Lisa Floyd, a child of rape, was given up by her mom and raised by a relative. She had a fine home and didn’t want for anything.
By age 13, she was smoking pot, which she believes was a gateway drug that led to drinking at age 14, dropping out of school at 15, and using pills by 17 or 18. LCD and PCP soon followed. She would try anything to get high.
Lisa had 25 DUIs between age 19 and 50. She was in jail more times than she could count, but figures the number is around 100. By age 19, she was living with a guy who introduced her to the needle. Cocaine became her drug of choice.
She was a functioning addict, but after her dad died when she was 19, Lisa blew through the $22,000 he left her in three to six months. Then her car was gone. Then the trailer. Everything he had given her went to partying. She held down a job, but lost it all.
Lisa then moved from Harlan County to Bell County, rented a motel room, worked at Burger King, and drove to bars across the state line in Tennessee. That’s where she met her first husband, who eventually beat her for 2.5 hours straight and left her for dead. Lisa was beaten so badly that even her mother didn’t recognize her.
She moved back to Harlan County where she became pregnant with her daughter, who is now 24 years old.
When her daughter was 6 years old, Lisa had to leave her with a stable friend because she was on the run and didn’t want her daughter to be put into foster care. She was finally arrested for outstanding DUIs and spent time in five different county jails.
Lisa had periods of time when she was working, in college, and had her daughter living with her. But arrests and jail time were a constant.
After a couple of longer stints in jail, she lived with a man who was an OxyContin dealer. While he was in jail, she took over his duties and had her first drug trafficking charge in 2011, her first period of sobriety (nine months) after going to treatment, and her first incarceration in a penitentiary.
She was released in time to see her daughter graduate from high school; then her daughter promptly moved out. Lisa was manipulating a Suboxone clinic into providing Subutex to take and sell so she could buy meth, which she also allowed people to cook in her apartment.
She ended up selling meth to a woman who was wearing a wire for law enforcement. It ended up being the road to recovery.
Lisa was sent to Drug Court, which she initially fought. But, it ended up saving her life.
After five months of sobriety, Lisa knew she wanted to be a peer support specialist. She earned her credential but couldn’t use it until she had been clean for a year. It motivated her to stay sober. She successfully completed 18 months of treatment and now is working as a liaison for Addiction Recovery Care.
Lisa works for ARC and covers five counties in Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky where she formerly spent time in jail. And the woman who wore the wire that got her arrested for the final time currently works with her.
“I always had God in my life, but had Him in a box. I took Him out when I needed Him. I created all this madness for myself, but God saw something good in me. He has opened so many doors, and ARC has opened so many doors. Life has been good to me in my later years.”
“I’ve built my whole life around recovery. I travel to different parts of Kentucky that I’ve never seen. While I’m transporting people to treatment, I tell them my story. I was addicted for 41 years and got sober August 21, 2017.”
“All the people I used to run from, I now run with. The police and courts are now my partners. I went from being a dope dealer to a hope dealer.”
