special to the star



Alcohol. Marijuana. Anabolic steroids, Ecstasy. Compulsive Gambling. Cocaine. Crystal meth. Sounds like a roadmap for disaster and tragedy. And it was, for many years. But for Mark S., there was a sharp change in direction. He reversed his destructive cours,. His is a remarkable and inspiring story of loss that turned to hope, new opportunities and renewal.

Mark S. began binge drinking in high school. “I drank till oblivion,” he said in a telephone interview recently. At 17, he tried marijuana. “I loved it. I knew I’d do it again.” Actually, again and again, as he smoked marijuana almost daily until he began a drug-free life.

He enrolled in college, but continued to use drugs, adding anabolic steroids.

“They made me feel confident, cocky. I’d experience depression when I stopped,” he said.

Working as a deejay brought him into contact with a cash-centered nightlife.

“Casinos opened when I was 21, and I became a compulsive gambler. I liked the lifestyle. The high-roller. The parties. The alcohol. The casinos treated me like a king,” he said.

But that lifestyle could not be sustained. In the early ‘90s, he filed for bankruptcy.

He found other work, which brought in the cash to continue his drug use. That’s when he added cocaine.

“I honestly don’t know how I made it through this,” he said. “I’d go days with out sleeping.”

Next, came a friend’s offer of crystal methamphetamine, then still pretty new to Mississippi.

“I knew I’d found the thing I like the most,” he said.

“Your tolerance goes up quickly with meth,” he said, “so you need more and more of it. I was hanging around people who were cooking meth at mini-labs all over the place.”

A couple of arrests followed. He could not keep a job. He and his wife divorced. As the addiction grew, the rest of his life came apart. “There are parts of my life I cannot recall,” said Mark.

“Addiction talks to you. Why not use? it asks.” That voice led him to lose everything before he reached the point where he said, “I’m sick of using.”

Mark went to treatment and has been in recovery for eight years. “You can’t even dream of how good life can be,” he said. “Recovery is better than you can imagine. You can become responsible, employable, acceptable.”

What is the message Mark wants people to understand from his difficult journey?

“Never give up. Relapses don’t mean your recovery won’t work. They don’t mean you don’t want to make it work. People get to the point were they are willing to do the work.”

In recovery for eight years, Mark now has a job he loves. He’s rebuilt his life with a focus on responsibility, recovery and giving back to others. “When I speak now to law enforcement, I tell them, if you can change the life of one addict, we can change the lives of one thousand,” said Mark. He worked to get the Mississippi Legislature to enact laws directed to reducing access to the pre-cursor ingredients to meth, including common cold medications.

He returned to college and earned a Master of Sciences in Counselor Education.

His is a story of hope he is passionate about sharing. “I enjoy waking up every morning now,” he says. “Nothing is hopeless. As long as you’re breathing, there’s hope.”

Mark will speak at a free program open to all from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m Tuesday in the Dulaney Room, Webb Hall, Meridian Community College (corner of 14th St. and College Drive). Pre-registration for the program is not required. A certificate of attendance for two hours will be provided upon request. The program is sponsored by Weems Community Mental Health Center to mark National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month.

Substance use disorders are treatable diseases, and when they are properly addressed, those affected can lead productive, healthy lives, as Mark’s story shows. Yet many people mistakenly believe that abusing alcohol or drugs is a personal weakness, not a medical illness.

The truth is that addiction is a medical condition that should be treated like any other illness. Addiction is a real issue, with an estimated 23.2 million people needing treatment for an alcohol or illicit drug use problem in 2007. It is an illness that affects not only the individual with a substance use disorders, but others in their lives.

According to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 3 in 4 Americans said in 2005 that addiction to alcohol has had some impact on them at some point in their lives, whether it was their own personal addiction, that of a friend or family member, or any other experience with addiction.

T his year’s theme, “Join the Voices for Recovery: Together We Learn, Together We Heal.” Opening a dialogue about the harmful effects of alcohol and drug addiction on families, friends, and communities, can provide hope, healing, and better support those struggling with substance use disorders as they embark on a successful journey of sustained recovery.