PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) -—When Tammy Kruwell started using heroin, she said it cost her $10 a day. "It was cheaper than finding pills," she said. "Fentanyl was not yet out, and I was watching that person do it, and I said I wanted to try. And that was it." She said the first time she injected provided the intense feeling that she chased for 20 years. By the time she decided she wanted to quit, Kruwell said she was spending $350 a day. "The whole time I knew it was a problem," she said. "Everyday it was a problem, but I didn't act on it." Kruwell tried to get sober several times, but said she often relapsed within the first 24 hours. "I just couldn't do it," she said. "Once I would start throwing up, that's when I would give in and I would go get it." Kruwell and her husband decided to quit the same month, and separately went to detox centers for a week to get clean. After that, Kruwell said she went to the methadone clinic for three years. Both have been sober for 13 years. Dennis Bailer with Project Weber/RENEW said the drug supply has become much more dangerous since then. "Before the onset of fentanyl, it was accepted throughout the recovery community if you slip, you come back," he said. "These days, that slip causes death."  Last year, the Rhode Island Department of Health reported that 404 people died from an overdose, marking the first decrease in four years. However, 78% of those deaths involved fentanyl. Bailer is working to open the first safe injection site in Rhode Island, largely using money from the state's opioid settlement funds. He said the site will be a tool in combatting the crisis, especially since there have been no overdose deaths at similar sites across the world. Once there, people will be able to test and use drugs, like heroin, under the supervision of medical professionals. The state passed the law in 2021, making Rhode Island the first in the country to legalize it. But the site has faced delays, one of them being that Project Weber/RENEW had to find a new location. "Finding the location, supply chain delays and everything, the regulation with the public health, that's all time consuming piece that perhaps we weren't, totally aware of initially," he said. The site will be located on Willard Avenue next to Rhode Island Hospital. Bailer said demolition has begun and they hope to open this December. "We're going to have two smoking rooms, which will accommodate, four individuals for each room," he said. "We're going to have our injection space, that will be available for eight individuals for a total of 16. We decided on a staff to client ratio of 1-to-4." Bailer said they also plan to have a bus route that will pick people up and take people to the site. Yet there are some within the recovery community that are skeptical of safe injection sites, like AnneMarie. "I can see the benefit of keeping people safe," she said. "But if you're going to help someone not die, what are you doing to help them live?" She thinks more money should go towards sober housing, which she said helped with her recovery. "That's 20 rooms, 20 people that would have had a safe place to get their life together," she said. AnneMarie said she was prescribed painkillers when she broke her arm, eventually causing her to become addicted. It was her mother's death that helped her realize she needed to quit. "I felt like a burden," she said. "I was like, I can't continue on this path because I'm going to actually not be here if I continue or I'm going to disappoint the people in my life who need me." AnneMarie said after being on a waitlist for a week, she was able to get into sober housing where she got a job and connected with women like her who were also in recovery. "Ninety-nine percent of them wanted to be there," she said. "When you're in those houses, someone's holding you accountable." AnneMarie has been in recovery for eight years now and still keeps track of the months. She wishes more people had access to the same resources she had. "It is a disease, and people need to realize that," she said. "I think the state should look at the correct amount of resources. I know so many people over the past 10 years that could have benefited from something else. What was out there wasn't enough." For Kruwell, she sees these sites as a safe place for people to use drugs and also have access to the resources she said helped her recover. "Those resources are going to be the very things that will keep them off of those substances," she said. "Therapy, medications and support services." Kruwell said alcohol and heroin were what she used to use to get her through the day. But when she got sober, she realized she was using drugs to avoid her problems. Now she said therapy has helped her realize those problems, and she's found ways to manage them. Yet, she said there was one time she almost relapsed in 2020. "My father's death was the one time [I thought about relapsing]," she said. "I was doing my dishes. My window was open, and I could hear people partying at the bar behind me. That's the one time that I said 'I want to go drink,' because I just wanted to forget about the pain. But I didn't, and I'm glad that I didn't." Kate Wilkinson ([email protected]) is a Target 12 investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Special Coverage & Notices SIGN UP NOW