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Inspire by Example
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This title expires November 30th, 2027
Subject(s): Canadian Social Issues, Character Education, Documentary, Guidance, Health and Medicine, Social Issues, Social Sciences, Sociology
Grade Level: 9 - 12, Post Secondary, Adult
Subject(s): Canadian Social Issues, Character Education, Documentary, Guidance, Health and Medicine, Social Issues, Social Sciences, Sociology
Grade Level: 9 - 12, Post Secondary, Adult
A documentary about the prevalence of prescription drug abuse in Canada, and the effects of addiction on users and their loved ones.
Addiction is a disease, and that disease is progressive. For Chris Cull, his disease lead him to hit rock bottom. From here, he made the decision to move forward. In the summer of 2014, Chris bicycled 8000 kilometres across Canada from Victoria, BC to St. Johns, Newfoundland to spread awareness and document stories of prescription drug use and how it has affected Canadians across the country.
At the age of 22, triggered by the loss of his father, Chris turned to prescription medication to numb the pain. He narrates his experience of turning into a person he never thought possible. From lying and stealing, to pushing away those that mattered most in his life, Chris felt that hitting that all time low was a real wake up call. It was at that point he decided to set out on a road to recovery.
Many people living with addiction are diamonds in the rough – we need to be able to see beyond what’s on the surface and remember that prescription drug abuse not only affects the user, but simultaneously those around them: parents, siblings, co-workers, friends, partners, grandparents – the list goes on. With this documentary, Chris, now a nationally recognized speaker and mental health advocate hopes to spark a nation-wide dialogue on an increasingly prevalent and serious issue.
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Running Time: 100:43 Country of Origin: Canada Captions:  |
Producer: Chris Cull Copyright Date: 2016 Language: English |
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Inspire by Example 100:43
A documentary about the prevalence of prescription drug abuse in...
TRANSCRIPT
Close- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- Yeah, my name is Chris Cull, and I'm a recovering drug addict. I didn't start getting into pills until I was-- it was when my father got sick with Huntington's disease. I was in college at the time, and I'd came home from school and I had heard noise in the garage. And I figured he was in there, but I didn't know what he was doing, so I just went downstairs and did my thing.
- And then realized like, half hour has passed and I'm still listening to this thumping around. So I went upstairs, and I opened up the garage door from the inside and he was trying to tie a noose, but he couldn't do it, and he asked me to try to help him with it.
- And that really screwed with my head a lot. That was more or less my breaking point on a personal level as to where I started doing Percocets to numb it out, to be able to push on with what I wanted to do with myself, my life. And it was just like, the Percs weren't doing it anymore. And then Oxys were just like, a million times stronger than that, so that set my life into complete hell.
- Growing up with Chris-- he was kind of like winter, and I was kind of like summer. Chris was the hockey player, the snowboarder, and I'd be hibernating. And then summertime would come around. I played baseball. That was my thing.
- And we'd always go to each other's games and stuff like that. So we were always around each other when we were younger. I try to remember the good times of my childhood versus the bad. We were close. And then there was some time that came between us as a result of other things that were circumstantial I guess. And it was like there was a huge wedge that was driven between us.
- Both kind of mourning the loss of our father. Probably one of the worst times in my life as well as Chris's. I think it devastated him. It changed him. We grew further and further apart actually, as a result of being as young as we were. We didn't have all the answers, per se. It was just him and I trying to navigate through this, not knowing necessarily how to--
- This was when I began to realize he was on something, which is when he began to lose a lot of weight. He was just on the edge, just on the cusp of dying. I honest to God believed that what was inevitably going to happen. Just the way that things kept going and going, and as much as he try and try to combat that. That was one of the harder things was trying to get him back.
- Being high, especially on opiates, it's like walking around in a world with no color. And once you start to get off of it, the color just start coming back, in terms of you start to think straight again. You start to appreciate the little things for what they are, and like, you're not focused on getting drugs anymore. You're focused on what's going on in life, and what's going on in a world. Where curiosity strikes you in a way it never had before.
- Recovery is one of those weird things where you have to be very conscious of putting yourself in scenarios that will create the potential to use. But it's weird. You're going through that evolution and reflecting in hindsight to really look back and say that's who you were. It's not who I am now, but that's who I was.
- The amount of things that I saw over the years, I wanted to see if that's what it was like across the rest of the country. There are companies that are pushing heroin in a pill, for example. And that's completely illegal. Are you creating the bigger potential to cause that? People who never had a problem with drugs in their life got into a car accident, whatever the case was. They were getting essentially heroin in a pill. It ruined their entire family.
- People tend to think of street dealers as some guy, or some shady looking dude on a corner, but that's really not the case. Especially with pills, because they are prescribed to you by a doctor. So they can be prescribed to elderly people to everyday parents and stuff like that. You just looking statistically at the rise of opiate-based prescription drugs is very troubling. It's a money-driven society. I am no fool to that. I know money rules the world.
- However, you can stop the potential for that being put out there. This summer I plan to ride a bike across Canada. I want to go out and document stories of people who are going through it, have been through it, or parents who've lost loved ones, because for every addict there is a family that's affected. There's friends that are affected. So it's a multiple factor.
- Not only change the dialogue from people getting help, because while I think that that is one part of it, but also how to stop this. I want to turn my last decade of experience into something more beneficial for the greater good of society. I've learned a lot over the years, but I also have a lot more to learn. But I want to share all those lessons with the rest of the world.
- Chris was looking for somewhere to train. I felt that we'd offer him free membership and free training at Kalsamrit gym in [INAUDIBLE]. He's been doing a lot of the strength and conditioning classes with Coach Kyle and James Edwards.
- He approached me and just told me what he was doing, and I told him if he needed any personal training, I'd set up a plan specifically for what he needs.
- I think the ride is a massive, massive project. I think that is a huge obstacle. It's going to be a long journey.
- I know he's going to go through hell. I don't think too many people know how hell he's going to go through.
- You don't see too many successful stories. Usually I see a lot of people relapse.
- What really did a [INAUDIBLE] was he's pretty well fed. You know, it's live or die out there, and I like that attitude. If he's got that attitude that he's going to go out there no matter what, and he's going to go against the doubters, then I'm on bored.
- But we'll see. It's going to be interesting to be a part of and watch, on the outside looking in.
- Here's our luxurious trailer we got. This is where we'll be living for awhile.
- It's a little dark, so we got our in-house lights here. We got Dollarama special. We got these lights in here, but they don't work so good, or at all. We got a sink though. Doesn't work. This is a stove, not working. Refrigerator-- doesn't work at all. Everything else though, works pretty good.
- The stains-- they came free with the trailer. So this guy might look really high tech, but it actually broke down the first time we tried to set it up. No electricity runs into it, except for the lights on the outside-- the signal lights. And the propane doesn't work to it, so there's no heat to it either. Other than those few minor details, it's pretty much a palace in here.
- [LAUGHING]
- With the trailer ready to go, we are loading our gear for the three-month journey. Joining me are my cameraman, Brian and Al, who thankfully took the job on short notice. With 8,000 kilometers between Victoria, British Columbia and St. John's, Newfoundland, we are leaving our hometown just outside of Toronto. But as we begin our drive, something is telling me this trip isn't going to be easy.
- Do you have a tire iron? Because it's not working. [BLEEP] The trailer tire just blew out, and on the search of looking for tools, we found out that there's about 2 feet of water in the van. But we got the tools out, got the tire switched. We don't have a PSI gauge, but interesting beginning to the trip. Good to go.
- Just like that, we are back on the road heading toward Vancouver Island, where I will begin my ride.
- [WATER RUSHING]
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- Looking out on the Pacific Ocean with the water beneath my feet, I've come to realize this is a new beginning. I'm setting out on a journey that only a few have done before me. With no experience in film, journalism, public speaking, public relations, and not having ridden a bike in eight years, this project will be one of the hardest things I've done in my life.
- And as I lay my own tracks in the sand, I can only imagine what lies ahead. Some great people have lost their lives in attempting the 8,000 kilometer stretch from coast to coast. But it's because of their passion and belief and hope to solve these problems that they weren't afraid to go for it in an effort to change what they felt was deeply wrong. And neither am I, because as Terry Fox once said, "Somewhere the hurting must stop."
- Addiction is a disease, and like any disease epidemic, has tripled in this country. And we need the answers. We need to put her foot down and objectively really ask what's going on. Why is this happening, and what we can do about it. I hold the mentality that I will die before I quite. And with that, my journey begins at mile zero.
- My first interview was with a registered nurse, who was anxious to discuss her experience with prescription opioid dependency, and journey through recovery with me. Due to legal reasons, we have to keep her identity concealed.
- How did you get involved in abusing prescription medication?
- I took them from my workplace.
- Have you seen that before?
- Yeah, it's actually very common. There's a lot of access. It's a high-stress environment. There's ways around the system. Not only was I a drug addict, I was a workaholic. I should never have been working. I'm fortunate that I did not hurt anyone. The thing though about nursing and medicine is so many of us don't seek help. It's very taboo. We are trusted professionals. The public looks up to us.
- Before I was am caught, everyday I used, I hoped I didn't wake up. I am sure I would have been dead within six months had I kept going the rate that I was going. I think I reached the point where, OK, this is a decision. You either live or you die. And I chose to live.
- What are the consequences of these actions as being a registered nurse?
- Professionally, I left my position, was not sure if I'd ever work as a nurse again. There's so much shame in that for me, because I was a single mom. And what my daughters especially who came home to, not knowing if they're going to find their mom dead. And I have to live with that every day.
- As far as the ride itself, it's more of a personal challenge than it is anything else. Once I got off of opiates, one of those moments where you were you start realizing like, yeah, if I can do that, I can do anything. I find that a lot of people have given up on any possibility that they can clean up their lives and go and do the things they want to do. And once you have that mental quit in you, it's a very hard thing to come back from. And even I contemplated for years, is this going to be what the rest of my life is like?
- It's just, once you start achieving goals that you set for yourself, especially huge goals like that, and you start getting that momentum, it becomes as addictive as the drugs you were on. And I want to document other people's stories along the way. Well, I find out what each scene is like across the whole way, because if it's as bad as it is where I'm from, then we got a problem.
- It's heartbreaking and tragic to see when you see it in someone. This doesn't have to be your life. It's not a fun existence. It's miserable. Going back on a personal level, losing my dad was pretty much the hardest thing I think I've ever been through in my life, and I guess this is just my way of bringing him with me.
- This is my father's. He was a paramedic for 27 years with Durham Region. I mean, he was my hero. And I wish he could be here to see this. I guess in a way, this is kind of for him on a personal level.
- [INAUDIBLE] to roll out. I got about three hours' sleep last night because of my man Al over here snoring.
- [SNORING]
- Yeah, I don't know. See where we end up, and we'll go from there.
- I slept fine.
- [LAUGHING]
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- Doesn't look so far on the map.
- [BLEEP] [INAUDIBLE] I'm dying.
- [INAUDIBLE] to hop on the ferry to go back to Vancouver. Yesterday was a real gut check as to what I'm in for, but I don't know, I look forward to the challenge. It's going to be fun. Go have a tour of East Hastings, and go an talk to people.
- [MUSIC, "BORN TO THE WIND"]
- (SINGING) I was born to the wind on the dust of my old man. Where I go, is where's he's been, try to unfold the life that he lived. But I can't go there again. It's all that I am. [INAUDIBLE] with him.
- We're on our way to Vancouver to meet up with my longtime friend, Lucas, who is a local resident, to hear how bad the problem pertaining to drugs on the East end of the city is.
- This is a PDF for filming in Vancouver's downtown east side, which covers East Hastings Street. Everyone was involved in so-called criminal activities in the area is probably armed in some way, and even those who are not may carry some form of protection.
- [POLICE SIRENS]
- East Hastings-- I've never been down here before. How far does this stretch of blocks, this problem, going?
- Well, basically it's about four to six blocks I'd say. Predominantly around these two blocks coming up here. They say it's Canada's poorest area code. And you can see over here, kind of paints a picture for you. I mean, it's going on all day, all night. And they've changed the speed limits to 30, because a lot of them, they don't know what's going on, and they're jumping into traffic. So they've changed that up. A lot of them we're getting hit by cars. And you can see here, like it's just insane.
- You'll see drug deals going on non-stop. There's a guy right there with pills. Yeah. He just pulled a bunch of pills out of his pack of smokes there. It's just come to become a norm sort of thing. People are just used to it. It's kind of strange, any time they need their next hit or whatever, next [BLEEP] is more towards the intersection of Main and Hastings, which is about a block away from Vancouver police headquarters as well. So police don't really do a whole much about it, so long as they're not violent with anyone coming through.
- [GUN SHOT]
- Whoa! [BLEEP]
- What was that?
- Close that [BLEEP] door. Close it. Close it. Close it. Close that door. [BLEEP]
- Wow.
- Yeah, that was intense, man. That was crazy. So much for, like a stick hit the guy in front of use.
- Someone threw a shoe.
- We got attacked today. So that was my adrenaline rush for the day.
- The very premise of why I got off of methadone was because I don't want to be that guy who goes to his death bed, who's laying there at the end of his life saying, I wish I would have done this. I wish would had done that. I wish I would have went for the things that I really wanted in life. I refuse to be that guy.
- I've always wanted to tee off a bucket or a couple of golf balls off a mountain for my whole life. And now we're finally getting an opportunity to do it. So we're going to trek on. It's going to take about an hour to hike up the mountain, but once we get up there, we're going to have some fun.
- So on this trip, we all have one small side mission that we're try and do. And Chris has a pretty bad mouth on him, so he's going to try and cut that out. So we invented the swear jar.
- [BLEEP] jar, man.
- Al here is going to try and get into shape.
- Hope you got my good side.
- I'm going to try to grow a full beard, because I can't do it. My beard is coming in handsomely. And it looks like Al's got a head start on us.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- (SINGING) Gonna sink or swim. It's your back to mine. Now I've been thinking about a victim victims from a life. Now I'm thinking about escaping that city life. When everybody's going crazy in the world tonight, and I just need a start. It got me through til morning light. And I can do it, I can make it if I just try. Cause I'm the hero when the story written isn't mine. When all the masters in the world close in on my demise, I won't give in, I won't close up, I'll live with open eyes.
- Oh my god.
- (SINGING) And we all want to be.
- Oh my god.
- (SINGING) We all want to be. We all want to be somebody else. We all want to see how it feels to be living differently with a little help. Now, we just want to be, we just want to be, we just want to be, true to this self. That gets back up and down but falls in line.
- It's absolutely gorgeous up here. It's beautiful. And this is all stuff that I wanted to come and see and do in that time frame where my life was a bit of a mess. And now that I can do it, I am doing it, and this is everything I wanted to see for a very long time. And now that I'm here, I'm just taking it in, and I don't take a minute of it for granted.
- To want to do something for a better part of a decade and not being able to just because of the position I was in with opioid withdrawal, if I would have traveled, and now that I can do it and I have, it's very fulfilling. It's why we got a slew of other activities lined up through the trip. A whole bunch of other things that will be just as fulfilling I'm hoping, and that this is going to be an incredible experience. I couldn't have asked any more of it.
- You're looking thinner already.
- Thanks, dude.
- I feel like I lost about 10 pounds climbing that thing.
- This morning I received a message from a woman named Sharon who tragically lost her son, Christian, to an OxyContin overdose in Calgary. And with us currently in Banff, if I'm going to be able to hear their story, I need to hurry.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- Tell us a little bit about Christian. I'm curious to know just about what his upbringing was like, and his interests and stuff of that nature, as to what kind of person he was.
- Christian was my youngest. And he had brown eyes, and when he smiled his eyes would light up. He was always willing to try anything. I think because he had older brothers, he was always was trying to keep up with them.
- Yeah.
- He was the most thoughtful person. And that's the one thing I think I miss the most about him is his ability to make everybody feel special.
- I could only imagine the evolution from watching, from the beginning of when he understood that things were starting to escalate. What did you see those qualities start fade at any point with that?
- He became quite angry. Like, I was in shock when I found out. I didn't realize it was as bad as it was. He was using prescription drugs that I was blown away with. I used to think, oh, you swallowed the pill. I never thought people took up the coating and that sort of thing. I was naive.
- Well, it's prescribed. So how bad can it be? But certain drugs were meant for cancer patients under doctor's orders. But I think people think it's OK because well, doctors prescribe it. So I said to him he needed to get help, and he said he wasn't an addict. And he wasn't talking to me the day before he passed away. So he passed away, and I have a lot of guilt because he was mad when he died.
- After it's all said and done, it's a very courageous thing you're doing by going out and speaking with people about this.
- Soon after he was gone I new that I had to try and prevent someone else from going down the same path he did. Like I say to them, he never bottomed out, but his bottom our was dying. And so I go into schools to try and say to them, he could be you, and my family could be your family.
- And the pain that my family is in, there's no words. People lose a parent, they're an orphan. People lose a spouse, they're a widow. If you lose that child, there is no name for it. To lose a child is the worst thing that can ever happen to you.
- And I know everyone goes through different things as family, but my family is forever changed. We're not the same as we were before this happened. And I don't know if we ever will be. A part of my heart will always be gone.
- Managed to go about a week without riding in the rain, but evidently today is that day. Looking up ahead, you can see it coming down. This is where that push and willpower, where it's just going to be demoralizing going through it against the wind in the rain. But we're going to press on, see how it goes. Shouldn't be a problem. I hope not anyway.
- Glad it's not me.
- Driving in the rain sucks. But what really sucks, is that.
- [BLEEP] It's hailing [INAUDIBLE] Chunks of them.
- Is that hurting?
- No, it's pegging me inside my ear and on the side of my face. These little chunks like that big.
- Yeah, you can see them sitting on the ground.
- Like going through the cracks of my helmet, pinging off the top of my head. I'm soaked to the bone. Like, you know when you're just chilly, like because you're just wet and cold, and that's where I am right now. I'm soaked. Hailing and--
- That was horrible. That's by far the worst weather I've been through. It's like the ultimate demoralizing. Just I'm soaked to the bone.
- You need this?
- Ooh, yeah.
- We just blew out a tire on the Trans Canada. We're trying to swap it out, but we ran into this dilemma.
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [BLEEP]
- You want to give it a shot?
- No problem. It's easy. You just need the toughest guy on the team to try it.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- (SINGING) You don't have to hide. Look into your eyes. You don't have to hide no more. You don't have to hide. Oh. Oh. Oh. Look into your eyes. I hear the river flowing. You don't have to hide. Oh. Oh. Oh. Now the wind blow. You don't have to hide.
- As I entered Saskatchewan, I'm scheduled to meet with Rand Teed. He is a teacher in the area that runs a course called "Drug Class" in the high schools of Regina. Yeah, if you just go into a little bit of detail about--
- Sure. Drug Class is a prevention, education, and intervention program to help kids start to understand the impact that drugs and alcohol are having on them. And we do it in a way that isn't judgmental. It isn't accusing them of anything. It's a really open forum where kids can learn about drugs and alcohol.
- How generally, did you come up with the program itself?
- I come from a recovery background. I had a significant drug and alcohol problem when I was a kid. And I totally believe it's always about some kind of pain. When I drank or drugged, I didn't feel anything, and that was better than hurting.
- Do you find that any of the kids that are getting into anything harder younger these days as opposed to over the years?
- Mostly it's the opiates-- morphine, Oxy, Dilaudid. Those seem to be the drugs that kids are using. Part of that's because of accessibility. Those are frequently prescribed drugs.
- Do you find that those are over prescribed?
- Well, sure. I had a girl last year here, she hurt her knee, and went to the doctor. And he gave her a prescription. She had 90, 20 or 30 milligram OxyContin for a sore knee. Like, OxyContin is one molecule different than heroin. And so, what you see, this cute little blue or yellow or white or green pill, depending on the strength of it, that's made in a lab by guys in white coats. They somehow or another, they think well, that's got to be safe.
- Throughout my near decade of drug abuse, I've heard countless stories of hardship, desperation, people not knowing where to turn to to find the help they need.
- My mom, she had the prescription for them, and I started stealing off of her. And before I knew it, I was buying them off the street, stealing them off of friends. And the opiate part became a sickness. It grabbed on to me very quick.
- So many people suffering, whether it's through their own addiction or that of a loved one, always question why.
- And we have people pass away from it all the time. They become suicidal, and blame this prescription combination booze.
- I realize now how lucky I am to still be alive. I want to teach those who are going through what I did that it's not worth it, and show those that are struggling that it's possible to beat. Life has so much more to offer when we look up from whatever it is we are doing.
- I had a very low point in my life. I went and bought some morphine off the street, and I ended up overdosing that day.
- But when you pull through your addiction, then you can stand proud and say, I don't need this anymore. There's no telling what you are capable of. Because it doesn't matter how hard you get knocked down in life, all that matters is that you get back up.
- I just finished riding about 120-plus kilometers. And we stopped in this town in the middle of nowhere. There's no where for us to stay. So, apparently I got to ride and other 38 kilometers till we get somewhere where we can stay, which could easily be the most kilometers I've road in a day.
- The reality of when you are riding, and how much mileage I have to cover, it's daunting at times.
- What's happening?
- Both my feet are cramped.
- His muscles are going to cramp up. He's going to go for days, he just doesn't want to get up in the mornings. I've been focusing a lot on stretching, stretching twice a day. Because if you're going 60k each day, the next day, you're not going to going 60k, unless you're stretching, recovering properly, eating properly. It's whatever it takes to get the body back to normal again.
- I love it. I wouldn't trade it for the world.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- I have an admiration for people in general who just don't quit, and that's kind of the way I live my life. It was clear after today that my body was beginning to show signs of fatigue. Riding 100 kilometers a day up hills against headwinds and through bad weather, it's more difficult than I initially thought.
- And after my longest ride of 182 kilometers in a single day, and finally finding a camp site, I am able to relax. Or so I thought.
- [YELLING]
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [LAUGHING]
- Jesus.
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- As I make my way into Winnipeg, Manitoba, I'm about to meet Colleen Allen, who's a well-experienced addiction counselor.
- I am currently the executive director of the St. Raphael Wellness Center, and I also had worked for 47 years with the Addiction Foundation of Manitoba.
- I wanted to ask, in your observations on in particular prescription drug abuse.
- There's been a whole underground economy in terms of the abuse of prescriptions that have involved in doctors over prescribing, in the pharmacist not paying attention to double dosing themselves. So what's happening in Winnipeg right now, they're looking at-- and Manitoba-- is that the pharmacists organization and the physicians are getting together to say, how do we monitor this so that we can cut down on the supply at least?
- Now, because it is a lucrative business, you've got people who have chronic, chronic pain, or had chronic pain, and they found that this is a good source of income if they legally get their prescription and then sell it.
- Now, do you think if you were to tackle that legal end of it, do you think that will affect the illegal end of it, because at the end of the day it's all coming from the same pharmaceutical companies. And if you're overselling one, then in theory that should really--
- Yes. What you're trying to do is get pharmacists to be more ethical, and your prescribing physicians to get more ethical. And so that takes never one solution. So each of the systems that surround and are affected by addiction, need to come together to say, what are we going to do in terms of this problem and take ownership of it. Society has no idea of what it takes to change your whole life.
- Unfortunately, a lot of times, the partner that you're with, through no fault of their own, and not understanding, end up saying, look, you're not the person I thought you were.
- Hi, you. I was at a party tonight with a friend, and it was really fun. I had a great time. And on the walk home, I was just thinking, you know, it would be so amazing if you were here and walking home with me. And fabulous there around me being you, and me being me. It would be pretty magical. Anyway, I just thought I would share that with you. And I love you.
- She is the single person that I haven't really had the opportunity to apologize to, and in a sense that I want to, but I don't thing she wants to hear it. She loved me. I loved her. And I took advantage of that, and I kind of have to deal with what comes with that. And I betrayed her trust to a great degree. And I feel terrible about it to this day, but I would do anything in the world just to tell her I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry I took advantage of you trust. But I understand why she wouldn't want to have that conversation.
- It's July 1, it's Canada Day, and I'll get into Ontario today, which will be cool. Coming up to the half way point today, as well. I'm going to wear this bad ass as a cape. Kind of celebrating. Do something childish and cool.
- See if that works. Run around a bit or something.
- It's going to be a fun day. I know a lot of people in Ontario. I got a lot of interviews to do in Ontario, but with that being said, that's where the test begins, because it's going to be very-- a lot of difficult terrain, a lot of distance. It's going to be the hardest province easily.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- Went to meet my buddy, Kevin, to get some tattoos done. Should be fun. I'm getting a tattoo of my dog. He passed away right before we left for the trip. But yeah, I'm getting a tattoo of his name and his actual paw print tattooed on the back of me. And the other one is for Barb. She's my ex-girlfriend's mom, who is like a mother figure to me that helped me through from beginning to end with me with all the rough years as far as the drugs.
- And it means the world to me.
- I came to know Chris when he was dating my daughter.
- OK?
- Yeah.
- I knew he was struggling. I knew there were some serious issues he was dealing with. And he really didn't have anybody to turn to. His father had been very close with him, and with his passing it just was very difficult for Chris.
- You'd talk to him, and he was very down some days, and I would be taking food to him, I would go visit him, and I think the easiest way to describe it is helplessness. You're trying to help, but you feel like you want to shake them and say, listen. But they're definitely not thinking clear at that point.
- And he was in a relatively good position financially after his father passed. And he was just eating away at that, which was difficult to watch, because I knew he could have been established for life had he paid a little more attention to that. But he just wasn't in the right frame of mind to think or even care about it. I don't even think he cared what was happening at that point. That's how low that he was.
- His dad's death has now been a few years behind him, and we often talk, your dad would want you to be successful. He wouldn't want you to fall apart because of him. So you need to be strong and pull yourself through this so that he can be proud as well.
- Sweet. Thanks, man.
- How do you feel?
- Tender.
- [LAUGHING]
- Their 1978 Jayco trailer is just-- oh, man, that thing. So as you can see, our trailer has serious problems every day.
- Custom door.
- This trailer is becoming more of a burden every day, but I can't let it slow me down. I'm headed to Espanola, which is a small town outside of Sudbury, Ontario, to talk with Bryson, who is currently recovering from a hydromorphone addiction.
- So could you tell me about what the scene just like around Sudbury and Espanola as far as pills?
- It's terrible. Like, every corner you turn there's a pill dealer. There's maybe one or two coke dealers, and maybe one ecstasy dealer. And for every coke dealer, there's probably 10 pill dealers. Everybody's doing it, because that's what's available.
- You have to bring other drugs from other places. You can't make cocaine in Espanola, but you can get prescribed pills in Espanola. And a big problem is over prescribing, and a lot of people doctor shop.
- How did you start getting into pain killers? What drove--
- I had a lot of inner problems. I had been molested as a child. And I obviously didn't know my dad, and so there was a lot of stuff like that going on. And so a few of my friends were talking about Percocet. And so one day somebody brought over a perc, and busted it up and everybody took a line off of it. And I didn't feel it, but I just thought, this is so cool. Just the action of doing it just feels good.
- And then it was about a year of doing Percocet, snorting Percocet, and then snorting oxycodone, and then snorting whatever I could get my hands on, be it opiates or stimulants or anything really. And then, as I got a little older, I was about 16 when somebody introduced me to hydros. And then maybe 16 and 1/2 when people started getting me into needles.
- From the time I started, it's such a spiral that you don't really understand what's happening. And it really goes from this is fun and this is good, to what's happening.
- And what did you do after that to kind of cure this addiction?
- I tried to quit cold turkey. It didn't work. I was too far in. And so I continued to relapse. And until I discovered Suboxone. As long as I'm on Suboxone, I can't do opiates. And even if I wanted to, there's no point, because there's naloxone in Suboxone. And naloxone blocks your opiate receptor. It's what they give you when you're overdosing.
- It takes a little while for your brain chemistry, because once you start doing drugs, your brain is wired to want drugs. It's wired a different ways. So you say I'm hungry, do drugs. I'm sleepy, do drugs. I'm horny, do drugs. It doesn't matter what you want, your brain says, do drugs.
- I would take everything back. I became a very angry person, and I became very jaded person. And I didn't like myself.
- I had a good sense of ethics before. But during, it was horrible, and it was gone completely, if anything. Me and a guy I know, who we were going up to grab pills, and quite literally as we were walking up the doorstep, like, as we were walking up the patio, on the other side of the door this woman had overdosed, I believe on heroin. And we walked in, we see what's going on. They don't know what to do. They are freaking out. They're all high. But we came there to grab pills because we were withdrawing. And we see all of this going on. And we look at each other and we're like, so should we still ask them for the pills?
- As far as a humane level, that was probably one of the worst times I can think of where I could actually consciously look back and say that's so not me is my character. But it's such a key prime example of how that dependency on opiates really took hold.
- My name is Stephanie Kehoe, and I have been working in the field of addictions for 25 years.
- Now, I wanted to ask you, because you've been working in addiction for a long time, so what are your thoughts on the growing issue of prescription drugs?
- We had a lot of people in the cities said they're using Percocets, Dilaudas, hydromorphone. But I have never seen in my whole career the effects of OxyContin, and how epidemic it is. We were having people come in who, within two, three months, six months, had lost everything.
- And the physical effects, and the addictive properties of potency, because it's synthetic heroin. And the change in the demeanor of kind people that their behavior turned into non-caring, step over people. It was like they had no soul. And that's what clients would say to me, I didn't care, Steph. Were they bad people? Absolutely not. That drug brought them into that world though, of just having no conscience, and just not caring what other people thought.
- To say somebody is an addict, I have a hard time with that term. I believe if Chris is the person, addiction is part of him. It's not all of him, because there's a lot more to him than just that. When you're in this pivotal point in your life where you're saying, you know what, I'm done. I don't want this life anymore. Because that's hard to do. That's not weakness, that's total strength.
- People say often, you know, I have all these qualities now. I'm back from treatment. I'd say, no, those qualities, you always had. No treatment center counselor gave them to you. You had them the whole time. They just kind of got squashed in the midst of your addiction.
- So things like empathy and kindness and gentle and realness, we attain those and develop those as young children. People are scarred, but those scars can be something that can be used as a positive thing. Things that you've done that might have hurt other people, you made a mistake. That's what it is. You made a mistake. Life is not over. Things can be repaired. You just got to believe in yourself. So I never give up on people. As a counselor, I never give up.
- Riding through the home town today, and meeting up with a couple of friends of mine who agreed to ride with me for a little bit, which is going to be awesome, because I haven't ridden with anybody. But they came out with me, and we're going to get on with it. Rock and roll.
- It was an amazing day. I can't say enough good things about you guys. By far the best day I've had riding. Because I haven't rode with anybody. To ride with those guys, and your friends and stuff like that, it was pretty amazing. Yeah, I'm really happy they came out. Got to share the experience, so that was pretty awesome.
- It was great to have my friends support and ride with me. It's been a long ride so far, and I'm only half way. Having them there helped refresh my mind and reminded me to have fun with what I'm doing.
- It's my only move.
- Quickly after they left, I came to a very serious realization. It didn't occur to me that I'd be riding past my father's grave site until I was almost there.
- Although nearly eight years has passed since his death, I still can't help but wish he was here. Being on the road has been hard, and not a day passes where he hasn't been on my mind.
- I guess part of the sobriety is all for him, his memory and stuff, so it's just-- I just wish he could be here to see it. Yeah.
- I miss my old man more than I could ever explain. He was my hero.
- Being in my hometown is a lot of ups and downs emotionally. But it also provides the opportunity to get out of the trailer and sleep in my own bed for one night to refresh. I ran over a staple and blew out my tire.
- It appears I wasn't the only one needing a refresher. My bike has gone through a lot already, and with being just past half way it was time for a tune up.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- Don't you got a job to do? Mouth test.
- It's my understanding you were in the Canadian forces. Why did you join the military?
- I joined the military shortly after 9/11, specifically for the reason to go fight the Taliban. Find the enemy, and you kill.
- When you were over in Afghanistan, you were guarding opium fields.
- We had to drive over a choke point, a bottleneck, where the enemy likes to put IEDs. We had to drive over it instead of going around it, because there was opium fields on both sides, so we literally rolled the dice with our lives to not go through opium fields.
- You know, going and looking for the bad guys every day, it can be pretty stressful. Where everywhere you're going to step, people die, friends die.
- I would imagine you would be very vulnerable to addiction when coming home.
- There was a pretty large group of us that we were doing cocaine and ecstasy pretty much every weekend. At some point, you realize that that's only a Band-Aid. And its the mental side of things and you have to confront. And there's more people that have killed themselves returning from Afghanistan than people who have actually died in Afghanistan in the Canadian military.
- If you're willing to go get help, it becomes a little bit easier. But then it's a whole different situation by itself, because that's when the prescriptions come into play. The first time I said that I needed to go talk to somebody, the called me every name in the book you can think of, including coward. So when they tried to push Seroquel on me, it was a very short conversation. It was only two to three minutes.
- Seroquel, that's an anti-psychotic?
- As far as I know, yeah. I said I wasn't interested in taking that. And they said with my history in the war, being an infantry soldier with my quote, unquote "aggression," I was a threat. And if I didn't agree to taking medications then I could be detained against my will. I said to them, I can see why people would like to take whatever they're prescribed to get through this, because it would be easier.
- And you asked me to elaborate, and I had my first real flashback at that time. It was terrifying, because I was hallucinating things that weren't there in the comforts of my own home. And I'm no comfortable saying what I saw, but it scared the [BLEEP] out of me. It was real in the moment, seeing something that wasn't there. And then it was gone. I was like, OK, I understand why people stick to substance abuse and don't confront their demons.
- Speaking of demons, it's time to do something I've always wanted to do. But as I have a fear of heights, I've put it off for a long time. We are at Parachute Montreal, and apparently I'm jumping out of an airplane today. My hands are sweating just thinking about it. I'm like stupid nervous, but I've just signed my life away in there and hopefully all goes well.
- There's a chance that you will hurt yourself, and then caps lock, capital letters, "even if you do everything properly."
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- 6,000 feet now? Half way. How do you feel?
- If you can see my hands, they are sweating quite profusely.
- Whoa! That was crazy. That was insane.
- Yeah, [INAUDIBLE].
- Not impossible. Thank you so much. That was amazing. Appreciate it.
- Show me your hands. Oh. dry.
- Let's get a look at that thing. Look at that. In black and white.
- As it's still shaking.
- [LAUGHING]
- I've wanted to skydive for approximately 10 years. I just had too much going on in terms of my life with drugs and just getting that sorted out with myself. But now that everything's going great, I decided to finally man up and do it. Yeah, it was great. Once you're stabilized, it's just enjoyable. It's amazing. Knock that off the bucket list. That freefall was incredible. I've never felt anything like that before.
- What's the name of our luxurious camp site here?
- We are sleeping in our 21st Walmart parking lot of the trip across the country. It's the lap of luxury. They typically have everything you need in there, minus a shower. It's a viable option to save money. Looking forward to my 22nd Walmart.
- My father left me with a substantial amount of money when he passed, of which I spent six figures on drugs. I spent five years in my house, two of which I went with no gas and no heat. I was boiling water on the stove just to bathe, and on several occasions went up to four days without eating, until I eventually had to begin to steal my food just to stay alive. I'm not proud of that fact. But it's what I had to do to survive.
- My turning point came one day when a customer at my former workplace tried to argue with a price of $0.50 on three apples. He got so angry, he ended up throwing a hard plastic sign straight into my face. I knew right then and there that I needed to get my life in order. I was tired of working a where I was always staring at the clock wishing I was anywhere else, and being degraded as a human being on a daily basis. Something had to change, and that something was me.
- I decided to sell my house and start working towards my dreams, in hopes of achieving the life I really want. Instead of searching for a new job, I created my own system to figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life. So I sat down and drew four boxes. One of the boxes is my passions, another was interests, another was hobbies, and the other was stuff I knew I hated.
- And I tried to come up with a collective plan, because if I was going to change my life, I knew I needed to focus on goals rather than drugs. Continuing my journey as I reached the boarder of New Brunswick, I get to sit down with two nurses at a local methadone clinic in Fredericton to talk about their experiences and concerns.
- We tend to look at all of the different social determinants of health at our clinic, and we also provide social services to patients. So things such as having clean clothes and a place to shower are also services that we offer here at this clinic. And we pay attention to, not just the physical ailment, but also how the social determinants of health play into that.
- Do you have a place to sleep? Do you have food to keep you nourished?
- I attended a clinic myself, and I never actually came across something that is so broad range in all their social services, because that's a big part of the whole recover process. And not everybody has those avenues.
- That's right. That resource is very important. We feel it is, anyway, because we know that that's all part of the recovery. It's not just the drug users, it's the people that are implicated through prescription drug use, as you say, the people who are coming into the programs for pain management. Or that's how they got here to begin with, is now that their pain management has moved into an addiction or an abuse of the drug, and now they have a dependence. And now they don't know what to do about it. And without proper information, they're continuing to use and abuse.
- And as a nurse, I do find that's where I tend to meet people for the first time. They literally have hit rock bottom. And many times, it is because of prescription drug abuse. They were given a prescription to help with, maybe post, a vehicle accident, or maybe after surgery. Things kind of advance to addiction, and now this person is in front of me, has lost their home, has lost their children, has lost a lot of family supports, and really have burned a lot of bridges with their families just with the addiction.
- I can completely relate on that, because I only had seven people, and only two of those were my family members that just stuck there with me. But every time it went, one more person gave up on me. It just beats you down to that much lower.
- What kind of advice do you give to family members and loved ones who are at that point where they're just so frustrated?
- It's all through the education that the family learns that that's where that person is right now. You don't have to be there yourself, but that's where that person is right now. And they're not seeing you as a mother, father, brother, sister, they're seeing him as a resource. And I think a lot of it is managing your expectations. Do you expect them to have a cure? Like, the first day that they go and get methadone, are they cured? Is that what you got in your mind? No, that's not. And again, it comes back to the education.
- As much as it worked for me, and I eventually got clean, and I understood though in hindsight, know that you have to have a purpose and a reason to want to go for it. And that really has to come from within. And it's such a struggle and a difficult time to get to that point.
- I agree that we do have people that come into the methadone program that are not ready. Maybe they've been mandated into it. Let's say, mandated, not necessarily by the courts, but from a family perspective, or a partner--
- Employment--
- Or employment, that's right. So they feel that they have to do it. They're not necessarily ready to stop using drugs. So Methadone often becomes a first step in that. Not necessarily the first step to the cure. It's a tool. It's a tool to help you stop using pills. But it's not the answer.
- So what is the answer? Or is there even one? When tackling a problem so large, with so many variables, it's important to me to attack every angle possible in hopes of finding solutions. Because if we don't deal with these issues now, then I truly fear for our future.
- Who ever told you that New Brunswick was supposed to be flat?
- I don't know who told me that. But they're full of it. I just rode up a three kilometer incline at maybe a 7% grade. Brutal. I think I just lost five pounds riding up one hill. It sucks because you get up over a 3 kilometer hill, it starts to fly, now you're like, it's OK, cool. Now, it's going to be going downhill. And then you get up, and then you look ahead, and it's just more hill, and you're just like, great.
- Now we're here at Provincial Park. We're about to climb up to the summit of the mountain. It's going to take a few hours, because it's about 22 kilometers round trip. [INAUDIBLE] not really my thing I want to do after riding a bike all day, but I want to do some sightseeing while I'm on the trip.
- I've been walking for almost two hours now. And I've run into a couple of people that have already walked this trail on their way back out, and apparently, we're not even close. I don't know if you can tell, but the sun is starting to set, which is not good, because all we have is cell phones for lights. We're still not even at the top yet, which is where the big payoff view is. Once we do get there, we got to walk all the way back, which will probably be in the dark. And everybody that we've passed says that they've seen bears. So should make for a fun adventure. Whew!
- This trip is great. I mean, the privilege of seeing all the beautiful things this country has to offer. But unfortunately, it also opens my eyes to how harsh it can be.
- I'm given daily reminders of how dangerous this trip has the potential to be.
- A bear?
- Yeah, it was just like right here.
- It's not only mentally draining and demanding [INAUDIBLE] but also physically. But I set out to find answers, and I won't stop, even if it kills me.
- Rolling into Halifax, Nova Scotia, which is home to Amy Graves, the founder of GPDOTS.
- I am president of Get Prescription Drugs Off The Street Society. I started it after the loss of my little brother in 2011.
- I was just wondering if you could tell me a little bit about him? Just his upbringing, his personality, was he a happy kid?
- Oh yeah. There was no warning signs with Josh. There was no lead up. He was the happiest and most successful he had ever been in his life at that moment when he passed away. What he did before he attended that per was go pick out furniture for the new place. And it was all delivered to this apartment. And he never even got to sit on it or sleep in his bed.
- So once I got the news that it was hydromorphone that Josh had taken, and it was a drug overdose, I thought, oh my gosh, well, if this can happen to Josh, this can happen to anybody. There's no safe way to experiment with prescription drugs. None. Like, one pill can kill.
- It was nine days after my brother's death, and I had heard there was a protest at a medical clinic in my community, which was prolific for the over prescription of drugs. Their are two main focuses is our chronic pain, and then methadone. So they had over 400 patients on opioids for chronic pain. And then over 400 patients on methadone trying to get off.
- What entails a prescription monitoring program? Is there currently one in place?
- We do have a prescription monitoring program. I like the idea of prescription monitoring, if it was effective and the information was used properly. But I feel like it's just a data collection. For instance, every couple months they get a report that has red flags on it saying that someone's prescribing over the recommended threshold. There was 2000 red flags in that 50-some days. And only 2% of those red flags were followed up with the program. 2% out of 2000. That's like, what is the point of having red flags go off if you're not following up with them?
- So I asked how they address that issue. And the manager told me that they increased the levels of what is acceptable prescribing. So that way, less red flags would go off, and they would have less to follow up with. Almost half of the doctors who made those guidelines have financial disclosures from Purdue Pharma. Not to mention the other ones who have other pharmaceutical funding.
- But there's one doctor who may the guidelines. His entire clinic is funded by Purdue Pharmaceuticals. And he is making guidelines to teach our doctors how to prescribe for pain.
- That's absurd.
- I know. And it's all documented. It's all public. That's why I get so-- I'm like, why aren't people outraged?
- That's insidious to me.
- The real issue is the doctors that think they're doing the right thing and helping people, because they only have the information which the manufacturers and pharmaceutical industry has given them. And they're basing their decision making on basically, I don't like to call it education material, it's more marketing material.
- Hearing what Amy had to say was very eye opening. She's so knowledgeable about the way the system works. And her quest for knowledge stemmed out of a dark place with the loss of her brother. Her point about the way some companies have educated the medical community how to prescribe these powerful opiates, while neglecting the information as how addictive they could be is very alarming.
- Learning all this information from these interviews is very intriguing. And what I love about riding everyday, is it gives me time to absorb it all.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- We're at Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, right now. Just about to hop on the ferry. Looking forward to getting over there and checking it out. I've never been to Newfoundland before, so it should be fun.
- So far on this journey, no matter who I ask about prescription drug abuse, the common response has been, you'll find a lot of that around here. There was only one province left to cover. They were hit one of the hardest in the country. So much so, they created a task force to study every aspect of the OxyContin problem, with which I was given the opportunity to sit down with one of its members.
- Yeah, with regarding the task force itself, what was it that spawned the creation of that?
- I think the police were starting to get more reports of break and enters, armed robberies, in which OxyContin was involved. Or people were looking for drugs that they could sell on the street to support their use of OxyContin. And I think at the same time, we were hearing from the medical examiner's office around what appeared to be an increase in overdose deaths related to OxyContin.
- So I guess it was all of those factors that really prompted the government of Newfoundland Labrador to form the task force. There were some questions on where it was coming from. Was it imported into the province? And I think what we've found through our work was no, it was actually prescriptions that regenerated within the province that were being diverted on the street.
- But I think what was really surprising were the higher doses, like 40 and 80 milligrams of OxyContin. I think in a two-year period we saw over a 400% increase in those numbers. Unfortunately, I think what we also saw in the community is it put a lot of attention on addiction. And I'm saying unfortunately, because it really stigmatized I think, because people associated addiction with crime, and it became a criminal issue as opposed to a health issue.
- So I think that's one of our concerns is around the messages that were out there, and how do we educate the public and increase awareness in an effort to try to decrease some of that stigma? Because when you talk about accessing services, that's one of the reasons people don't access service because of the stigma associated with it.
- Not even 3 kilometers and it's starting to rain. [BLEEP] Holy Moses.
- How do you feel about filming in the rain?
- Lots of fun, always. Always lots of fun.
- My first ride in Newfoundland today was horrendous. I rode about five and a half hours in the pouring rain. I was completely soaked to the bone. And it just wasn't fun from the fact that I was just so cold and so wet. Mother nature took the boots to me today.
- [THUNDERING]
- And our trailer has sprung another leak. So last night my bed was completely soaked. So now I'm just airing out the mattress. The trailer, he's doing so healthy on this last little stretch. So we have these nice support beams here that hold up the trailer, because the trailer can't hold itself up anymore. We got rid of this one. There's supposed to be one here. But we had to put it here so that the roof didn't collapse.
- So if I pull that out, the thing would just come crashing down. So that's Chris's bed. So now he sleeps, I don't know if you can see through here, but since my bed got soaked, me and Al have now been sharing a bed, which has been fun-- two weeks.
- My little honeymoon suite here.
- It's where the magic happens.
- That's right.
- [LAUGHING]
- I hope it doesn't rain tonight. I really hope it doesn't rain.
- Finally, the morning has come. And after performing our daily routines, I'm beginning my ride just outside of St. John's, with the hopes of today being the final ride. But fate seems to have another thing in mind.
- [WIND HOWLING]
- [BLEEP]
- [CASH REGISTER DING]
- I felt the sensation of something tearing in my leg. And I can barely move it. I've been through a lot in my life, but with that being said, I know I can deal with anything that comes after me. I can deal with anything. I don't care how bad it looks, how bad it seems, it could always be worse. Even when I was going without gas or heat in my house, and going days without eating. Well, at least I'm not living on the streets. You know what I mean? So you have to look at that to keep a balance, or upbeat attitude about everything just so you can keep pushing on.
- When you're faced with difficult times, it's then that your true character is exposed. I've been through so much in my life, I would never let the pain stand in the way of my goals. With the trailer in such rough shape, we are opting for a hotel room so I can rest my leg. But more importantly, so I can prepare for an important interview with a lawyer by the name of Chess Crosbie.
- I became interested in the OxyContin problem in a legal way. When it hit the news that the makers of OxyContin had a criminal plea bargain in the United States in 2007, which involved them and paying a fine, essentially of $634 million.
- Why do you feel that hasn't been done in Canada?
- Whatever the reasons, we don't pursue this kind of thing in any sense in the way that they do in the US, either through the criminal law, or for that matter, through the civil law. However it's our position that Purdue Pharma Canada is equally culpable with the US parent in the way it went about marketing and mis-describing the uses and benefits of OxyContin. They have a near monopoly on knowledge about the drugs that they are purveying. They have enormous financial resources, in the multi billions of dollars.
- The $634 million, you mention, fine in the United States sounds impressive. It is impressive. However, you need to relate it to the fact that their sales for OxyContin averaged about half a billion dollars per year. So $634 million is maybe five quarters of sales. The highest fine I think, levied to date against a company in the United States has been $3 billion. But they have that kind of money to pay.
- And when they have that kind of money to pay, they can just pay off whoever they want. And they're just going to shrug it off, and keep going without losing a beat. What would be the ideal outcome of this lawsuit if you could have any way? And I know that's a very loaded questions, because it's so complex in the hurdles that they create, and have created, in even getting to this point, for that matter.
- Obviously, I guess that would be enough money to constitute reasonable level of compensation for people who are injured by this drug, by its understated addictive potential-- a deterrence value. So whatever that number would be, I'm not sure. But it needs to be a significant number given the amounts we're talking about.
- It sounds like there's minimal accountability. And even at that, it's such a daunting task to try to hold them accountable.
- It's enormously challenging and very complex. There are two reasons to do it. One is, people who are injured deserve compensation. And the other reason is deterrence. That it does make a contribution to keeping these companies under some semblance of honesty. It's a tough, and often a long road to hoe, but in Canada it's really the only meaningful mechanism that exists to control the companies from engaging in deceitful practices.
- Today's the day. Even though my leg still hurts, I can't wait. It's been a long time coming. I know if I can just push through a little bit longer, it will all be worth it. And with the water so close, you can smell the finish line. And I won't let anything stop me.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- [WATER GURGLING]
- Oh, man. 3,000 kilometers. I've been anticipating this moment for a very long time, but now it's here and I don't know. I don't even know how I feel. I imagine that this is what pure joy feels like. It's quite the ride. Quite the achievement in my life. Probably the greatest achievement of my life. It helped give me that final push to finish off the battle of a seven year opiate addiction and push myself harder than I ever thought possible through some of the worst conditions where, at times where I just felt like giving up. And then that I made it.
- This has been the greatest adventure of my life. Seeing all of nature and the beautiful scenery, and working with amazing people, and meeting amazing people, and having the privilege of hearing everyone's stories and raising awareness for a problem that is affecting so many others. And doing everything that I've always dreamed of has given me a new perspective on what it is to be alive.
- I would like to see a day when there isn't that judgement. That people getting help for an addiction is no different from getting help for any other medical issue or health concern. It's through by sharing personal experience that puts a face to it, and allows people to come out of the shadows and talk about addictions. And I think that's really important.
- When I got caught I decided, from that moment on, there weren't going to be any more secrets. And so I talk about my recovery. There's no one that doesn't know that I'm in recovery, and that has kept my recovery strong.
- If you ignore it, it's going to get worse, quick.
- But I guess my thin is, people think it can't happen to them. And it can happen to anybody.
- That's what we need, public outrage. And we need a collective public outrage in order for this stuff to change, because money talks, and these companies have a lot of money.
- It's only through banding together that victims of huge corporations, and for that matter, governments as well, stand a chance.
- The more knowledge you have, the more you can take the greater scale of information, take a good analysis of it, and then come to a logical answer.
- It's almost like having your best friend back. That's the kind of feeling I would describe it. I'm extremely proud of him. Most people can't turn their life around, but he managed to do it. The stuff that he was doing destroys lives. It really does.
- When you went through hard times, it makes you appreciate the good times more, and not really take too much for granted. I don't take a day for granted in terms of where I'm at now in my life, and what I got through to get to this point.
- [MUSIC PLAYING]
- (SINGING) Cause I don't know what tomorrow will bring. All I know is I have a voice so I sing. I sing to the masses. I sing for my soul, for my place in the cosmos, the me I don't know, cause I don't know.
- Lift your hand up, look into my eyes, you're a brother, a sister, separated by the lies of our society that shunt us and tells us we're off track. When the path they lay before us only lead to fear and lack, well, there are other roads to take, and better ways my friends that are not built on fear and anger, on the backs of broken men.
- So take a stance. Find your voice. The coverage from within, to face that fear you hold inside you, let it go and start to live. Cause all I know, at the end of the day, is that my home is, is not a house or a place, it's the source that surrounds me, the spark that's inside when the world turns to darkness my home is the light.
- It's all I know.
- [BLEEP] I'm dying.
- Just looking forward to it.
- Nice. So are we.
- So is stuff actually supposed to rip when you get ripped or what?
- (SINGING) Cause I don't know.
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