Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jun 2006
Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Union
Contact:  http://www.theunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957
Author: Dave Moller, senior staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

EX-METH ADDICT JOINS WALK FOR RECOVERY

Stays Clean After 23 Years As User

Joel Franks, a recovering meth addict and Prop. 36 program graduate,
has been clean for 21U2 years. He will be participating in Saturday's
Walk for Recovery in Nevada City.

"It was like somebody slapping me. I had a problem and I had to fix
it. I wanted it this time. I had to change my life because I was
chasing my tail."

Joel Franks was so deep into the methamphetamine scene he once
manufactured ounces of it in a large cookhouse.

"We had three kitchens going," Franks, 47, of Grass Valley said. "It
was a major, major deal."

It took a large federal drug bust, 23 years of addiction and seven
trips to prison before Franks even thought about kicking his meth
habit. Even when he was offered a spot in Nevada County's Prop. 36
drug rehabilitation program, he figured it was just a good way to stay
out of prison for awhile and nothing more.

But Franks embraced his Prop. 36 experience and has been clean for
21U2 years now. That's why he'll be marching Saturday morning in the
Recovery Alumni Association's Walk for Recovery through Nevada City
with other former addicts, to see and feel the power of not using
drugs and alcohol.

"There is an epidemic up here, a problem," Franks said this week.
"I'll do whatever I can to help people stay clean, I like to be part
of the solution now-a-days."

Franks was part of the problem for a quarter century, dating back to
his teen days in Southern California. He met the wrong people "and got
tangled up in drugs. I went to high school to get high."

He grew up "on the wrong side of tracks," with his mother trying to
make ends meet while moving from one rough neighborhood to the next.

"By the time I was 21, I was an alcoholic," Franks said. Several years
later he got arrested for driving under the influence. His blood
alcohol was .24, now three times past the .08 legal limit, "and I
considered my self normal," and not drunk at all.

Alcohol gave way to methamphetamine through the years as Franks
supported himself as a mechanic. Drugs ran his everyday life and in
1992, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration arrested him for
meth sales.

He got out of prison several years later and came to Nevada County to
be near his parents and escape his past drug scenes. He quickly found
a new one here.

"When I came up here, I met all the wrong people," Franks said. "Drugs
are everywhere."

The drugs kept his personal prison revolving door going, seven times
in and out over 11 years. Franks said he did not do drugs in prison
"for the reason of how it gets in there," usually smuggled in another
person's body cavity. "But every day, I thought 'I'm that much closer
to using.'"

He did, until his parole officer suggested he try Prop. 36 drug
rehabilitation over more prison time. He met others at the program
with similar stories "and we helped each other to stay clean."

Within one month, "it was like somebody slapping me. I had a problem
and I had to fix it," Franks said. "I wanted it this time. I had to
change my life because I was chasing my tail."

The Prop. 36 program "is a second chance, a nudge from the judge,"
Franks said. "They fill your plate and occupy your time with meetings"
and other commitments.

Now, "it's amazing," Franks said. "I see a lot of people I used to use
with and we have a total different life than we used to. It's awesome
to be clean."

It's been years since he's had a meaningful relationship, but Franks
now knows why.

"I have to love myself before anyone else can love me. I just hope the
right woman comes along."

The people who have come along for him besides his recovery friends
are his family, mother Taja Mirantz and stepfather J.R. Mirantz,
sister Julia Strach and her son, Nathaniel Pfeffer, 5.

"He looks up to me and if he didn't, who knows where I'd be," Franks
said of his nephew. "He keeps me clean because I never want him to see
me high."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin