkillers, which helped her sleep, but she eventually moved on to fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and alcohol.
She often scored drugs for free at dive bars, using her looks and connections to feed her habit.
What started as pain relief quickly became a way of life and a constant chase for the next high.
At her worst, she was using up to 3.5 grams of cocaine a day, watching her weight plummet as her life became a cycle of chaos.
She says she spent $500,000 USD (£373,000) feeding her habit – money that could have easily bought her a house in her home state of Connecticut, US.
She said: “I started off recreationally using drugs around once a month – Molly, acid, party drugs.
“Cocaine sometimes, hallucinogens.
“Where I really got caught up was when I had an ectopic pregnancy.
“It was at the start of Covid, when we had nothing to do.
“I had nothing but to sit with my thoughts, whether I would ever be able to have kids again.
“I had also lost my job at Six Flags theme park.
“I was discharged and given pain meds to help with the pain, and it just spiralled from there.”
But Ashlee’s addiction, which started after her surgery in April 2020, cost her more than just money.
She lost jobs, relationships and, eventually, custody of her two young children, ages 10 and seven.
There were times she turned to alcohol and sex work to survive, selling explicit pictures online and drinking every day just to cope.
She said: “My drugs of choice were cocaine and opioids – fentanyl.
“Cocaine came into the picture a few weeks later.
“Fortunately for me back then, I was a pretty girl, and as long as I put myself in the right place, I could get access to these things for free.
“I found myself practically living at dive bars and those kinds of places.
“They led me to some unsafe situations where people took advantage of me.
“If I could, I would take cocaine on a daily basis. I had periods with heroin.
“It was like my substances took turns.”
By 2022, Ashlee knew she had hit rock bottom.
After collapsing in a car park following a binge at the dive bar where her addiction thrived, Ashlee finally realised she’d reached the end of the line.
The next day, she decided to get sober.
She said: “I’ve easily spent $500,000 (£373,000) on drugs – it’s a mix of what I got for free, what doctors were able to give me, covered through insurance, and paid out of pocket.
“Just my own pocket – I’ve definitely spent over $10,000 (£7,471).
“I didn’t start working again until later on in addiction, and it was the same dive bar I abused substances in.
“The bartender offered me to come down there for the night, and I got totally wasted.
“I woke up the next day and realised I’m never going to go anywhere in life.
“I couldn’t even work at a dive bar – are you kidding me?
“The next day, I decided to get sober.”
She reached out to child protection services on 29 October 2022, admitting she was struggling and needed support to turn her life around.
She began attending substance abuse classes, undergoing regular drug testing and started seeing a counsellor.
Determined to get her children back, she stayed clean and worked tirelessly to rebuild her life.
Now three years sober, Ashlee is back with her children and working full-time in the cannabis industry as a lead sales and marketing coordinator.
She says medical cannabis helped her overcome cravings and inspired her to make it her career.
Now she says she’s proud of how far she’s come – swapping drugs and chaos for stability, motherhood and purpose.
She said: “There have been times when I almost went back [to drugs] when I went back to my hometown.
“I knew all these people.
“My mum told me I needed to change people, places and things.
“I moved away from home and cut off a lot of people I used to party with.
“Choosing myself first was really the best thing I could have done for myself.
“I’ve been to hell and back, but I’m living proof you can turn it around if you really want to.”
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