I Was Held Hostage By The Cartel In Mexico | Inside A College Addict's Spiral

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning · May 21, 2026 · 58m

John Luedke had it all on paper — a scholarship to Michigan State, a successful father, a big house, and every material thing a kid could want. But underneath it all, he was drowning. His parents' affair and messy seven-year divorce left him as the emotional middleman between two broken people. He got cut from the basketball team. He lost his identity. And he spent the next decade eating, drinking, using cocaine, nitrous oxide, and anything else he could find to fill the hole.

At his heaviest, John weighed 315 pounds. By his senior year, he was paying people to take his classes, doing coke in…