Dominic Tierno (00:00):
Oh yeah,
Sevan Matossian (00:01):
You the mic. Any, Chris? Hello.
Dominic Tierno (00:02):
Good morning,
Sevan Matossian (00:04):
<laugh>. I is my math right? If there’s 3.6 million people born in the US every year, are you telling me 2% of people fucking die from fentanyl? Overdose of the bur of That’s like the, the, that, those are your chances. It’s a hundred, it’s a hundred thousand a year. Now we’re at,
Dominic Tierno (00:27):
So oh, would that be 0.5? Maybe? What is,
Sevan Matossian (00:32):
Uh, uh, 10% of, uh, 10% of a million is, is a hundred thousand. Right,
Dominic Tierno (00:39):
Right. So it was 3.2.
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
So if it’s 3.6 million, it’s, it’s like two, 2%, isn’t it? No. Is my math bad?
Dominic Tierno (00:47):
Yeah, I think so.
Sevan Matossian (00:49):
Okay. What do I do? I divide 3.6, uh, million into a hundred thousand. Would that, would that get it for me? So these are really bad odds.
Dominic Tierno (00:59):
Yes. That is what we would do. A hundred thousand divided by 3.2. Right?
Sevan Matossian (01:07):
100,000. I got my little divided by 3 million. 600,000.
Dominic Tierno (01:16):
Why does that say,
Sevan Matossian (01:17):
Dude, it is, it’s 0.2. It’s it’s point, uh, 0 2 7. That’s almost 3%.
Dominic Tierno (01:24):
I don’t get it though, because a hundred thousand is
Sevan Matossian (01:28):
10% of a million. So that, I just divided that by three.
Dominic Tierno (01:31):
Gosh, that’s, that’s bad. I’ve never done that statistic before. Did you? You
Sevan Matossian (01:38):
Might have. Oh, dude, I’m telling you, I cried my eyes out last night. Jorge Ventura, the great, the greatest living journalist alive today, in my fucking opinion. Jorge Ventura sent me your film and, uh, I watched it just, you know, in the living room. I pulled it up, I start bawling. My sister walks by the tv, she starts crying. <laugh>, I’m holding my face like this, trying to keep my shit together. Wow. Uh, Caleb meet Dominic. Dominic, Caleb.
Dominic Tierno (02:09):
Caleb. What’s up, man? Nice to meet you. Dominic.
Sevan Matossian (02:11):
Caleb is, uh, deployed, uh, overseas in an undisclosed location somewhere in a desert.
Dominic Tierno (02:19):
Wow.
Sevan Matossian (02:19):
And so he’s forced to work on this show. <laugh>
Dominic Tierno (02:25):
Stuck here perpetually. Uh,
Sevan Matossian (02:27):
The name of the movie we’re talking about is called Dead on Arrival. It was, uh, made in 2020. I also cannot recommend enough another movie he made called Knox’s Story. I was unable to find, uh, the Other Side, which is, uh, another movie he made. I sent all three of these movies to my, uh, nephews last night, and I said, boys, you gotta watch this shit. They’re, they’re like, uh, 14, 16, and 18.
Dominic Tierno (02:53):
Perfect. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (02:56):
The premise of the movie is we’ve left the era of don’t do drugs. They’re bad for you and you might get addicted to holy shit if you get one speck of Fentanyl, your toast, and it’s everywhere. And here’s the catch people, the vast majority of these people aren’t doing fentanyl. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s getting in their shit and they’re dying from it. They’re smoking weed, they’re taking a fake Xanax, they’re taking a fake Adderall, they’re snorting some lines with some buddies, and somehow some fentanyl has got in there and they die. And I, I lived through the whole entire, you know, all the cancer deaths. I lived through all the AIDS deaths, and I never have had this many people in my circle die. Ever. Not even close from all those other things. I don’t know a single person who died from Covid, and yet I know a shitload of people who’ve already OD’ed on Fentanyl and none of them. You’re right. And as you say in the movie, none of ’em were doing fentanyl.
Dominic Tierno (03:56):
No,
Sevan Matossian (03:57):
They weren’t. It’s like going to the store and buying an Apple and you bite into it and it’s a fucking cantaloupe.
Dominic Tierno (04:02):
<laugh> that kills you. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (04:04):
<laugh>. Right, right. That’s the bad part.
Dominic Tierno (04:06):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (04:07):
Right. Wow. Congratulations, dude. What a powerful movie.
Dominic Tierno (04:11):
Thank you so much. Yeah, we <laugh>. So my wife is sitting in this room, and it was literally her and I essentially, um, Christine, who you see in the credits, she kind of got me into this space. She had made a really, really successful film called Overtaken, but she was just a mom from where I grew up, who just wanted to do something about this issue a long time ago. And so we partnered together a decade ago almost to start making these films. It’s been kind of like a one man crew ever since We made dinner on arrival with like $30,000 I think that was donated. And we flew these parents out to where I am, rented an Airbnb and just told their story. And that’s done. It, it’s now gone around the world. Hundred i millions of views maybe, I don’t know. I I, I’ve put it out for free. It’s free to download for schools, which some people would be like, well, why would you do that? And you can’t track how many people have viewed it. I want it as little barrier to entry as possible
Sevan Matossian (05:09):
For the Yeah. Don’t listen to those idiots that don’t, don’t listen to those idiots. That whole view thing and likes. And it’s all Jack Assery. Yeah. I, it’s all, it’s all, yeah. I’m the greatest living podcaster live, and I get seven likes per Instagram post. Tell him Caleb.
Dominic Tierno (05:26):
Yeah. What’s up with that? He’s not wrong.
Sevan Matossian (05:29):
Hey, um, uh, you, I’m sorry. Did you say you met your wife while making a movie?
Dominic Tierno (05:36):
No, I was saying she was in the, well, actually kind of, I met my wife making a video. That’s how a long story. But her and I were basically the crew for Dead on Arrival. I mean, it was, I wrote it, shot it, directed it, edited it, and heard by my side hugging the parents as they’re crying in between takes. And we just sat there and did it. I’m not some big production or crew or budget or whatever. It’s just,
Sevan Matossian (06:04):
It sure looks like it is. But your wife’s not Christine Wood?
Dominic Tierno (06:08):
No,
Sevan Matossian (06:09):
No.
Dominic Tierno (06:10):
She is another man’s wife and is much, well, I won’t say that. She is older than I am.
Sevan Matossian (06:16):
Right. Different, different different league. We’ll say. Just different league, right? She’s, is she between me and you, or is she me? I’m 50 Fitty as they say.
Dominic Tierno (06:26):
She is above, she’s gone before you.
Sevan Matossian (06:30):
She, she. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, your first movie. How, how old are you?
Dominic Tierno (06:36):
I’m 26.
Sevan Matossian (06:37):
Okay. Uh, Caleb, can we play the, uh, trailer? I know he’s so accomplished already. His first movie was in 2000. His first movie was in 2014. Oh, we’re gonna, this is a, a 32nd trailer from the movie Dead On Arrival. If you are a parent, you have to see this. It will be the fastest 20 minutes of your life and you will get to purge some, um, tears. Here we go,
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Fentanyl. Now
Sevan Matossian (07:05):
Fentanyl is being, I can’t hear it for some reason.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
If you haven’t,
Caleb Beaver (07:10):
It’s really quiet. Lemme
Sevan Matossian (07:12):
Okay, I’ll listen very well. What, say it again. I gave you a shitty, shitty link.
Caleb Beaver (07:16):
It’s, it’s just really quiet. I’ll find another.
Sevan Matossian (07:18):
Okay. It’s probably on u the trailer’s on YouTube also. Uh, oh. And that was on YouTube, but that’s in stories.
Caleb Beaver (07:25):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
Sevan Matossian (07:27):
Uh, to, uh, and, and where do you live? Where’s home for you, Dominic?
Dominic Tierno (07:32):
So, born and raised in Orange County, California, and went to school in Pennsylvania, came back to work in Los Angeles for three years, and now, uh, the beginning of 2020 moved to Boise, Idaho. So twists and turn there.
Sevan Matossian (07:48):
Wow. And why Boise?
Dominic Tierno (07:51):
Um, for many reasons that California is not anymore. Idaho is, and that’s, that’s where I wanted to come and raise my family. Just values aligned more with what I’m going for in life, uh, for the future. So I, I loved growing up in California. I just have watched it kind of fall apart over the past 26 years. And so I couldn’t do it. I just, for my kids and my future family, it seemed right to come here. And it has been. And we’re super blessed to be here.
Sevan Matossian (08:25):
So, okay, let’s play this. And then I have questions about Boise, because I’ve heard Boise’s turning into California too. And you have to go further. No, north you have to go like towards Coeur d’Alene.
Dominic Tierno (08:35):
Nah, they’re saying that, but,
Sevan Matossian (08:37):
But no, but still good. Boise’s good? Yeah. Okay. Action.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Heard of Fentanyl. It’s time to learn about it now. Fentanyl is being deceitfully disguised as almost any drug, and as a result, it’s killing over 150 people a day in the United States alone. My new film, dead On Arrival Sheds Light on this silent crisis that is stealing the lives of curious young people. I’m asking you to watch and share it right now.
Sevan Matossian (09:09):
And this O’Connell there’s an O’Connell family that gets a, um, a thank you at the end of both Knox’s Story and Dead On Arrival. Who, who, who are those cats?
Dominic Tierno (09:19):
Yeah. So he has funded every one of these films I’ve done. Uh, his name is George O’Connell. He owns O’Connell Landscaping, which is in South Orange County where I’m from. So he’ll do like all the plants for Laguna Beach and all that kind of area.
Sevan Matossian (09:37):
For people who don’t know, Laguna Beach is off the hook. This area is, um, extremely, extremely, uh, wealthy area Beyond wealthy.
Dominic Tierno (09:48):
Yeah. So, and he is beyond wealthy as a result of that. And he is very graciously donated all the funds to make these films with literally all he is. Oh, maybe put my name in some text or something. Super humble, man. And man, I mean, there’s a great reward for him for having funded this film, which has saved many, many lives, I believe already. And
Sevan Matossian (10:12):
I believe so too. Do, do you think, um, do you think when I was a kid, Dominic, uh, it, it was Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan, and it was just the no campaign. And then they had that thing called dare. And after they, um, did studies on dare that was like some, some acronym for keeping kids off of drugs. They, the final, um, belief on DARE was, is that it actually introduced more kids to drugs than, uh, than p then got kids off of drugs. And that the just no campaign was actually a failure, worse than a failure. It backfired and introduce kids to drugs, and it caused ’em to rebel. And I watched your movie, and I don’t get any of that effect from it, but I’m concerned that I’m just old and maybe, have you ever thought that maybe your, your movie would make kids want to do drugs? I don’t see that at all, by the way. I want to tell you, like, I have three little boys and I’m like, holy shit, <laugh>, you know?
Dominic Tierno (11:12):
Um, yeah. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (11:13):
I’ll What are your thoughts on that?
Dominic Tierno (11:14):
I think you’re right about Dare and then just say, no. I think drug education, even when I was in school, was pretty corny and something to be made fun of, honestly. Drugs, I remember, or dare, pardon me, people would say stands for like, drugs are really exciting, or something like that. And they’d make fun of the acronym, right. And make some trendy t-shirts or stickers or whatever. And, and kids would just make fun of that. Just say, no, kids don’t like to hear no, they like to hear. Yes. And so they don’t want to be told what not to do. I remember someone telling me the other day when, when they’re training pilots, when the pilot’s flying the plane, if you tell the PI pilot, Hey, don’t hit this obstacle, he’s more likely to hit the obstacle than if you say, Hey, go around this.
(12:01):
And so what I tried to do with my first film, the Other Side, it was actually about telling kids, Hey, I’m not telling you don’t do this. I’m telling you, go this way. And it was a film interviewing a bunch of, we had a UFC quarterback, we had a fashion model and actor people, young kids who were really successful already, who had decided not to go that route. And it was like, Hey, follow your passion and your purpose kind of thing, and you’ll avoid this. That message has still works, but is not complete because of Fentanyl now. So now I’ve had to go back to telling them, all right, I know you don’t like to hear no, but I’m telling you, if you don’t want to die, you gotta listen to the word no because there’s no room for a mistake or a try or an experiment anymore.
(12:47):
And so when I’m telling ’em it that way, and as raw as I did and did on Arrival, I think they get it. And I think they’re smart enough to see, all right, this guy’s not just some goofy, you know, parent or police officer telling me. And police officers are not goofy, I’m just saying, right. Bring in the education that they bring in. It’s not just some corny, like, don’t do it because you know you’re gonna die and you’re gonna this. It’s like, no, look at the, here’s the parents crying. Imagine that being your mom and your dad. And they, I think they can see that and understand, okay, I actually need to not do this and I need to listen. And, uh, we’ve heard it with parents and teachers who have reported after kids watching the film. Just the other day it was shown, shown at, uh, Porter Middle School, I think it’s in the Valley near la. And teachers were reporting to Jaime, the dad in the film saying, these kids are literally walking back to class, some in tears looking at their friends. Like, dude, I’m not gonna do drugs ever. You know, if with a straight face it
Sevan Matossian (13:47):
Is. So it does make kids cry, too. That makes me happy to hear that I c I I really couldn’t tell because every time the parents would talk, I would imagine I was them and I would fucking just come unhinged. Yeah. Like literally unhinged. I was sobbing.
Dominic Tierno (14:00):
I get messages and, and comments from kids in middle schools or high schools saying, Hey, they showed your film in my class today. And it really, it brought me to tears. I cried the whole time. And I think it’s them imagining putting them their parents through that kind of pain. Good. And, and that keeps them from making them good. <laugh>. A parent dmd me though, and this kind of messed with me a little bit a couple days ago, and she said, Hey, I, I tend to ask people, what did I do wrong in that film? What would you have? What did I miss? What could I have done better? And this is a parent who does some drug education and, and, and stuff like that for like underprivileged youth. And she said, well, your film does really well for the kids. I show it. But there are some who don’t have parents who love them like that, and who maybe wouldn’t cry for them, or at least they don’t feel like they would.
(14:54):
Right. And so that message kind of goes over their head a little bit. They feel like no one loves them enough, so they wouldn’t disappoint anyone really, if that happened to them. And that really kind of, kind of messed with me. But I kind of wish I had put in the film like, Hey, you, you may think you’re alone or you don’t matter, and maybe that’s why you’re trying a pill or this kind of drug, but I wanna let you know you’re not alone. I care about you. There is someone who loves you and cares about you, who would not want to see you gone from this thing. So something to think about for the future messaging. But
Sevan Matossian (15:27):
The, the reason why I liked your message is I, I didn’t do drugs for any of the reasons that they say that people do drugs. Like, I wasn’t rebelling. There was no peer pressure. I wasn’t running or trying to mask anything. It just, it was there, there was no, it, it was just, you know what I mean? Just in high school, just it was, or you know, my parents just had a liquor cabinet and I just, I just was just like, come on, I’ll try this. Or I, I like the way it feel. I mean, another thing that, uh, resonated with me, and we’ll try to connect all these is I actually, for some reason in the seventh grade, my ankle started hurting. I have no idea why. And my mom took me to the doctor and it was just nagging me and nagging me.
(16:09):
And the doctors actually told my parents that the reason why my ankle was hurting was, it was some sort of rebellion on my part because my parents were divorced. I, it was just fucking nuts. My mom told me that when we got in the car. I’m like, this is fucking crazy. But anyway, they gave me Vicodin. Wow. And my mom and my mom, you know, uh, both my parents were workaholics and my mom just gave me the pills and I could, you know, regulate them on my own. And I remember taking a Vicodin at school and all of a sudden thinking I was the coolest kid in school, bec I just got so calm, I was so chill, nothing could faze me. I was like, wow, this is fucking amazing. These pills are amazing. And to this day, it, it, it stuck with me. I’ve only done, you know, I’ve only done, uh, when I, when I hurt my back and they prescribe Vicodin to me, it hasn’t been years, I don’t use them because later on, I want to use them recreationally. I wanna sit down and watch a movie and take a Vicodin and drink a beer. Right? And it, and I never even thought, holy shit, that was introduced to me in the seventh grade. I didn’t think about that until I saw your movie. I was like, wow. A fucking doctor. And then you mentioned in the movie the conflation of drugs. Um, these are drugs, but they’re, they’re prescribed to us as medicine, but they’re not medicine.
Dominic Tierno (17:33):
No, no. And, and, you know, and I’m, I think there’s a whole issue with over-prescribing and things like that, which I didn’t touch on in the film. The, the reality is a lot of this happens because of sports injuries or kids being treated like I was for depression or anxiety, had a kind of a rough childhood and just had some mental stuff I was dealing with at 1516, and doctor decided to put me on Prozac and Zoloft and stuff. Wow. Medication. And then give me Xanax as a backup, you know, in case of emergency type thing. And same thing, I relate, you know, I, I would take a Xanax and I’d be like, dude, always
Sevan Matossian (18:13):
Chill
Dominic Tierno (18:13):
Up in here.
Sevan Matossian (18:15):
<laugh>, I was so chill in class, all of
Dominic Tierno (18:17):
A sudden I would be going on a flight or whatever going back between college and I didn’t really like flying too much at the time. And I’d take a Xanax and, and then I’d hear Drake’s song, come on, Papa Xanax 15 hours land. I mean, oh, like a, and I’m like, yeah, I am out like a light. I’m not worried about nothing. You know? And I kind of, I didn’t become a Xanax addict, thank God. But if I had been in a position where I couldn’t get those pills anymore, and it felt like I needed them, okay, let me just get on Snapchat or hit up my buddy at college and say, Hey bro, you got anyone who has Xanax? I just need a couple. I just need a couple, bro, I’m flying back home for Christmas, gonna go see my family. I just, you know, where I can get a couple Xanax and cool.
(18:58):
If, if, if it were now, you know, today, that guy would be like, sure, dude. Yeah, I got this guy. And my friend on Snapchat, he sells these Xanax pills. Cool man, let me get two. All right. 20 bucks. Yeah, whatever. No problem. He’ll show up to my dorm room, give me the couple pills I open, ’em, says Xanax has the little lines in it. I can break a little half off. Little do I know, it has no Xanax in whatsoever. It’s been pressed to look like Xanax and is actually just a white pill binder with a bit of fentanyl in it. And I hop on to take that plane, take, you know, break off two of those little squares, and I’m dead on the plane ride at home, and they’re trying to resuscitate me and I land and I died of a fentanyl overdose.
(19:36):
These are things that are happening now that I missed just a few years ago, even though I was a good kid, going to college, had big plans for the future, and just needed a Xanax every once in a while to help calm my anxiety that I was trying to work through desperately. Right. And so there are these good kids out there now who are not drug addicts, not looking to take fentanyl, just looking for some relief, you know, and they’re duped into taking this disgusting, horrible poison that ultimately kills them. And so it’s a different world.
Sevan Matossian (20:11):
I I, you do, you do mention, I think it’s in Nosis story that, um, the United States makes up 5% of the US popu, uh, the US makes up 5% of the world’s population, but they consume 75% of the, uh, pharmaceuticals. And I have done a bit on this show that shows that I, I put a list of like the however many countries there are in the world, and I showed that our consumption of pharmaceuticals is larger than the GDP gross. Uh, what’s GDP stand for? Gross domestic product. Yeah. Um, it’s more than half the countries on that list. So we, we spend more money in the United States on pharmaceuticals than the entire G D P of a country like Finland or New Zealand. Our pharmaceutical economy is stronger. Yeah. And I, and that first popped on my radar one time. I was, I was making a movie over in Kenya, and when I was flying back, I heard how much the United SP state spent just on sleeping pills. And I saw that our sleeping pill consumption was larger than the GDP of Kenya. And I was like, holy shit. E everyone’s, everyone’s on drugs, huh? Yeah. I mean, I mean, when I say everyone, it’s like, I think I heard 80% of the US population pops pills on a daily basis.
Dominic Tierno (21:28):
It’s wild. It’s become so normalized and people look at it as they say, self-medicating, you know, that’s like the, the term now. Well, I’m just self-medicating. And it’s like, wh what does that mean? You know what I mean? Self-medicating. It’s just, I, I don’t know. I feel like that I’m 26, so I don’t know, but I feel like that wasn’t a term 20 years ago.
Sevan Matossian (21:53):
I always just heard it around, uh, marijuana. Right. People would say, Hey, I’m self, uh, you self-medicate.
Dominic Tierno (22:00):
Yeah. And now that’s just become a blanket term for, I’m just taking all sorts of pills and drugs and things and it’s, it’s just become okay. And people don’t want to deal with any emotions anymore. I had another conversation of, you know, men particularly like masculinity and stuff going out the window because men don’t want to deal with emotions. And there’s doctors and people are throwing pills at them all the time to, to cover up. And women too. But, you know, just avoiding actually dealing with emotions and working through things and building up strength and, and stuff, and your mental toughness, so to speak, and just popping a pill. And it’s just making men and women weak and beggars for these drugs to the point where they’ll hop on social media and, and buy a pill from someone they don’t even know.
Sevan Matossian (22:53):
Uh, I think we’re getting a hum from one of your mics. Do you hear it? It’s like an, an electrical hum. Okay. Do you hear it, Caleb?
Dominic Tierno (23:03):
You
Sevan Matossian (23:03):
Do. May maybe, maybe one of the plugs needs to be pushed in a little tighter.
Dominic Tierno (23:06):
All. Let
Sevan Matossian (23:07):
Me see. Sorry to bug you.
Dominic Tierno (23:09):
No, sorry. Cause still going.
Sevan Matossian (23:13):
Yeah. Will, will you try logging out and coming right back in? Yeah,
Dominic Tierno (23:18):
For
Sevan Matossian (23:18):
Sure. Thank you. Did you guys hear that at home? It’s a little, sounds like a fl
Caleb Beaver (23:25):
Sounds like flies there coming around. My office vitals at 36, by the way. I another one today.
Sevan Matossian (23:31):
Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Uh, um, uh, men self-medicate with Viagra and good website from the links in the cheese. Louise Corey. My goodness. Let’s see. We’ll bring Dominic back in. Hmm. It’s still there. We’ll just deal with it. Uh, Audrey? Yes. I was actually depressed after I had a catastrophic knee injury in the ocean three years ago. So I get it. But also my friends don’t incorporate, uh, things like eating right or exercise either. When, when, um, another thing I’m noticing, this is off subject a little bit, but, uh, vaping, it seems like that’s just like taken over our youth. I was talking to one of my nephews and he said that the, his friend, he’s the on him and one other guy. There’s only two of ’em, and they’re crew. And these are healthy good kids. They’re the only two that don’t vape.
Dominic Tierno (24:33):
Wow.
Sevan Matossian (24:34):
Are you seeing that everywhere?
Dominic Tierno (24:36):
I’ve seen it firsthand. I was a vape crack head in high school in college. I’m not kidding. I, and I didn’t, I’ve never rank, first of all, by the way, long story. I grew up in AA meetings with my mom and stepdads and just kind of scarred me. Just didn’t want to, you know, go ahead everyone else. But I just didn’t have an interest. Hardly smoked weed, never, besides the couple of pills to help for my mental health. Just no drugs. But nicotine and those e-cigarettes never smoked cigarette, but vaped for years because in high school it was just like this new cool thing that tasted so good. And the flavors and the, I mean, someone handed me, here’s vanilla. Ooh, oh my gosh, here’s blue raspberry and here’s this, and here’s this candy and this churro and this, all this stuff. And next thing you know, I’m like two or three years down the line and actually addicted to nicotine.
Sevan Matossian (25:29):
Yeah.
Dominic Tierno (25:30):
It’s crazy. And it’s so worse now because now they’ve made so many different little discreet, I remember someone who watched my film said, uh, a parent, their kid said they caught him smoking, you know, a vape or whatever. And they said, yeah, the bathroom’s at school, the kids don’t call ’em the bathroom. They call ’em the Juul room.
Sevan Matossian (25:50):
Wow. Is that the preferred vape? The Juul
Dominic Tierno (25:53):
It was when I was, I think now there’s like puff bars I think have kind of taken over. Juul got a lot of, um, criticism for marketing to youth, and then they had to put some pretty strict regulation. I think they cut some of their flavors and stuff down. But this puff bar and all these other companies just saw what JUUL was doing and just went full out with the colors and the different flavors and the,
Sevan Matossian (26:19):
And the device is so nice.
Dominic Tierno (26:22):
Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (26:23):
It just fits very nicely in your hand. It’s so nice. It slips in your pocket. It’s thin. Yeah. It, it, it’s nice on your lips. How did you quit?
Dominic Tierno (26:32):
My li my wife’s laughing. So I had actually quit prior to meeting her in la I had gotten my wisdom teeth out, and I knew, I was like, I know I don’t want to be a slave to this thing. This sucks. And so I was getting my wisdom teeth out at like 19 or 20 home from college, and they’re like, okay, you can’t use a straw or like, suck on anything for like two weeks. And I was like, okay, so I can’t vape then. But I didn’t want to ask the dentist that. I just assumed. I was like, all right, I’m gonna use this opportunity to quit. So then I had quit for about a year or two, then I met my beautiful wife and <laugh>, once we started dating. She had been leaving her Juul at home. I didn’t know she was doing that. And eventually we had started living together at one point in LA and she’s like, Hey, by the way, I have this jewel. Is that okay? Like if I do this or not? And I was just like, is that okay? You know what I
Sevan Matossian (27:35):
Mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dominic Tierno (27:37):
And I was like, right back in because here’s this beautiful woman that I love and like, oh, now it’s okay. I can handle it. And it was, it was what babe? Probably nine months or so of just full blown back to the crack, you know? And then it got to the point to answer your question one day where I realized this was happening again. And I was like, this is so stupid. And we were starting to feel like you’d get kind of mucusy and stuff. And I got to the point, I was like, we’re gonna stop this one way, or we’re not gonna stop it at all. And so I grabbed everything I had. I chucked it on the floor of our apartment, stomped on it, poured all the liquid out, threw in the trash, and I said, we’re never doing this again.
Sevan Matossian (28:19):
And that was it.
Dominic Tierno (28:20):
Haven’t done it since now, but
Sevan Matossian (28:22):
Wow. It’s very easy to relapse. Be careful. Always be on guard. It’s so easy to re nicotine is so powerful.
Dominic Tierno (28:28):
Yeah. And, and I won’t now. I know. I won’t now. And I, and I’ll say, wow, you just threw it on the ground. It must not be that hard. She spent months looking at it and like, walking by people and you’d walk by and smell it and she’d be like, Hmm. And I’d have to like say, no, we’re not doing it anymore. We’re not doing it anymore. It’s, if you don’t have that kind of discipline, don’t even start even with that, you know? And that’s nothing compared to fentanyl and pills either, by the
Sevan Matossian (28:56):
Way. Isn’t it interesting? That’s the same theme in your movie too. And I’ve known this from a young age also. Nobody wants to be addicted to anything. No one wants to be addicted to the vape. No one wants to be addicted to drugs. No one wants to be a drug addict. It sucks.
Dominic Tierno (29:12):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Sevan Matossian (29:14):
And then, and, and now they have this other term for drug addicts that, that freaks me out. And they call it homeless people. But those aren’t homeless people. Those are people that I’d say 99% of, uh, the people who are homeless. What they’ve done is they’ve prioritized drugs over shelter. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so we have this giant movement to try to help homeless people. But it, it’s like, um, trying to help someone who’s drowning, but you help them, you’re, you, uh, you don’t realize they’re drowning and you try to help them with something else. You try to feed them. You would never like throw food at someone who’s drowning. And that’s what it’s like trying to help someone who’s homeless get sheltered. It’s like that, that’s not the fucking problem. You’re actually gonna make it worse when you give them shelter.
Dominic Tierno (29:57):
Yeah. I was talking to someone who deals.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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