[Music]
Hey
I just want to tell you I’m very
grateful and honored to be here today
there was a lot of people in my life
that told me I’d never be here you see
I’m convicted 25 times over of substance
use disorder convictions I’m also a high
school dropout but I’m also a lot of
other things today and that’s what we’re
here to talk about philosophers have
said momentum first requires expending
one unit ten units of energy to yield
one unit of results after a while your
momentum begins to build on itself and
it creates 10 units of results with one
unit of energy this principle works both
ways unfortunately I’m going to talk
about criminal justice reform substance
use disorder and the impacts on recovery
on a nationwide scale I’m going to talk
about my personal anecdotal experience
with this and then I’m going to back up
to a 30,000 foot view and address it as
a societal issue this issue is now the
number one public health crisis and
criminal justice issue in the country it
is the number one killer of young people
and last year alone it took the lives of
over 64 thousand young Americans I share
my story to show others that nothing is
impossible to a willing heart even with
the deck stacked against you I share it
for the guys still sitting in the 8×8
cell who doesn’t think that he has a
chance of ever making a life of ever
being anything
I share my story because there’s 30
million people in this country suffering
from substance use disorder it affects
everything around us whether we know
about it or not I’m here to tell the
fellow substance use disorder sufferer
that you’re not a bad person trying to
get good you’re a sick person trying to
get well the labeling theory in
sociology and criminology tells us that
if society tells someone they are
something long enough they start to
think that way and behave accordingly
we’re creating a new momentum here we’re
going to love you until you can learn to
love yourself
my journey should not be the exception
it should be the rule I started using
chemicals very young my father was
killed in a boating accident when I was
8 weeks old and what studies have shown
is that there’s a large correlation
between childhood trauma and substance
use disorder I also mentioned I started
using very young there’s also huge
correlations between the younger someone
starts using substances and their
chances of developing addiction I
started getting in trouble at a very
young age I was arrested and convicted
as an adult at 16 years old from theirs
things began to spiral out of control I
knew from the very first time I ingested
chemicals that I wasn’t like other
people I didn’t handle it the same way
my friends did yet I still wanted to try
to fit in I chased that too a lot of
damaging consequences once you have a
record in the criminal justice system
it’s very hard to get out of that trap
you begin to get wrapped up in arrests
probation fees fines it all builds on
itself in a cyclical nature until you
can’t get out I’m going to tell a story
about a time I was locked up in a metro
Atlanta jail I had been given 6 months
for a public drunk I was going through
what the medical community knows is DTS
delirium tremens I was pepper-sprayed
stripped beaten and thrown into solitary
confinement
also known as the whole to shake it out
I should have been taken to the hospital
and given medical content to stop this
momentum it took me completely leaving
Atlanta and coming over to Mississippi
my great grandmother was from Fulton
Mississippi and there was an abandoned
house there that my grandmother let me
move into with practically nothing I
came over with a garbage bag full of
clothes and a television set didn’t have
any heat the first winter but I was able
to enroll in a community college and I
found some people that took me in they
gave me a chance at an education then I
met some more men who showed me what
recovery was and had stories similar to
mine they too loved me until I could
learn to love myself I found that I
could strive in academia I earned a 4.0
I made the President’s List every
semester I was fortunate enough to
receive a lucky day scholarship to the
University of Mississippi it’s for
indigent individuals they give about 25
out in the state every year I was able
to go to undergrad on a full-ride I also
was able to get into the Honors College
here Ole Miss I granted I’m 30 years old
and I was speaking with someone from the
recover or the Honors College and I told
her he said you should try out for the
Honors College I said man I’m a high
school dropout I could never do that he
said you should try so I tried and I
made it I also failed to mention shortly
before that my best friend died of a
heroin overdose his three year old his
five year old found him I made a
decision while in the Honors College to
not be silent about my recovery anymore
so I decided to write my honors thesis
on rehabilitation verse incarceration
for nonviolent substance use offenders
and it took back the administration a
little bit there were nobody had really
talked about this before here especially
in the Honors College but I decided to
be open because I was afraid of what
might happen if I did
I graduated magna laude from the
Honors College Phi Beta Kappa top of my
class I went to law school to try and
pay back into a system that I was there
was such a big part of my life while in
law school I had many opportunities I
was appointed to the governor’s opiate
task force here in Mississippi with the
Mississippi Bureau narcotics I received
an internship – one of the top criminal
defense programs in Bronx that
specializes in holistic criminal defense
approaches and I was also published and
one of the top criminal law journals in
the country on these concepts that I’m
sharing with you today we’ve not always
done things this way before 1970 the
longest sentence anyone ever served for
a drug crime was one year we had the
Controlled Substances Act come into
effect in 1974 a lot of different
reasons that I can’t go into right now
but the ramifications have been huge
since then drug possession has become a
felony five percent we now incarcerate
over 25% of the world’s prison
population while the United States only
makes up 5% of the world’s population
this is up 700 percent in 40 years over
80% of the people behind bars suffer
from substance use disorder or other
co-occurring disorders sixty percent of
the people that are released
wind up reoffending within three years
most of these people aren’t really vile
a shion’s and what I mean by technical
violations is a failed urine screen
failure to pay failure to be somewhere
because you don’t have a driver’s
license or have money to get there
they’re not going out most of these
individuals are not going out and
committing new crimes and like I said
thirty million people in this country
suffer from subs
use disorder yet only one out of ten
people suffering ever receive any kind
of treatment the shame the stigma and
the criminalization of this disorder
keeps people silent even in recovery
when they’ve gotten back some of the
things in their life that they hold so
dear now John was one of the main
reasons I decided to break my silence so
what do we do what do we do that’s what
we tried to figure out with the RCL
model which is a recovery community
organization we created southern
recovery advocacy here in Oxford
Mississippi and it addresses the
collateral consequences of the criminal
justice system with drug offenses and
let me explain what collateral
consequences are many people serve
sentences long beyond the time they ever
spend behind bars long after their
probation is finished long after they’ve
paid their fines they now have a label
that keeps them from participating in
life it keeps them from getting Pell
grants and education it keeps them from
getting housing and it keeps them from
getting jobs so with the RCO we decided
to proactively tackle these collateral
consequences and we based our model on
several pillars we try to hook people up
with employment we try to advocate for
education employment housing life skills
and recovery access to these tools that
are so essential to people reintegrating
back into society I didn’t have some of
these life skills when I came out I
didn’t know how to build credit I had to
be taught these things and it was people
in recovery that were able to do that
for me the tough on drug use policy is
not working it’s a tool of political
manipulation it’s a business it keeps us
afraid afraid of what we don’t
understand
it’s been my experience that the the
tough people the really tough people
help people up when they’re down they
don’t kick them trust me
I’m surrounded by some of the toughest
people on the planet they are the
pillars of their respective recovery
communities and restorative justices
their specialty
some of them are here tonight Portugal
and other countries have discovered that
this is not a criminal justice issue
this is a social issue Portugal decided
to decriminalize all drugs in 2001 and
let me explain what I mean by
decriminalized it’s different from
legalization I’m not suggesting we need
to put black tar heroin next to Marlboro
cigarettes at the 7-eleven what I’m
saying is we need to quit attaching
criminal penalties to a social and
mental disorder thereby compounding the
social problems and the expense in the
long run
since Portugal decriminalized their
death rates their crime rates and their
addiction rates have plummeted because
they’re now treating it as a social
issue other countries are now following
suit Norway Uruguay Sweden the United
States has the highest rates of
addiction on the planet which also puts
us in a unique position we have an
opportunity to see the highest rates of
recovery in history I was fortunate
enough to be able to visit California
about a month ago and I and I went out
outside of Berkeley in San Francisco and
I was able to go into a redwoods for us
and as I looked around this redwood
forest I noticed something redwoods
don’t grow by themselves you never see a
redwood out in the middle of a field
growing these are the some of the most
beautiful specimens I’ve ever seen 20
feet in diameter 300 feet tall
splendid
works of creation but why the redwood
grows and groves and not alone is
because their root systems interlock and
the redwoods showed me that that’s it’s
almost identical to how we do things in
recovery we don’t get sober on our own
we help each other our root systems
interlock and we hold each other up so
that we can reach great heights of
success we don’t need a war on drugs we
need a war on intolerance we need a war
on closed-mindedness and we need a war
on archaic substandard policies that are
economically irresponsible and
ineffective thank you for my life
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Music]
Hey
I just want to tell you I’m very
grateful and honored to be here today
there was a lot of people in my life
that told me I’d never be here you see
I’m convicted 25 times over of substance
use disorder convictions I’m also a high
school dropout but I’m also a lot of
other things today and that’s what we’re
here to talk about philosophers have
said momentum first requires expending
one unit ten units of energy to yield
one unit of results after a while your
momentum begins to build on itself and
it creates 10 units of results with one
unit of energy this principle works both
ways unfortunately I’m going to talk
about criminal justice reform substance
use disorder and the impacts on recovery
on a nationwide scale I’m going to talk
about my personal anecdotal experience
with this and then I’m going to back up
to a 30,000 foot view and address it as
a societal issue this issue is now the
number one public health crisis and
criminal justice issue in the country it
is the number one killer of young people
and last year alone it took the lives of
over 64 thousand young Americans I share
my story to show others that nothing is
impossible to a willing heart even with
the deck stacked against you I share it
for the guys still sitting in the 8×8
cell who doesn’t think that he has a
chance of ever making a life of ever
being anything
I share my story because there’s 30
million people in this country suffering
from substance use disorder it affects
everything around us whether we know
about it or not I’m here to tell the
fellow substance use disorder sufferer
that you’re not a bad person trying to
get good you’re a sick person trying to
get well the labeling theory in
sociology and criminology tells us that
if society tells someone they are
something long enough they start to
think that way and behave accordingly
we’re creating a new momentum here we’re
going to love you until you can learn to
love yourself
my journey should not be the exception
it should be the rule I started using
chemicals very young my father was
killed in a boating accident when I was
8 weeks old and what studies have shown
is that there’s a large correlation
between childhood trauma and substance
use disorder I also mentioned I started
using very young there’s also huge
correlations between the younger someone
starts using substances and their
chances of developing addiction I
started getting in trouble at a very
young age I was arrested and convicted
as an adult at 16 years old from theirs
things began to spiral out of control I
knew from the very first time I ingested
chemicals that I wasn’t like other
people I didn’t handle it the same way
my friends did yet I still wanted to try
to fit in I chased that too a lot of
damaging consequences once you have a
record in the criminal justice system
it’s very hard to get out of that trap
you begin to get wrapped up in arrests
probation fees fines it all builds on
itself in a cyclical nature until you
can’t get out I’m going to tell a story
about a time I was locked up in a metro
Atlanta jail I had been given 6 months
for a public drunk I was going through
what the medical community knows is DTS
delirium tremens I was pepper-sprayed
stripped beaten and thrown into solitary
confinement
also known as the whole to shake it out
I should have been taken to the hospital
and given medical content to stop this
momentum it took me completely leaving
Atlanta and coming over to Mississippi
my great grandmother was from Fulton
Mississippi and there was an abandoned
house there that my grandmother let me
move into with practically nothing I
came over with a garbage bag full of
clothes and a television set didn’t have
any heat the first winter but I was able
to enroll in a community college and I
found some people that took me in they
gave me a chance at an education then I
met some more men who showed me what
recovery was and had stories similar to
mine they too loved me until I could
learn to love myself I found that I
could strive in academia I earned a 4.0
I made the President’s List every
semester I was fortunate enough to
receive a lucky day scholarship to the
University of Mississippi it’s for
indigent individuals they give about 25
out in the state every year I was able
to go to undergrad on a full-ride I also
was able to get into the Honors College
here Ole Miss I granted I’m 30 years old
and I was speaking with someone from the
recover or the Honors College and I told
her he said you should try out for the
Honors College I said man I’m a high
school dropout I could never do that he
said you should try so I tried and I
made it I also failed to mention shortly
before that my best friend died of a
heroin overdose his three year old his
five year old found him I made a
decision while in the Honors College to
not be silent about my recovery anymore
so I decided to write my honors thesis
on rehabilitation verse incarceration
for nonviolent substance use offenders
and it took back the administration a
little bit there were nobody had really
talked about this before here especially
in the Honors College but I decided to
be open because I was afraid of what
might happen if I did
I graduated magna laude from the
Honors College Phi Beta Kappa top of my
class I went to law school to try and
pay back into a system that I was there
was such a big part of my life while in
law school I had many opportunities I
was appointed to the governor’s opiate
task force here in Mississippi with the
Mississippi Bureau narcotics I received
an internship – one of the top criminal
defense programs in Bronx that
specializes in holistic criminal defense
approaches and I was also published and
one of the top criminal law journals in
the country on these concepts that I’m
sharing with you today we’ve not always
done things this way before 1970 the
longest sentence anyone ever served for
a drug crime was one year we had the
Controlled Substances Act come into
effect in 1974 a lot of different
reasons that I can’t go into right now
but the ramifications have been huge
since then drug possession has become a
felony five percent we now incarcerate
over 25% of the world’s prison
population while the United States only
makes up 5% of the world’s population
this is up 700 percent in 40 years over
80% of the people behind bars suffer
from substance use disorder or other
co-occurring disorders sixty percent of
the people that are released
wind up reoffending within three years
most of these people aren’t really vile
a shion’s and what I mean by technical
violations is a failed urine screen
failure to pay failure to be somewhere
because you don’t have a driver’s
license or have money to get there
they’re not going out most of these
individuals are not going out and
committing new crimes and like I said
thirty million people in this country
suffer from subs
use disorder yet only one out of ten
people suffering ever receive any kind
of treatment the shame the stigma and
the criminalization of this disorder
keeps people silent even in recovery
when they’ve gotten back some of the
things in their life that they hold so
dear now John was one of the main
reasons I decided to break my silence so
what do we do what do we do that’s what
we tried to figure out with the RCL
model which is a recovery community
organization we created southern
recovery advocacy here in Oxford
Mississippi and it addresses the
collateral consequences of the criminal
justice system with drug offenses and
let me explain what collateral
consequences are many people serve
sentences long beyond the time they ever
spend behind bars long after their
probation is finished long after they’ve
paid their fines they now have a label
that keeps them from participating in
life it keeps them from getting Pell
grants and education it keeps them from
getting housing and it keeps them from
getting jobs so with the RCO we decided
to proactively tackle these collateral
consequences and we based our model on
several pillars we try to hook people up
with employment we try to advocate for
education employment housing life skills
and recovery access to these tools that
are so essential to people reintegrating
back into society I didn’t have some of
these life skills when I came out I
didn’t know how to build credit I had to
be taught these things and it was people
in recovery that were able to do that
for me the tough on drug use policy is
not working it’s a tool of political
manipulation it’s a business it keeps us
afraid afraid of what we don’t
understand
it’s been my experience that the the
tough people the really tough people
help people up when they’re down they
don’t kick them trust me
I’m surrounded by some of the toughest
people on the planet they are the
pillars of their respective recovery
communities and restorative justices
their specialty
some of them are here tonight Portugal
and other countries have discovered that
this is not a criminal justice issue
this is a social issue Portugal decided
to decriminalize all drugs in 2001 and
let me explain what I mean by
decriminalized it’s different from
legalization I’m not suggesting we need
to put black tar heroin next to Marlboro
cigarettes at the 7-eleven what I’m
saying is we need to quit attaching
criminal penalties to a social and
mental disorder thereby compounding the
social problems and the expense in the
long run
since Portugal decriminalized their
death rates their crime rates and their
addiction rates have plummeted because
they’re now treating it as a social
issue other countries are now following
suit Norway Uruguay Sweden the United
States has the highest rates of
addiction on the planet which also puts
us in a unique position we have an
opportunity to see the highest rates of
recovery in history I was fortunate
enough to be able to visit California
about a month ago and I and I went out
outside of Berkeley in San Francisco and
I was able to go into a redwoods for us
and as I looked around this redwood
forest I noticed something redwoods
don’t grow by themselves you never see a
redwood out in the middle of a field
growing these are the some of the most
beautiful specimens I’ve ever seen 20
feet in diameter 300 feet tall
splendid
works of creation but why the redwood
grows and groves and not alone is
because their root systems interlock and
the redwoods showed me that that’s it’s
almost identical to how we do things in
recovery we don’t get sober on our own
we help each other our root systems
interlock and we hold each other up so
that we can reach great heights of
success we don’t need a war on drugs we
need a war on intolerance we need a war
on closed-mindedness and we need a war
on archaic substandard policies that are
economically irresponsible and
ineffective thank you for my life
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Music]
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