Pubdate: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 Source: ABC News - Nightline Contact: http://204.202.137.114/onair/nightline/email.html Website: http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/transcripts/nl990310_trans.html Copyright: 1998 ABCNEWS and Starwave Corporation. Note: This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript. NIGHTLINE, GETTING STRAIGHT, PART 3 TED KOPPEL There is a line somewhere at the far end of dedication and if you cross that line, you will have entered the world of obsession. It's not easy to describe what goes on in that world because among its inhabitants are those who have taken leave of their senses and those whose clarity of vision is so acute that they can only see things in black and white. Gray is invisible to them. Rafael Flores, who works as an intake counselor at a drug treatment clinic in New York, appears to be such a man. We introduced you to him last night, explained to you that Rafael does the bulk of his work on his own time. Before and after he goes to his job, Rafael prowls the streets of New York looking for drug addicts, trying to convince them that it is time for them to get unhooked from the crack or the cocaine or the heroin that controls their lives. But that, as Nightline Correspondent Dave Marash showed you last night, is merely the beginning of Rafael's labor. Once he's convinced the addict that the time is right to seek treatment, Rafael has to find the clinic or center or hospital that will take the addict in right then, at that moment, when the will to seek help is greater than the craving for another hit. Here's Dave Marash. DAVE MARASH, ABCNEWS (VO) From predawn to dusk, we watched freelance New York City drug counselor Rafael Flores offer his service, leading addicts from the streets towards rehabilitation and hopefully redemption. At the East Harlem apartment of Sister Leotina O'Gorman, he worked with two long time drug abusers, John Curtis and Cathy Ortiz, convincing them to seek help, working to find them hard to find places in treatment facilities. RAFAEL FLORES All I know it's possible to be clean and to learn how to live without substance. DAVE MARASH (VO) At the end of the day, John was booked for 5 a.m. delivery to a city crisis center and Cathy seemed about to get a bed at the city's largest rehab facility. RAFAEL FLORES And tonight is a critical night. They need to stay alive in order to live, yeah. DAVE MARASH (VO) But that was yesterday. LEOTINA O'GORMAN You know, there's a situation, he had, he is, he was picked up by the police last night, came back in handcuffs. DAVE MARASH (VO) Four thirty in the morning and it's been quite a night at Sister's. Both Cathy and John seem to have gotten high on crack and then someone dropped a dime on John and he was arrested and later released. LEOTINA O'GORMAN Well, what scares me is it looks as if, you know, somebody probably called the police on him. Somebody's ... RAFAEL FLORES So he was set up? LEOTINA O'GORMAN Somebody's trying to set him up and I just want to get him out of here. RAFAEL FLORES So a little anger towards him, OK. LEOTINA O'GORMAN He wants to get out of the city. JOHN CURTIS I just want to get out of New York period and not come back here ever. RAFAEL FLORES That's cool. JOHN CURTIS Drug treatment programs ain't gonna take care of that bum cause I've still gotta come back to New York. RAFAEL FLORES No you don't. No you don't, John. No you don't. JOHN CURTIS I'm gonna stay at a rehab forever? RAFAEL FLORES John, no, the rehab will place you in another state. DAVE MARASH (VO) Sister wants John out of the city for his own protection. But for Rafael, protecting John means getting him immediately into drug treatment. RAFAEL FLORES Your system needs to be free of the chemical and things could begin to happen. You can begin to feel things. DAVE MARASH (VO) But detox is only the beginning. RAFAEL FLORES I'll escort you. I'll send you to detox. I'll secure the detox services for you only if you agree to go into a follow-up program the same day you get out. DAVE MARASH (VO) Follow-up to Rafael means rehabilitation, which can go from 10 to 28 days. RAFAEL FLORES You focus on all these issues that you have blocked out, you have denied yourself of feeling and they encourage you to talk about them, cry about them, write about them, draw about them, read poetry about them. That's what rehab does. Rehab is good. Rehab is a good foundation. From rehab you could then get into a program of a year or six months. John, are you going to keep running? JOHN CURTIS No, I'm not going to keep running. RAFAEL FLORES You're not going to keep running? JOHN CURTIS I shouldn't have gone out last night. I told Sister I want to get out of New York period. RAFAEL FLORES Then why don't you run into treatment? JOHN CURTIS Today. Today. RAFAEL FLORES Why don't you run into treatment today? Today, now. DAVE MARASH (VO) Rafael still sees John completing that full program, if only he can get him to take the first step to detox. RAFAEL FLORES And I'll get you into the hospital today. JOHN CURTIS Later on today? RAFAEL FLORES Today. Within a few hours. Could you just put on your beauty face and we just get together and go over what's going to happen within the next hour or two? DAVE MARASH (VO) While he waits for John's decision, Rafael confronts Cathy on last night's slip. RAFAEL FLORES You know, Cathy, most people that I've worked with in 28 years, the time that they most mess up is always the night before. CATHY ORTIZ Look, but I didn't mess up. RAFAEL FLORES OK, cause if you did anything I could also use that to get you into detox. It would be almost easier to get you into rehab. Will you be down for that? OK. She's agreed to go into detox, which implies there's been use. We didn't have to get into what type of use, how long and so on. The fact that she's agreed to go into detox is enough for me. DAVE MARASH (VO) Meanwhile, John Curtis has made his decision. He will go, as planned, to a city crisis center and then hopefully on to detox at Doctor's Hospital within 24 hours. JOHN CURTIS Y'all see the pain I'm going through, right? Well, today's the day, my son's birthday. RAFAEL FLORES What are you feeling? What's happening? JOHN CURTIS Today my son would have been 20 years old. Five years old, five years ago today he was blown away in front of my face, you know what I'm saying? Because he was trying to be like daddy. RAFAEL FLORES I don't think we'll wait. I think we're gonna just leave now and then I'm gonna come back. Cathy? CATHY ORTIZ Yeah? RAFAEL FLORES We're getting ready to leave and I'm gonna return for you but there was something that you promised John that you were going to get rid of and he would like to see to it that that's gotten rid of in order for him to feel free to move on with me to detox. DAVE MARASH (VO) As he leaves Sister's John throws the crack pipe into the street and gets into the car and heads for what could be a beginning. TED KOPPEL Crack and cocaine addicts routinely say that they want to kick their habits, but getting them to keep that resolution is Rafael's toughest challenge. That part of the story when Dave Marash comes back. (Commercial Break) DAVE MARASH (VO) In front of the grim crisis center, Rafael braces John for the familiar fake ritual he must go through to get into the center to get to detox, rehab and long-term treatment. RAFAEL FLORES They're going to ask you questions. If you say the right answers, chances are you can get in. JOHN CURTIS What's the right answer? Let me know before I go in there cause I can't, you know ... RAFAEL FLORES What do you, well, it's up to you. What do you think, because you've been through this before? JOHN CURTIS I know just cause I'm on drugs I've gotta tell 'em I'm drinking now to get in, right? RAFAEL FLORES It's up to you. JOHN CURTIS I'm asking you a question, yes or no? RAFAEL FLORES Normally, yes. DAVE MARASH (VO) In New York City, two-thirds of the crisis and impatient rehabilitation services are specifically designated alcohol treatment centers and in many of those facilities and in all of the city crisis centers like the one John is entering, a declaration of alcoholism is required to get you into treatment, even if the declaration is a lie. RAFAEL FLORES I just need, if it's at all possible, Mr Fields, if you could do your magic and try to get, to get him into Doctors today. MR FIELDS Oh, he got to get into Doctors Hospital. OK. RAFAEL FLORES Yeah. He needs Doctors. He needs it. You can trust this gentleman right here. He's really good people. I'm going to leave him in your hands and I'm going to check in a couple of hours, I'm going to call here. MR FIELDS OK. DAVE MARASH (VO) So John Curtis is safely stowed at the Central Harlem Crisis Center. He should move on to detox within hours, at worst within a day. Now it's back to Sister's to pick up on the case of Cathy Ortiz. RAFAEL FLORES OK, what I want to try to do is hook up one of two hospitals that will take you for today. DAVE MARASH What about the fact that Cathy has started using again? How does that change yesterday's plan? RAFAEL FLORES Well, as opposed to getting her straight into rehab, we now have to get her into detox cause detox completion is a requirement to get into the rehab unless she's been clean and she obviously hasn't been clean. If you're going to step out ... CATHY ORTIZ I ain't going nowhere. RAFAEL FLORES Let me know first. CATHY ORTIZ Yes. RAFAEL FLORES It's like a schoolteacher, raise your hand. Ask for permission2E DAVE MARASH (VO) Once again, Rafael starts the process of trying to find Cathy treatment. He connects with her methadone counselor, letting him know Cathy is going to try once more to clean up her life. RAFAEL FLORES With your blessings, we're going to try this again, detox and a rehab to stabilize the situation and I just needed your cooperation with that. Yeah, could you place me with the intake for detox? DAVE MARASH (VO) Once Rafael starts phoning for Cathy, his day brightens. RAFAEL FLORES I wonder if I might give you her name and I'm going to escort her in? Heroin, alcohol and cocaine crack. DAVE MARASH (VO) And soon he manages to find a bed. RAFAEL FLORES OK, thank you. Thank you. OK, bye. She has beds. They have her name, she's good to go. Pretty quick. Cathy? CATHY ORTIZ I'm here. RAFAEL FLORES Everything is confirmed. We're going to, we're going with St. Luke's Roosevelt. CATHY ORTIZ Well, I never been there so it sounds good. RAFAEL FLORES OK. DAVE MARASH Cathy-forgive me, Sister for saying this-but you've been at this point before, right? CATHY ORTIZ Yes. DAVE MARASH Does this feel different this time? CATHY ORTIZ Not really. Until I get to the place where I'll be away for a good long time, then it will be real. DAVE MARASH But you know it's going to be hard. CATHY ORTIZ I know it is but I'm looking forward to it. It's a challenge and I have to do it for myself before I do it for anybody else. LEOTINA O'GORMAN Bye, Cathy. CATHY ORTIZ Bye. LEOTINA O'GORMAN She's a very lovable person. A lot of people love her in the neighborhood. RAFAEL FLORES This is where it starts, Lord willing. But I tell everyone, take time now with the Lord. DAVE MARASH (VO) As their cab rolls towards St. Luke's Hospital on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Rafael is lobbying Cathy for a long-term program that will wean her of methadone. I'm in your hands, she tells him, and together they enter the hospital. DAVE MARASH With any kind of luck we know exactly what Cathy Ortiz's next year is going to be all about-saving her own life. For Rafael Flores, two chapters have now been brought to hopeful conclusions. And for New York City, two out of literally half a million stories may not end in tragedy. RAFAEL FLORES I escorted a client there this morning and I just want to know if he's admitted. DAVE MARASH (VO) Or so we thought for a good five minutes, until Rafael reached John's crisis center from a pay phone. RAFAEL FLORES Is there any reason why he left on his own? DAVE MARASH (VO) Even as he says it, Ralph knows the reason. RAFAEL FLORES Were you guys going to admit him? Yes. I took him there because he required the services of a sobering up station. People don't have to go there drunk. DAVE MARASH (VO) Rafael's worry is that John's motivation for treatment could disappear forever because of this one setback. RAFAEL FLORES I don't understand that. You did a semi-sabotage. Basically this is abuse, the fact that many clients need to say that they're an alcoholic when they're not. Indeed, they are drug addicts that need help and that are hurting and you give them an out and they'll use it to not follow through with treatment. DAVE MARASH (VO) It doesn't take long for John to turn up back at Sister's. Rafael suspects he's copped on his way back from the crisis center. RAFAEL FLORES He's going to inform Sister that he wasn't admitted into the program and that he thinks it's best that he goes to Denver. This is his answer for recovery. It's a false answer. It's an imitation answer. It's a camouflage to treatment. But it's going to be his answer and he'll be on that bus probably this evening. That or he'll be dead. Part of me loves you and want to work with you. There's another part of me that want to slap you across the head, knucklehead. I'm gonna call. OK, come on. JOHN CURTIS I do not ... RAFAEL FLORES Don't disappear. JOHN CURTIS I'm only going to go inside. RAFAEL FLORES Don't disappear. JOHN CURTIS Anything but St. Luke's. Anything but St. Luke's. RAFAEL FLORES Anything but St. Luke's. That's the place that has beds. Think about it. Think about it. JOHN CURTIS I ain't going to St. Luke's. RAFAEL FLORES Think about it. John, why do you want to flirt with death so obviously? JOHN CURTIS I ain't flirting with no death cause I know what's important. RAFAEL FLORES OK, we tried, John. JOHN CURTIS (unintelligible) RAFAEL FLORES OK, John, I want to go out there and find me some other clients that want to go into treatment. That's all I live for. That's all I want. JOHN CURTIS I know that. I know that. (unintelligible) RAFAEL FLORES If you change your mind, let me know. Other than that, bullshit. TED KOPPEL As we've seen, the odds against a street addict getting straight are slim. So what keeps Rafael Flores going? We'll find out, in a moment. (Commercial Break) RAFAEL FLORES I was hurt for John. I was deeply hurt for John cause I saw what was happening. To go into treatment would mean a major change in his life and he's not ready for that right now and he's setting himself up for death which, in my opinion, is quite obvious. If you know anyone that might need detox ... 1ST ADDICT Detox? There's a lot of people here needs detox. RAFAEL FLORES All right. Thank you. And when he's ready, I'll be ready to service him. But there are other people. If you know anyone ... 2ND ADDICT I need it myself. RAFAEL FLORES You know ... 2ND ADDICT I need it myself real bad, real bad. RAFAEL FLORES Talk to me.I don't want this to sound like a cliche. I see many coffins. I see many, many, many people that are dying, literally dying. OK, my name is Rafael and there's no money involved. MAN ON THE STREET OK. RAFAEL FLORES There's no money involved. All you've got to do is call that number and tell them you want to speak to me and I'll get back to you. MAN ON THE STREET Very good. Thank you. RAFAEL FLORES Do you have anyone in mind? MAN ON THE STREET I got somebody in mind. A close friend of the family's. RAFAEL FLORES I hear you. MAN ON THE STREET See if I can get him in. RAFAEL FLORES Definitely family. DAVE MARASH (VO) Rafael Flores, street angel, knows the odds against a cure and accepts every recovery as a miracle. Rafael speaks from experience. Long-term treatment helped him deal with his problems with alcohol. He admits in the years since he's had some slips, but he asserts strongly not with drugs, thank God. Never with drugs. RAFAEL FLORES Let's say two out of 10 who will be in recovery will succeed in their recovery in the sense that they will stay clean maybe a year. And there's only two out of 10. What happened to the other eight? Well, maybe the other eight will be two more part of another 10. But if you're in the business long enough, you will see many twos. ADAM PIANELLO (PH) Well, I used basically all drugs. DAVE MARASH (VO) Meet Adam Pianello, one of Rafael's favorite twos. ADAM PIANELLO Ralph is very, very sturdy but in his own way, you know? It's like a tough love kind of person. He might not tell you what you want to hear, but he'll tell you what you need to hear. Basically, you know, if you need help, I advise you to just shut your mouth and listen. DAVE MARASH (VO) Two years Adam has lived clean. He's got the best job of his life and his family is flourishing. Rafael Flores' service saw Adam from addiction to the other side. ADAM PIANELLO I was blessed to get it and it's put me in a spot in my life right now where I wouldn't give this up for anything right about now. LEOTINA O'GORMAN Ralph has that, he has a way of getting people to say what's hurting, how they're wounded and then he just goes at, shows them matter of factly what to do about it and it's just a very beautiful healing thing. RAFAEL FLORES My goal is not, I don't see it as curing all. Absolutely not. What I see it as are you going to offer your services to people? If we could do that in an aggressive manner in a consistent manner that's good enough. I could get you in today. 3RD ADDICT Yeah, but today I can't. I got things to do first, you know what I'm saying? RAFAEL FLORES OK, then maF1ana. I'll be here. LEOTINA O'GORMAN Never underestimate the power of love. And he does love. If somebody's in trouble, he'll go at it. He'll get up at four in the morning. He'll go at it any hour of the day or night. He'll stay up all night looking for them. I've seen him walking the streets to find somebody in trouble. It's love. It's love. DAVE MARASH A postscript. As Rafael says, success is possible but as he knows, it's also very difficult. In the days since we taped, Cathy Ortiz's rehabilitation fell apart. The issue-her methadone maintenance. Attempting to wean herself of methadone she crashed, left rehab and is today doing drugs again on the streets. I'm Dave Marash for Nightline. TED KOPPEL This time, Rafael Flores didn't even get two out of 10. I'll have a final thought, when we come back. (Commercial Break) TED KOPPEL Rafael Flores is a remarkable man who deserves our admiration for the passion that he brings to turning addicts toward treatment. But he is also a walking barometer of our own failure. To the extent that we need Rafael freelancing on the streets of New York at night trying to con addicts into accepting treatment and treatment centers into giving them a bed, the war on drugs is a mockery. No matter how much we succeed in cutting the supply, no matter how many dealers we throw in prison, until we have adequate drug treatment available and accessible for those who need it, we're still losing the war. You can talk to Rafael Flores online tomorrow between 2:00 and 3:00 pm Eastern Time at abcnews.go.com. That's our report for tonight. I'm Ted Koppel in Washington. For all of us here at ABCNEWS, good night. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea