Reunion, remember when and informing people

I just had a reunion with two guys I roomed with for a year in 1992 when I attended university. It was a great reunion with lots of stories and Remember Whens. It was at university where I laid the foundation for my drinking/using career. Some of the stories we were telling I didn’t even remember doing. Like mouthing off to a skinhead in a pub and getting decked by him. I do remember we used to do some crazy stuff. Part of my addiction was that I always thought I had to do crazier and crazier things. At university my roomies hung me off a 40 story balcony and swung me around. There was the time where I purposely set my hand on fire, thinking it would go out quickly which it did not.

My friends know about my entry into recovery and involvement in the 12 Steps. They had some interesting questions which reminds of me of how little those not in recovery know about the disease of addiction. My one friend asked me if I could ever see myself having one beer and when I replied no asked me why. I explained that I couldn’t predict what would happen if I had that one beer. I said it would probably lead to me having another and another and another and eventually I’d be worse off than I was when I entered recovery in 2005.

As the Big Books states alcohol is cunning, baffling and powerful. Part of that is the fact that while I’ve been sober for over 12 years if I were to take a drink it would be like I had been drinking for those 12 years. My disease would be that far advanced. Science is unable to explain this phenomenon. As Father Martin said, “only God knows why and he ain’t telling us”. I think that’s why many in the scientific community, some addictions counsellors and therapists as well, have such disdain for the 12 Step philosophy. You can’t quantify the effect of a spiritual awakening. All I know is that it worked for me.

Dave the Dude

Acceptance will come with education

Deaths due to opiate overdoses are on the rise in the GTA. As a result the race is on to find a solution. Unfortunately with addiction there is no easy solution. Toronto is building three safe injection sites to try to cut down on overdose deaths. Like most harm reduction interventions many people are criticizing this move saying that it’s enabling addicts and/or helping organized crime.

When I first entered into recovery, from my addictions, I was dead set against any type of harm reduction. I held firm with the belief that it was enabling the addict. From personal experience harm reduction didn’t work for me. Over a decade later after my experience working with addicts my mind has opened to some harm reduction. I’m still of the mind that methadone is terrible but am open to safe needle exchanges and injection sites. Harm reduction works in two ways. It cuts down on the harm the addict faces but it also cuts down on the harm the public faces. With safe needle exchange and injection sites less needles will be discarded along the sidewalks, playgrounds and beaches of our communities.

A lot of the public back lash against safe injection sites comes from a lack of education. I think Toronto would be wise to launch a public information campaign of what these safe sites look like. Even after working in the field for over 10 years I had no idea what one of these sites looked like until a colleague explained it to me. In my mind I had this image of a blocked off area with addicts wandering around stoned throwing needles on the ground. For those fans of New Jack City I imagined it much like the public housing crack areas featured in that movie. My colleague explained to me that it’s very sterile and much like a medical office. I think if the public were able to see this they might warm up to the idea of safe injection sites. Inform the public how there are counsellors and nurses on site to talk to addicts about addiction and promote recovery.

Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. This is what the majority of nations, Canada included, have been doing for decades. We need new, best practices, approach. Safe injection sites are part of this new way to tackle addiction. We must look at it as public health matter not a criminal one. If we really wanted to make changes we would follow in the footsteps of Portugal which has decriminalized all drugs and cut its number of addicts in half as well as lowering the crime rate.

Dave the Dude