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’Oxy Moron’ gets smart: Charlestown native turns druggie past into ......
ome recovering OxyContin addicts pay it forward by volunteering at rehab facilities.
Johnny Hickey, a 28-year-old Charlestown native, had a different philanthropic vision: to write a feature-length autobiographical screenplay titled "Oxy Morons."
Set in Charlestown’s Bunker Hill projects circa 2000, Hickey’s story is based on the lives of the friends and family members he’s lost to the prescription narcotic.
"This is how it really is," Hickey said. "This is how the cops are. This is how Charlestown is. And this is what OxyContin leads to. Nothing’s candy-coated. People die from this (expletive)."
He should know. At 22, Hickey was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in Essex County Correctional Facility for his connection to a series of pharmacy robberies. After his release, he continued selling and abusing OxyContin until the day he woke up from a coma after being thrown from an 80-foot cliff in Quincy by a rival dealer.
"I was a maniac back then," Hickey said. "Hopefully other people won’t have to learn the same lesson by getting smashed into pieces. That’s why I’m doing this -- so at least one kid will watch my movie and say, ’Holy (expletive), this drug is way too (expletive) scary for me’."
To turn his vision into an up-to-date "Requiem for a Dream," Hickey reached out to the actors and comics he’s met at the Comedy Connection, where he’s worked for the past three years.
"This is an endearing story that needs to be told," said the Mattapan-reared Faverman, a Los Angeles Comedy Store regular who witnessed the destructive force of OxyContin when his niece got hooked. "This might be an autobiographical story about Johnny Hickey, but it can teach everyone that a few bad moves can destroy entire communities."
In September, Faverman plans to bring his Road Dog Films production team cross-country to shoot "Oxy Morons" locally. He’s not the only industry player helping Hickey: "Law and Order" mainstay John Fiore and Mark Wahlberg homeboy Jay Giannone, who acted in "The Departed" and is the inspiration for the Johnny Drama character on HBO’s "Entourage," are involved with the cause.
"It makes everything seem real when someone like Jay tells you that he’ll act for free because he believes in what you’re doing," Hickey said.
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