The former Pittsburgh Penguins all-star Kevin Stevens who was part of the Penguins Stanley Cup championship teams in the 1990s, is still having an impact on the people of Western Pennsylvania, but in a different way.
He was one of the best players in the NHL back then, but he says one split second decision changed everything. Stevens started with cocaine, but it led to painkillers and an opioid addiction following a knee injury playing for the Pens in 1993.
Steven’s said “So I was 28-years-old, I never did anything, & I activated this thing with the cocaine, and I didn’t do it all the time, but the change, the chemistry, the way I thought and the way I perceived things changed. Once I left Pittsburgh, I got in trouble. I was in total denial because I didn’t want to believe that this was happening” .
Stevens was in denial for 23 years, and then he hit rock bottom when he spent 6 days in jail….which might have saved his life.
For the last two and a half years Stevens has been clean.
Now Stevens is helping other addicts and families through his “Power Forward Foundation” which is working to combat the opioid crisis and addiction across the area.
