Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jul 2006
Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Maple Ridge News
Contact:  http://www.mapleridgenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328
Author: Phil Melnychuk, Staff Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

ROCK BOTTOM AND BACK

Kenny Saunders agrees, if you're a junkie, you have to  hit rock 
bottom before you can climb back up.

After years as one of Maple Ridge's legions of  homeless, eking out 
an existence in the bush on the  fringes of downtown, Kenny now has a 
home, a job and  has kicked his crystal-meth habit.

Instead of chasing a chemical high, he now gets high  "doing 
Christ-like things instead of getting a false  sense of euphoria from 
the drug."

But it took years to plunge to the depths and then to resurface.

Outside the Salvation Army's Caring Place on 222nd  Street, Kenny 
recalls his decades of alcohol, pot and  cocaine use, part of a 
lifestyle of working hard during  the week, partying harder on weekends.

It wasn't until 1987 that he met his nemesis.

Crystal meth wasn't popular then and wasn't even being  produced in 
Canada, he recalls. Instead, it was being  smuggled in from the U.S. 
to "a select few."

He kept using crystal meth and other drugs, still able  to function 
in the work world, until about 2000, when  it all caught up to him.

"You think everything's going OK, but it's not," he said.

"I guess I didn't make it to work a few times. My  employment got 
terminated and from there, I just ended  up on the street."

It's that simple.

"When you don't get to sleep for three or four days at  a time, it's 
kind of hard to get to work."

You lose your job, your paycheque, your home. You  become one of the 
homeless, sleeping on benches, lining  up at the Salvation Army or 
trying to find shelter  under plastic sheets.

Despite its deadly effects on the brain, crystal meth  is almost a 
tailor-made product for someone on the  street, offering cheap, long 
highs. Kenny says $20 to  $50 can get you high all day. Compared to 
crack  cocaine, which gives a brief, orgasmic-type of rush,  crystal 
meth provides ongoing euphoria.

"It's just the sort of thing you get started on and you  want to keep going.

"It makes you kind of lose track of time.

"It fks a lot of people up - not just physically, 
but  psychologically as well."

To pay for it, Kenny became one of the many binners in  downtown 
Maple Ridge, rummaging through garbage  containers. Any odd item 
could be sold for some change,  which would go to making the daily quota.

Collecting empty pop bottles and beer cans, and  sometimes the odd 
job, also kept the cash coming in.

On average, about $20 or $30 a night is possible  through collecting 
bottles. In a week, Kenny could  raise between $100 and $150.

"It's easy to get $20 a night if you know the right bins."

"I found watches, rings - stuff like that.

"Lots of times when you're doing the binning you're  keeping an eye 
out for what you can 'liberate, [or  steal and then sell for drugs],' 
" he recalls.

Financing the habit was also done by buying a quantity  of the drug, 
smoking half and selling half.

Kenny admits, on occasion, he did some petty theft. But  he didn't 
break into cars or homes.

"There are a few people around that would kind of  specialize in 
that," he said.

"I didn't cross the line, sort of thing."

He realizes now, as he did then, it wasn't right.

"Sometimes you'd be doing something that you know is  not right, but 
you still do it.

"The false sense of euphoria makes you forget the  shty thing you had to do."

Party time

Life on the street isn't as lonely and wretched as it seems.

Street people form a network, a social circle. While  they may lie 
and steal from each other, they also look  out for and protect each 
other, hang out together, get  high together.

"There's kind of a brotherly, sisterly thing out  there," Kenny said.

It's not difficult to get the word out if someone is  looking for 
someone, he points out.

Routines or schedules didn't count for much, unless one  was keeping 
track of meals offered at local soup  kitchens. Instead, it was more 
or less party at night,  do nothing all day.

"Every day is Saturday and every night is Friday  night," Kenny said.

He also showed the symptoms which many Maple Ridge  residents 
encounter daily in the form of the long  trains of grocery carts 
laden with eclectic collections  of junk.

"I was kind of guilty of that collectivitis too," he  said, adding 
later that he used to haul the merchandise  on a dolly that he'd tow 
behind his bike.

Nevertheless, some items could always be pawned for  dollars and 
turned into drugs.

The street also offered the occasional free meal. The  KFC bin kitty 
corner from the Caring Place sometimes  had bagfuls of untouched 
chicken dinners.

The bins behind the former 7-Eleven on 222nd Street  sometimes had 
sandwiches that had gone beyond the  expiry date. At Tim Horton's 
"you hit them up at the  right time - every six to eight hours they 
replace all  the donuts."

The bins where people would donate their second-hand  clothes to 
charity were also a rich source of pawnable  goods, but those are now 
tougher to get into, he notes.

Kenny disagrees with the current policy of the Friends  in Need Food 
Bank, which only provides hampers to  people with addresses, an 
attempt to discourage  junkies.

"If you don't give them the food, they're going to go  out and steal 
more anyway," he said.

Spirituality helped

Why has he succeeded where so many have faltered? Kenny  pauses. It's 
hard to explain how it happened, but when  he was on the street he 
"got touched by Jesus."

His road to recovery started in fall 2004, when he  developed 
pneumonia and had just survived a fire in his  tent.

It was Salvation Army former staffer Barb Wardrope and  Maple Ridge 
Mayor Gordy Robson, then a Salvation Army  volunteer, who talked him 
out of the bush and into the  Sally Ann's transition housing program.

Kenny had been thinking about getting clean, but  "everybody thinks 
about quitting.

Thinking about it and doing it are two different  things, Kenny said.

For him, Wardrope reminded him of his mother, and the  fact Robson 
would take the time from his busy schedule  also impressed him.

Kenny's brother pitched in $450 a month for rent so  Kenny could stay 
at the shelter. He volunteered working  Christmas kettles for the 
Salvation Army that December.  By February, he had a job dismantling 
a sawmill in  Squamish. That lasted just four months, but it was long 
enough to keep him out of the drug scene of central  Maple Ridge.

Kenny still visits the shelter five to six times a week  to stay 
connected to his "family" and, it's hoped, be a  beacon for others.

He admits he's far from perfect, but "Uncle Kenny," as  he's known, 
says he always looked out for his weaker  friends.

"My Christ-like thing is to try and be the positive  energy around 
here and everybody is so negative."

Back at work

It's a good day for Kenny. He's just turned 56 and he's  wearing a 
clean shirt with Triumph motorcycle logo on  it. July 1st marked his 
21st month away from meth.

He still drinks the odd beer, but hasn't had a  cigarette in three 
months. "I haven't choked anybody  yet," he said.

Kenny recently took a work safety course and just  started a job as a 
construction safety officer on a  project in Vancouver.

It's just temporary, but he hopes it will lead to  something 
permanent, a shorter commute from his west  Maple Ridge home. 
Ideally, he'd like to get hired by  the Golden Crossing Constructors 
Joint Venture, which  is building the Golden Ears Bridge.

Getting off the street also means he can now take care  of his 
daughter, Kennya, a student at Pitt Meadows  secondary. Heading into 
Grade 10, she's glad to have  her dad back. While he wasn't always 
around, he always  stayed in contact with his daughter.

It's nice to know she has a father, Kennya said.

When he left years ago, she had no idea the trouble he  was in.

"I'm really, really proud of my dad and what he's been  through - it 
takes a lot of willpower to get off the  stuff and then get out and 
yet still be around the same  people.

"Takes a lot of courage too," she adds.

While Kenny tries to provide a role model, he has  practical advice 
to anyone tempted by the lifestyle.

Try to find something that gives you a genuine euphoria  rather than 
the false one promised by a drug, he said.

"The help's out there, if they ask for it."

Kenny jumps into his pick-up truck with Kennya and head home.

[Sidebar]

For many addicts, salvation can lie in plain, simple talk.

It's often through that everyday interaction where  people stuck in a 
cycle of drug use and crime can see  there is another way out, says 
Ron Lawrence,  executive-director with the Alouette Addictions  Society.

Once caught in the spiral of getting high, crime and  poverty addicts 
often see can't any other way in life.

So having outreach workers get to people in the  locations where 
they're actually living is the first  step to getting them off drugs.

The key is to offer hope to those who may be living out  of a 
dumpster and using a rock as a pillow.

"It's a grim life - for those people who have reached  the hard-core stage.

"They don't see any options. For some people, they just  don't see 
any way out."

But turning lives around is more complicated and  lengthy than that.

Once people realize they can change, they need a safe  environment 
where they can stay clean and allow the  drug to clear from their 
system and allow them to think  clearly.

After that, transitional housing is needed to support  people as they 
make the change to productive life.

What's crucial -- is putting time between a person's  last use of 
drugs and the present -- so they can  relearn the healthy pleasures 
of normal life.

The process can take up to two years, he says.

The same goes for heroine or cocaine addiction,  although crystal 
meth recovery takes longer.

Lawrence said most users ingest a variety of drugs.

But crystal meth, he says, is particularly deadly. "The  drug has 
such a devastating effect on the brain."

Crystal meth at $10 or $20 a point, can offer a high  for several 
hours which could mean less crime is needed  to finance the drug. But 
the psychosis it creates can  be dangerous to the user and anyone else.

By comparison, a high from crack cocaine can just last  10 minutes.

All the research shows that crystal meth can't be used recreationally, he said.

"You're not going to find an old crystal meth addict.  They're going 
to be dead," either from a heart attack  or criminal activity.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman