transcendent in his ways is witty remark
sense of humor and infectious laugh to
get a whole world roaring a young man
who would walk into a room and light it
up with just a smile people freezer
someone always out for the underdog star
soccer player and junior amateur golfer
with the opportunity to go pro the
expelled in work and at school an organ
donor whose heart gave life to another
but beneath all this good there was a
dark side to him his addiction to heroin
consumed his soul and changed him into
someone I no longer recognized and
although he stole and lied and
prioritized drugs I could still see the
glimmer of his heart during his spells
of sobriety
I saw the guilt and shame that
accompanied every relapse as you would
lie in bed for days hiding his
excruciatingly withdrawal symptoms from
a world desensitized to addiction I saw
the fear in his eyes as he talked about
death and what his children would do
without him I know my brother did not
choose that life there are 25 million
people suffering with addiction and of
those 25 million only 2.5 million will
receive help that leaves too many people
like me with a broken heart the public
perceives addiction as a moral failing
or as a choice even though scientific
research has proven time and again that
addiction is a chronic disease of the
brain even the American Medical
Association says that addiction results
from a combination of genetic
predisposition brain chemistry and
environment so on one side we have
science confirming addiction as a
disease and on the other we have public
perception which sees right past the
facts of science
looks at an individual with a genetic
predisposition and suggests that he or
she made a rational choice to be an
addict when in reality being an addict
is not a choice and I can assure you no
substance abuser will tell you their
goal in life to grow up and become
physically dependent on the drug about
three years ago I found a piece of paper
on my brother’s nightstand just days
after he’d overdosed on heroin written
on this piece of paper was a list of
goals he had hoped to achieve in life
starting with being a good and loving
father but nowhere on this list did he
revealed that becoming an addict was a
goal because it wasn’t the negative
views in assumptions we have are rarely
based on facts but rather serve as a
scapegoat for a disease that society
fails to properly address how many times
have you heard someone referred to a
person with substance use disorder as a
crackhead a junkie a lowlife these
labels are all too familiar and
perpetuate the stigma surrounding
addiction terms like these to humanize
them take away from their identity tell
them they are not good enough and
instill an insecurity that is hard to
recover from the idea that people with
addictive disorders are weak and
deserving of their fate is so deeply
embedded into our psyche that we have
trouble recognizing the catastrophic
harm these beliefs have on society as a
whole all of these combined
stigmatization detract people from
obtaining treatment and if they do get
help what is currently available was
over 500,000 Americans addicted to
heroin the opioid epidemic warrants
research dedicated to better treatments
take the box on her example which the
New York Times called the blockbuster
drug most people have never heard of the
article goes on to describe that its
success is fueled by the exploding
opioid epidemic and by federal officials
who have promoted it as a safer less
stigmatized alternative to methadone and
suboxone is partly an opioid itself it
can produce euphoria and cause
dependency the high hopes presented to
our communities have been tempered by a
messy reality
Suboxone has become both medication and
dope a treatment with considerable
successes and also failures it is
diverted and misused it is sold on the
black market and it can have serious
medical consequences some other approach
is warranted here there is a drug that
is being used as an alternative medicine
treatment for drug addiction in other
countries ibogaine which may sound
foreign to you is making sound in
countries such as Mexico New Zealand it
is naturally derived from a plant
indigenous to West Africa it is not an
opioid it is not addictive but it is a
hallucinogenic in the United States it
is classified as a schedule 1 drug
therefore there’s no government funding
Hertz research with the limited research
that has been done of ibogaine appears
to have shown a cessation of withdrawal
symptoms and cravings following one
single dose but these limited studies
are not enough to consider it as
treatment we need more research to
determine if it is in fact an effective
form of treatment the point is we
shouldn’t be done looking we need to be
aware of and open-minded to the
alternative medicines that are out there
without research though none of this is
possible regardless of whether or not I
began is legalized community will always
be the backbone of recovery there’s a
powerful documentary out there called
the anonymous people which illustrates
the importance of community support and
people who are in recovery as I was
watching this documentary there was an
analogy that stuck with me and it went
something like this today we look at
addiction as a sick and dying tree we
dig the tree up move it to another area
or in this case a community we replant
it in healthy soil nurture it give it
all the love water and Sun that it needs
and when it comes alive and it’s vibrant
again we dig it up bring it back plant
it into the same hole and become shocked
when the tree gets sick again because
community is a backbone of recovery the
way we choose to respond to people who
are in treatment are just getting out of
treatment is not only good going to
affect their well-being but it is going
to have a huge impact on their desire to
stay sober being in recovery and
treatment and staying sober is such a
beautiful thing it’s an accomplishment
that deserves to be celebrated so the
question then becomes where do we serve
how can we change public perception
because asking someone to change the way
they think proves to be an extremely
typical task to accomplish and because
assumptions generally stem from a
personal bias self-awareness is the
first step we need to take take a moment
to yourself and self reflect ask
yourself do I have a personal bias do i
scroll past that facebook article titled
young girl dies apparent overdose and
think to myself she did it to herself do
I believe that an addict is unhelpful
and deserving of their fate do I assume
do I assume that addiction results from
a lack of willpower asking these
questions is hard but it allows us to be
honest with ourselves and helps us
recognize a bias we may never know we
had we cannot sit idly aside while
perfectly good people fall help pick
them up withhold judgment and educate
others along the way too so that moving
forward my brother will no longer be
referred to as the junkie who killed
himself but rather as a young man who
lost his life to a disease let’s instill
hope and knows who our victim of this
monster hope that one day there will be
no more labels or assumptions associated
with drug use hope that an alternative
medicine will emerge to break the deadly
cycle of addiction and hope God hope
that your children never find comfort in
a needle thank you [Applause]
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