Breaking free

Mike Croft’s addiction to drugs was so strong that it overpowered his fear of needles.

About the time he was 13-years-old, the native of British Columbia had smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine, taken acid and had already moved onto heroin. But the then-teen had issues with injecting himself. Having a fear of needles, he typically asked someone else to inject the drug into him.

After more than a dozen doses, Croft was told that he would have to inject himself if we wanted to continue using.

“I was terrified of needles,” The now 39-year-old says, remembering those years. “The hardest part was that first time. The first 10 or 12, I didn’t inject myself. Somebody else did. I enjoyed it way too much, so I learned how to do it myself."

Croft remembers the feeling the drug gave him back then. He describes it as a thick warm blanket fresh from the drying machine, comforting him and filling him with good feelings.

But the high came with consequences. Croft dropped out school by Grade 10, and began roaming the country and taking odd jobs to pay for his addiction.
 
Finding jobs to make enough money for the drugs he wanted, finding a dealer and then getting high became a full-time, 24 hours-a-day routine.

He often found himself running from the law, but still managed to find himself in trouble. Police charged Croft for breaking into people’s houses and theft – all crime committed in the name of his addiction. 

Croft lived this life for 12 years before he made the decision to get clean.

Planning to pass through Thunder Bay on his way to Banff, Alt. about 14 years ago, Croft remained in the city for some time. Drugs remained a part of his life and he continued to feed his habit.

The addiction’s grip and its consequences became more serious, and Croft was at a point where he was no longer eating. At one point, the man weighed nearly 100 pounds.

He woke up one night after having passed out and realized that he was going to die if he couldn’t find a way to shed the drugs from his life. 

Croft’s road to recovery started when he approached the outreach workers at Superior Points Harm Redution Program.

“Superior Points was instrumental as well as a few other people in helping me get clean,” he says. “They helped me get into detox, helped me get into treatment and even after that they still weren’t gone.

“They helped me find a better place to live. I told them I had enough and they had me see a doctor.”

Croft remembers being suspicious of the outreach workers. His mistrust led him to take separate routes to and from the meeting point where he got his clean needles. 

His paranoia forced him into believing that he could be followed.

Croft has stayed off drugs for more than a decade and has been able to take his life back.

“These programs meant so much to me so I decided to give something back. I volunteered with Superior Points for 12 years,” he said. “I’m not robbing people anymore. I got a really good job based on a lot of my experiences plus all the volunteer work I’ve done and all the additional training I`ve done.”

Rick Thompson joined Superior Points as a volunteer after its launch in 1995 and became an outreach worker in 1998. He met people from all lifestyles, many of whom have taken a wrong turn in life. He describes them as usually being unhealthy and fearful of authority.

“Many of them are very nice people, kind people,” Thompson said. “In fact (Croft) started out as a client, got clean and is now working in the field and is one of my closest friends. He’s a wonderful person and many of them are, but they have a terrible disease and they have to deal with it the best they can.”

On average Superior Points distributes about 70,000 needles a month and close to 600,000 a year. The program aims to prevent blood-borne diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis C, from spreading in the community.

Thompson said it’s difficult to measure the number of drug users there are in the city because a single person can use multiple needles.
 
He’s confident that Superior Points has already helped lower the rate of HIV in the city. Unfortunately, Hepatices C remains high.

“We might be second in Ontario,” Thompson says. “There are several different factors of why that is. Certainly, when we first started we didn’t recognize the significance of hepatitis C. We didn’t fully understand the connection between injections. We even changed our program to try to address some of those issues.

“I think most people have got the ‘don’t share needles’ idea, but there`s still a fair amount of people who do injection drugs that are still sharing without realizing that hepatitis C is much more vigilant.

“When we first started, it was mostly needles and alcohol swabs but now we have ties and cookers. We want to make sure that there`s nothing that can transmit a virus.”

Like with Croft, building a relationship with drug users is usually a slow process. They users typically hear about Superior Points through word of mouth and then contact Thompson or one of the other outreach workers. From there they tell them what they want and they arrange to meet.

The locations changes for each client and it`s always on neutral territory. The outreach workers pull up in their van and ask people if they have asked for a delivery.

“A vast majority of our clients are stably housed so we will go to their place or if they don`t want to meet there we go somewhere else,” he said. “We`re mobile, we`ll meet anywhere but It has to be mutual.

“If they say meet me at midnight near the docks or something we might not be as inclined. But we do meet in alleys. We`re an anonymous program so they don’t have to give us any information about themselves.”

Besides deliveries, Thompson says they also pick up and dispose of used needles.

He believes they collect more than 90 per cent of the thousands of needles they distribute. 
 
Superior Points is not a safe injection site like the one in British Columbia. Thompson says they only provide equipment.

Thompson adds that privacy is a big concern for addicts and having a safe injection site in a small community like Thunder Bay may prove difficult for people trying to keep their addiction a secret.

“Obviously there are negative connotations of injection drug using,” he says. “Injection drug users are just your average people. They are the same guy that`s behind you at Mac`s; it`s your neighbour and most people don`t know their neighbour is an injection drug user.”


  --- Follow Jeff Labine on Twitter: @Labine_reporter