Bay Area Drug alcoholism addiction rehab

She knows. She’s 24 years old and has been doing methamphetamine for a decade in Lompoc, stopping for a few months each time the police took her to jail, or when the courts sent her to detox, or when she was pregnant with her daughter.

Temptation, and a court order, are what landed her in the Another Road Detox program at the Good Samaritan center, which opened in October in a renovated flower shop at 608 W. Ocean Ave.

She has been in detox for two weeks. In another week, she’ll be back on the street again, eye to eye with temptation. Program Manager Jesse Garcia says it’s best not to publish her name in the newspaper.

Sitting in Garcia’s tiny office, she speaks softly, looking inward for answers. “My goal is to keep my mind focused, avoiding places where I know there’ll be a session. Then I can succeed in staying sober.”

Temptation, yes. But it’s fear that leads addicts down the path of poor choices, said Garcia, 57. Fear that flows from peer pressure and the trauma of neglect or abuse. Drug addicts and alcoholics are products of their environment, he said, and they have learned to expect disappointment and failure—and to cling to it.

They are afraid to live clean and sober; they have learned to survive, but not to live, said Garcia.

“Many of them are afraid of change,” he said. “‘What if I can’t do it? What if I let you guys down again?’”

Another Road Detox is a

21-day, six-bed, around-the-clock program operated by Garcia and a staff of five. It is one of three Good Samaritan programs in Lompoc. Recovery Way Home serves women in recovery who are pregnant or parenting; Turning Point is an outpatient recovery program that serves the women in Recovery Way Home as well as others.

Four women and one man are currently in Another Road Detox. Some come on their own, most are referred by probation officers, mental health agencies, or by the courts after having committed misdemeanor drug crimes or failing to meet their Proposition 36 responsibilities.

Since October, 26 addicts have completed the program; 23 are still clean and sober, Garcia said. Most of the clients are women in their late 20s or early 30s, white, and have children that often are being cared for by family members, and about half of them have jobs, he said.

They all have their own stories, but most arrive without support networks, without knowing how to trust or be trusted, without knowing that help is available or where to find it. They know one way of living and must learn that there are alternative choices.

The addict community is their family; it is Garcia’s job to make the recovery community their family, he said.

“Everyone comes with a different cross,” Garcia said. “What I do, basically, is I give them hope. ‘We’re going to walk through this; we’re going to make it.’”

Once his clients see that help is available and that someone cares about them, they begin to change quickly, shedding the rejection and negativity they have lived with, he said.

“A lot of people just need that little bit of help. A lot of addicts are afraid to ask for help.”

Each morning, Garcia and his clients meet in a group session to read and talk about a lesson from their meditation book, called “Just for Today.” The topics are wide ranging — addiction, recovery, denial, family systems.


The first week of the program is dedicated to detox. Clients go through withdrawals, with the attending headaches and sleeplessness. During the second week they are taught about the local agencies and services that are available to help them.

The third week is dedicated to preparing them to leave Another Road Detox. Their legal and health issues must be addressed before they leave. They must have a sponsor in the “12-step community,” such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.

“We want them to develop a clean and sober support system,” Garcia said.


“I grew up without a father. My family had a long line of alcoholism and addiction — anything and everything,” he said.

He also began smoking marijuana, introduced to him by a friend.

When he was 15 years old and a freshman in high school, Garcia was arrested and handcuffed in the principal’s office. He and some friends had stolen beer from a convenience store and fled, chased by a clerk shooting at them.

Although the charges eventually were dropped, Garcia said the experience made an impression on him. He told the judge he would never return to juvenile hall, and he made good on that promise.

But his battle with addiction was only beginning.

In 1982, Garcia’s wife divorced him and he moved to Lompoc.

“I proceeded to get loaded and drunk, for a long time,” he said.

Heroin was his drug of choice for five years.

When he recognized that he had stopped caring and had become unproductive, Garcia stopped using heroin and began drinking heavily.


“She showed me how to trust. She took me in — the dope fiend I was and as wealthy as she was. She gave me the keys to her house, her car. Even in my addiction, she still trusted me.”

By 1989, Garcia was ready to stop drinking. He was hesitant, though, to return to Good Samaritan in Santa Maria, because that was one of the programs where he had failed before.

Garcia said he wasn’t ready for the change that he had decided to make, but the lessons he had learned in detox programs returned to him and he began to learn how to apply them to his life.


But in the end, it’s not up to him or his staff, he said.

“As much as I want them to learn, it’s not up to me, it’s up to them. We’re merely guides,” he said. “We just navigate them in the recovery process.”

To be clean and sober, the addicts, the alcoholics, must shoulder the burden themselves, he said.

“You have to be selfish in recovery because it’s about you,” he said. “It’s not about anybody else.”

source http://ww w.lompocrecord.com/articles/2009/02/23/news/featurednews/news01.txt