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NASCAR Driver Thankful to be Alive.




CINCINNATI,Ohio -- NASCAR driver Aaron Fike was on a collision course with heroin addiction when he was arrested while shooting up the drug in an amusement park parking lot this summer.

"After four months of intense rehabilitation, I know that if it were not for my arrest, I would be dead," Fike said in a rehab plan he wrote and gave a Warren County,Ohio judge. "At one point during my addiction, I stopped breathing and nearly died. Sooner or later, my luck would have run out."

The judge accepted Fike's proposal to avoid jail time by going to schools and race tracks to deliver an anti-drug message. But Fike may find it harder to convince NASCAR officials to let him race again.

Fike was eighth in point standings and in the running for Craftsman Truck Series rookie of the year when he was arrested with his fiancee in the Kings Island parking lot north of Cincinnati,Ohio in July after security officers observed what looked like suspicious activity in Fike's sport utility vehicle.

Mason,Ohio police found bloody napkins, syringes, a spoon and black tar heroin in the SUV. Fike and Cassandra Davidson, who were living in Cornelius, North Carolina, at the time, were charged with possession of heroin, which is a felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

NASCAR suspended Fike indefinitely and Red Horse Racing replaced him in the No.1 Toyota Tundra with veteran driver David Green.

Fike was devastated.

"One day, I was a NASCAR racecar driver, with people asking me for my autograph, and the next day I was in handcuffs, lying on the floor of a jail cell, going through the absolute agony of heroin withdrawal," Fike wrote in the proposal the judge accepted Nov. 6.

Fike told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he began taking prescription painkillers about six years ago to relieve the pain of back injuries and a broken right wrist and gradually moved up to oxycodone, commonly known under the brand name OxyContin.

While "hanging around the wrong environment," Fike began using heroin last December, he said. But he was careful where he got high.

"I was sporadic in my use. It wasn't every day," he said. "I made sure I was clean when I went to the track. But it was definitely consuming my life."

Fike spent four days in jail following his arrest then entered drug treatment and, he said, has beaten his addiction.

"I'm just grateful to be sober and to be alive," he said in an interview.

Fike, 25, said he has shed some acquaintances who facilitated his drug use.

Davidson, 22, was granted treatment rather than conviction and has gone through an extensive rehab program. "She's doing great," Fike said.

Facing a possible one-year jail sentence if convicted of the felony, Fike and his lawyer, Charlie Rittgers, put together a proposal in which Fike promised to speak and pass out literature at schools, racetracks and other places. The county prosecutor agreed to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor, and Fike was sentenced to two years probation.

"We don't do it very often, but from time to time there is an opportunity -- and this was one of them -- to get the message out to young people about the dangers of drugs," said Warren County,Ohio Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel. "I thought Aaron Fike was one of those people who could get the message out in a far more effective way than most of us ever could."

Fike has returned to Illinois, where he grew up, and last week filed incorporation papers for his nonprofit "Racing Against Drugs" with the Illinois secretary of state.

"It will be dedicated to helping others, particularly young people, to avoid the terrible mistake I have made," Fike told the judge in his written proposal.

Fike plans to set up an anti-drug information tent at each NASCAR track; give motivational speeches on staying clean; make presentations at schools; and make sure every interview includes a mention of the anti-drug campaign.

He expects to have a Web site up and running next month.

"We're trying to move as fast as we can," he said.

Until the racing suspension is lifted, Fike will be barred from race tracks. He's hopeful that NASCAR will give him a temporary license that will lead to full reinstatement.

"I've been trying to do the right thing in every way for the past five months," Fike told The AP. "My car owner has been very supportive of me."

Red Horse spokeswoman Jamie Maynard declined to comment on the possibility of Fike returning to the team until he is reinstated by NASCAR.

"All that's speculation at this point," Maynard said. "Aaron needs to take care of his legal issues."

NASCAR has indicated it will go slowly in re-certifying Fike as a driver.

"It's possible, but he's got some work to do before we get there," said NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston.

"After he's completed the legal process, he will have to undergo an evaluation by our substance abuse experts and follow a prescribed program that they would set for him," he said, and NASCAR has no timetable other than "when we're confident he's ready to return."

Fike said he'll do whatever it takes to race again.

"I feel great," he said. "I'm ready to conquer the world right now."

  • Drug Facts
  • Methadone overdose is a serious medical emergency. In the event of suspected overdose call an ambulance. If the person is losing consciousness lie them on their side in the recovery position so that they will not choke if they vomit.
  • "In Florida, we had a 71 percent increase in methadone-related deaths from 2000 to 2001 - now methadone is associated with more deaths than heroin," said Goldberger, a clinical associate professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine at UF�''s C
  • Chronic users may also become psychologically and physically dependent to morphine.
  • Methadone can interact with other drugs. Alcohol and prescription, non-prescription, herbal and street drugs may interfere with the action of methadone in your body.
  • Morphine acts to depress the function of all cells of the immune system.