Out Of The Darkness Of Drug Addiction

Vic Vela
The Daily Record

For years, for Sean Conroy, there were no such things as limitations in life.

“If something seemed like a patently bad idea, I was first in line,” he says with a mischievous smile as he stirs his coffee almost haphazardly with a flimsy plastic straw.

Conroy’s behavior is feisty during this October 2006 chat at Java Buddha, a Colorado Springs coffeehouse. Free from his vices of drugs and alcohol, coffee and cigarettes remain as Conroy’s lone remaining addictions.

Conroy’s persona sings with diabolical energy. Although he is by no means intimidating in stature — he stands merely 5-foot-4-inches, wears khaki cargo pants over his granola-like Crocs brand foam slip-on sandals — his Cheshire Cat grin and coke-bottle lenses highlight his Dennis the Menace, pest-like presence.

He interrupts a story regarding an auto theft he was involved in years ago in order to heckle an acoustic guitar player performing folk music for coffeehouse customers.

“Play something good,” he shouts, admonishing the performer’s song selection, which has mostly consisted of John Denver and James Taylor numbers. The performer is oblivious to Conroy’s comments as our position on the outside patio is far from the man’s hearing range.

Conroy cackles at his behavior.

“A person doesn’t change just because you stop using drugs,” he says. “I’m still funny, and I like to raise hell.”

Raising hell was exactly what Conroy did for most of his adult life, a life dominated by run-ins with the law, with an out-of-control heroin addiction serving as a catalyst for his unruly behavior. He’s a self-described “addict-a-holic,” claiming to be hooked on “anything (he) could get his hands on.”

Now, thanks to an exhaustive loathing of self-sabotaging legal problems and the help of vigorous substance-abuse treatment, Conroy lives for going to bed every day sober and then repeating the act.

However, Conroy is just one of many Coloradans who are recovering addicts. Some get the help they need; others add to the lion’s share of substance abuse statistics — those who don’t.

Colorado has fewer success stories, such as Conroy’s, to boast of than other states. This is largely because of the lack of resources available to drug addicts here.

According to an October 2006 report issued by the Colorado Department of Human Services, $27 is spent per U.S. resident on publicly funded substance-abuse treatment compared to just $7.50 spent per resident in Colorado. The report also references a Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse report that found Colorado spent the least on treatment, prevention and research of 47 states examined.

A 2004 report by the United States Department of Health and Human Services ranked Colorado first among all states in those who have engaged in illicit drug use other than marijuana in the past month, prior to survey, and second in past year cocaine use.

Considering the few resources available to addicts like Conroy, his success story is all the more remarkable.

“We’re not all a bunch of (screw-ups),” Conroy protests. “We think we are when we’re getting (high), but we’re not. It’s a disease. And, when we accept that, the disease concept can save our lives.”

While the survey reports more than 22 million addicts from that year, only 3.8 million of them received “some kind of treatment for the problem related to the use of alcohol or illicit drugs in 2005.”

According to 2004 SAMSHA statistics, 68,525 Coloradans were in treatment for substance-abuse problems at any point in time that year.

SAMSHA reports Colorado ranks near the bottom in several categories concerning substance abuse and treatment options:

— The state ranks in the top five states for illicit drug dependence in the past year among those age 26 or older.

— Colorado ranks second in non-medical use of pain relievers in the past year.

— It ranks third in first time marijuana use.

— The state ranks fourth in persons needing, but not getting, treatment for illicit drug use.

The lack of treatment options available to substance abusers concerns those close to this issue — perhaps more than any other factor in state statistics.

“Substance-abuse treatment in Colorado has historically been underfunded,” said Judith Bridgeman, executive director of Rocky Mountain Behavioral Health, Inc. RMBH is Fremont County’s largest provider of outpatient treatment services.

Bridgeman oversees a staff that helps counsel substance abusers, such as Kathleen Gilbert, the group’s clinical director, who agrees Colorado falls short in resources available to addicts.

“Every time we turn around, the state has cut our funding,” said Gilbert. “It’s a real struggle.”

When substance abuse goes untreated, addicts like Conroy go to places where treatment is secondary.

“We’re putting people in prisons in wrong-headed ways,” Bridgeman said. “Prisons don’t treat. Prisons punish.”

Ari Zavaras knows firsthand the impact substance abusers have on the prison industry. As executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Zavaras oversees 23,350 inmates housed at various correctional facilities across the state. Zavaras estimates 80 percent of DOC offenders need “some degree of substance abuse.” (treatment?)

Canon City Daily Record