Opioids, commonly known as prescription painkillers, can lead to serious consequences when misused. In Knox County alone, there have been 219 suspected drug overdose deaths as of September 2024. According to the Knox and Anderson Counties Drug-Related Death Report from the Knox County Regional Forensic Center, synthetic opioids were among the top five drugs involved in drug-related deaths in 2023.
Amanda Roberts’ Struggle: Experiencing Painkillers and Prison
Amanda Roberts, a participant in the Hand UP for Women program, describes opioids as the most harmful drug, sharing her experience of using them for nearly a decade. She took these powerful painkillers for about 10 years. “It [opioids] takes the life out of you,” Roberts shared, “After three days of taking it by the 4th day you need it to function. It literally takes over everything…the devil itself.”
Ahead of her addiction, Amanda recalls having a difficult upbringing. By the time she was 2 years old her mother had died. Amanda said her relatives didn’t want to be bothered with raising her. Before she was a teenager she said her aunt molested her and that another relative raped her. The only place she felt protection was on the streets. Amanda joined a gang at 16 years old and described how that lifestyle became her whole world. “They groom you and make you think you’re loved and protected and whenever you want to do better and get out it’s hard to do so,” she explained. Eventually Amanda left the gang but the ways of the streets stayed with her.
Falling Down the Slippery Slope
Unsure of her path in life, Amanda turned to selling drugs. This was something she saw some of her family do while she was growing up in Chattanooga. Amanda recalls selling every drug from marijuana to heroin. She moved on from street drugs to the Pill Gang, a group that sold opioids. “Because I was good with computers, I started creating fake MRI documents that looked real,” Amanda said. She knew how to copy a real MRI and change important details like dates, names and social security numbers. She shared she or a client would take the documents to the doctor’s office and get prescribed opioids. At first she was just selling but then she started taking 15 milligrams of Roxicodone, commonly referred to as “Roxy.” “I got addicted to both the pill and the money,” Amanda said. Then the game turned dangerous when people started putting fentanyl in pills. “People were just dropping like flies; people I loved and people around me were gone.”
Healing From the Outside In
Then began a whirlwind cycle of selling, using and facing jail. “God still kept his hand on me,” Amanda said. When she started noticing signs of depression, she began going to church. But her biggest turning point was when she got a federal drug conspiracy charge and went to federal prison for five years.
Upon her release from prison in December 2023 she was given a bus ticket that brought her to a halfway house in Knoxville. It was there she met a participant in Hand UP for Women. “I met Janae and her energy was different from the other girls,” Amanda shared.
Rebuilding Life, Jobs, Goals and Dreams
While she felt like she knew God before, she explained how this time through Hand UP for Women was different. “God is number one in my life and has been since I got out,” Amanda said.
Amanda explained, “ I didn’t feel judged. I felt welcomed. I immediately felt loved. I knew that I could get help.” The program has been “a life changing experience in every aspect.”
Amanda works two jobs; one at the CNS Home Health Care and the other as an administrative assistant for Hand UP for Women. She loves taking care of people. “All my life I’ve been searching and wanting to be a part of a family. I just want to be a better person and I have dreams and goals that I know I can reach,” Amanda shared. Her big goal right now is saving money to eventually own a home.
How You Can Help
Meanwhile Hand UP for Women is relying on donors to help pay off its new home called Miracle Ridge at Buffat Mill. If you feel compelled to help you can make a donation to help these women pay off the home here.