There has been a lot of discussion in the local media this past week as to whether drug addicts have a disease or an addiction, whether they should be sentenced to long periods of time in jail or sent to a treatment centre.

Today’s Hidden Hero, Mark Northup, would come down on the side of disease and treatment centres and he should know about treatment centres; he’s been through different treatment centres seven times over the past thirteen years and clean and sober just short of ten of those thirteen years. The last three and a half years, since January 10, 2004, have been part of those ten clean and sober years. You’ve got to give this guy points for persistence.

I must say I was a little shocked when I first heard this part of Mark’s history but then I thought about my efforts to quit smoking. I must have made at least ten attempts before I was finally successful. Once, after the fourth or fifth attempt, I was clean and nicotine free for a little over a year before I relapsed. Finally, after thirteen years of trying (interesting time comparison with Mark here), I succeeded.

There’s a history of alcoholism on Mark’s father’s side of the family although his dad was clean and sober for the last eighteen years of his life before he died of lung cancer. In fact his dad was recognized posthumously for the work he did helping others battle their addictions.

Mark started drinking heavily in his late teens and early twenties but in his late twenties and early thirties, he battled his addiction and won (for the moment) before he was hired as a BC Correctional Office in Chilliwack. After that everything was going well but then, as he says, he wasn’t prepared for his dad’s death, which tipped him over the edge and back to drinking.

Alcohol causes enough problems but this last “fall” included an introduction to crack cocaine.

“I had heard abut free basing cocaine before but never tried it,” Mark told me, “but when it was offered, I decided to try it ‘once’ … and I was hooked right away.

How did he get clean this time?

“I hit my personal bottom,” he told me. I had pushed my family and children away. I had no friends. I was lonely. I had lost my career. I had spent my rent. And it was really cold out. All I could think was that I can’t do this any more. I’m too old. I have no fight left. I felt hopeless and I had burned all my bridges. It was getting real dark real quick and I called out to God for help.”

A friend of his got him in touch with Leslie Banks at Social Services.

“She made my work for it,” Mark says but eventually he got into Surfside Treatment Centre and now he’s back working part time with Samaritan House, McLeary House and a pilot program called The Livingroom. Little by little he’s getting his career back helping people again but it’s not all smooth sailing.

Some time after he got out of the Surfside Treatment Centre, Mark went though what he calls a “dark time” during which he had violent outbreaks. That’s when he met last week’s Hidden Hero, Stephanie McDowall. She got him to a psychologist who helped him begin to realize that perhaps he was responsible for many of his problems, problems that weren’t all being caused by other people and other things.

I am far from an expert in this area but I believe that anyone who can beat drugs and alcohol, even for short periods of time, is to be admired. I also believe that anyone who can live on $490 a month social assistance and pay $350 of that for a place to live is some kind of miracle worker. Perhaps as a society we could do better.

I wish Mark well. He has a lot to contribute and his contribution is needed in our community.