Pubdate: Sun, 15 May 2011
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Sarah Douziech, The Province
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Insite (Insite)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Downtown+Eastside

INSITE SAVED HIM UNTIL HE DETOXED

Travis Redpath Used the Supervised Injection Site Until He Realized 
It Was Time to Get Clean

It's hard to miss the big black Xs inked into Travis Redpath's neck.

For the ex-heroin and crack addict, those tattoos advertise a 
commitment to being free from substance abuse, a lifestyle he's proud 
to have adopted after finishing addiction treatment three years ago.

"It was the first promise I made to myself that I've kept, and will 
continue to keep," says Redpath, 23.

At 14 years old, Redpath was living every parent's dream for their 
child. Overachieving, highly talented and intelligent, the blond, 
blueeyed kid's life was accelerating on a trajectory toward success. 
He grew up in Shaughnessy, one of Vancouver's most affluent 
neighbourhoods, attended top schools including St. George's private 
school and University Hill secondary, and was a nationally ranked 
competitive swimmer.

"I was told since I was very young I would be an Olympic athlete or a 
paleontologist," Redpath says.

But faced with increasing pressure to excel and social isolation 
dealt by the fists of vicious bullies, Redpath says he slipped into a 
depression he didn't know how to cope with.

His first attempts to self-medicate had him perpetually stoned.

"It took me outside of myself," he says. "It allowed me to 
disassociate from what was in front of me, or not really care about 
what was going on in my life."

Ultimately, it allowed him to escape the person he had come to 
dislike most: himself.

After only a year of escalating marijuana abuse, combined with a 
family history of addictions, Redpath's life began to spiral out of control.

 From Shaughnessy to the Downtown Eastside

"From the beginning, there was no real moderation for me," Redpath 
says. "All I was concerned about was the end result."

He was so obsessed with being high that by 15, he had quit swimming, 
his grades were slipping and he was stealing cash from his parents to 
pay for drugs.

Last week, agencies from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside along with the 
B.C. government, doctors and nurses' associations argued in Canada's 
highest court that health care should trump federal drug laws and 
that Insite, the city's supervised drug-injection facility, should 
remain open. If they lose, a facility with overwhelming research 
showing it saves lives and helps addicts access drug treatment could 
be shut down. Here is the story of one Vancouver man who believes 
Insite saved him.

Although he says he mostly used marijuana and alcohol, a group of 
older kids gradually introduced him to harder drugs including acid, 
magic mushrooms and ecstasy.

Redpath says he was resourceful about hiding his drug use from his parents.

When calls came from the school about his increasing absenteeism, 
Redpath would intercept them or make up believable excuses.

By 16, he had dropped out of high school and had started using 
cocaine and heroin he regularly scored on Hastings Street.

"I wasn't naive about the implications," he says. "I thought I was 
too smart to let it get out of hand."

But no matter how smart he was, the irrationality of addiction had taken hold.

His body was physically dependent on heroin and he would inject at 
times just to avoid violent withdrawal symptoms.

Redpath says he was 17 when he realized he was an addict. Unable to 
hide it any longer, he packed his car one night and left his family's 
west-side home.

Years later, when Redpath reconnected with his family, he learned 
that his dad used to drive the alleys late at night looking for his 
teenage son.

"It's not like my parents didn't look for me or want to help me," he 
says. "I was just gone."

He spent the next three years sleeping in shelters, parks and 
"crack-shack" hotels in the Downtown Eastside. Other than a few 
short-lived jobs and stints as a day labourer, he made his money by 
stealing goods to pawn.

He says the addiction overruled any qualms he had about victimizing others.

"I take full ownership over every last scuzzy thing that I did," he 
says. "I always wanted to get away from it."

But despite numerous attempts to get clean, Redpath always relapsed.

"I had a firm belief that . . . I was going to die a junkie."

Insite a saving grace

Redpath was already a heavy heroin user when he first walked in the 
doors of Insite in 2005 when he was 17 years old.

He'd heard from other users that it was a place to get clean needles 
and sterilized water to shoot up. Before he found Insite, Redpath 
used pop cans he scrounged from recycle bins to cook his drugs, and 
dirty water from puddles to inject with.

"When you're in that state, you're not thinking to take care of 
yourself," he says.

He never overdosed at Insite, but he did have several neardeath 
experiences at friends' apartments. He says he felt safer knowing 
he'd be supervised by medically trained staff who could keep him from 
a fatal overdose.

Over the next three years, Redpath used the supervised drug-injection 
site as many as four or five times a day. He says Insite not only 
kept him alive, it also kept him free of disease. Despite four years 
of injecting heroin into his veins, he isn't infected with HIV/AIDS 
or hepatitis, which are spread among injection-drug users who share needles.

Most of all, Redpath says the compassionate care he received at 
Insite made him feel valued when he felt worthless.

"People looked down their noses at me; I was a f---ing crack addict," 
he says. "But at Insite, I never felt judged once."

Redpath says addiction treatment information was readily available, 
but at first, he wasn't ready to hear it. He was 20 years old when he 
finally got serious about giving up drugs.

At first, Redpath detoxed for a few days at a youth centre, but after 
struggling with pain and incessant vomiting and diarrhea, he turned 
to Innervisions Recovery Society in Coquitlam. After 54 gruelling 
days, the 20-year-old walked out a free man.

"Not everyone who uses Insite will stay a heroin addict forever," he says.

"Look at me. I pay my taxes, I'm a productive member of society, I'm 
a reformed criminal."

Redpath says he's sickened by the idea that Insite could be shut down.

"The only way you could really have an issue with Insite is if you 
look at drug addiction as being a moral failing," he says.

"I took every single opportunity in the world and pissed them away, 
and almost killed myself in the process.

"That's not a moral failing; there was something seriously wrong with me."

He says he's living proof that keeping addicts alive and disease-free 
long enough that they have a chance to recover is a worthwhile service.

Redpath has a full-time job, a girlfriend, a nice place to live and 
he spends much of his free time volunteering in the Downtown 
Eastside, often helping people in the same facilities that helped him 
just a few years ago.

"The best thing I can do to make it up to anyone I've harmed . . . is 
just to continue to stay clean and help people whenever I can." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake