Prisoners march in the yard at the Bill Johnson
Correctional Center in Alva, Okla., July 9, 2003. Inmates find themselves in
a boot camp environment, marching for hours, standing at attention
and learning how to address others. Random drug tests are conducted because
inmates sometimes find ways to get their fix even behind bars. Violations can
mean serving a full prison term. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) |
By Judi Boland
ALVA, Okla. (AP) _ The biggest test of Toby Evans' life comes down to a single
question: Can he stay away from methamphetamine?For five years the answer was a resounding "no."
His trip to prison started with a hit of meth offered by friends at bar one
night.
"I did it, and I loved it," says Evans, who went from
using on weekends, to selling meth for a friend, to cooking _ because it was
"easy money and easier to do than work."
|
Eventually, he was injecting it straight into his veins.
"It was an every hour deal," Evans says. "If I didn't have a needle in my arm I
wasn't happy."
His drug use didn't end until March 13, 2002, when he was caught with anhydrous
ammonia. He had planned to use it to cook more meth at his Woodward home.
Now, after two years in prison and six months in a drug treatment program at the
Charles E. "Bill" Johnson Correctional Center in Alva, Evans is about to be
released.
No drug recovery is easy, but meth addicts face a particular obstacle.The problem is that meth can be homemade. Addicts not only
use it, they make it, says Erica Catton, spokeswoman for Narconon, a private
drug rehabilitation facility near Lake Eufaula.
"That requires a person using meth to be committed to making a complete
lifestyle change in order to recover," she says.
About 4 percent of meth users who receive treatment through the Oklahoma
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services are readmitted after 90
days, when they're most likely to relapse, an agency spokesman says.
That doesn't take into account those who relapse and never return, says Jackie
Jordan, substance abuse clinical coordinator for the department.
Meth users can suffer severe brain damage and retain the toxins in their body,
even if they haven't used the drug in a year, she says.
"There can be so much brain damage they might never be rehabilitated," Jordan
says. "This accounts for those people who just keep on using no matter how many
programs they have been through."
State treatment options include inpatient services, intensive outpatient and
regular outpatient care. There are also crisis facilities when users suffer
drug-induced psychosis.
The number of Oklahomans seeking help for meth has more than doubled in the last
seven years to 6,532, Jordan says. But most people who need help never get it.
"Some because of the stigma attached to treatment, others don't have the
resources and thirdly, the limited availability of programs," she says.
Evans says he has learned responsibility and how to control his temper through a
12-step program and relapse prevention treatment in prison.
The lessons haven't come easily.
Inmates find themselves in a bootcamp environment here _
marching for hours, standing at attention and learning how to address others.
Random drug tests are conducted because inmates sometimes find ways to get their
fix even behind bars. Violations can mean serving a full prison term.
Evans looks forward to returning home and spending time with his 9-year-old
daughter. But he worries about what that freedom brings, including meeting up
with old friends.
"I'm just going to have to put it down to them I have changed and I don't live
their lifestyle anymore," he says. "If they don't respect that then I will have
to do without them, I guess."
At age 30, a relapse for him would be costly _ prison until he's 55.
"A lot of people think I'm crazy for saying that I'm glad
that I got caught _ but I am," he says. "Everybody is going to get caught sooner
or later."
On the Net:
Narconon: http://www.addictionca.com
Charles E. "Bill" Johnson Correction Center:
http://www.doc.state.ok.us/docs/BJCC.HTM
Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services:
http://www.odmhsas.org/
|
