DRUG REHAB CENTRE AT A CROSSROAD

It's not clear exactly when Jeremy Ward hit bottom. It could have
been last October when the 20-year-old cocaine addict crammed a
handful of pills down his throat, hoping the massive combination of
antipsychotics and Valium would ease the pain of being dumped.

One thing was certain: Ward needed help.

And after about eight years mixing cocaine, marijuana and alcohol --
and with a baby boy on the way -- the veteran addict needed more than
just a trip to detox to slow the speeding train of his addiction.

He needed a paradigm shift.

On the weekend, as he celebrated his 150th consecutive day of
sobriety, Ward is a changed man.

Trading his crack pipe for a paint roller, the lanky redhead has
assumed a drug-free workaday existence at a new recovery community
just outside Prince George.

Started in December by Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt, the Baldy Hughes
Therapeutic Community represents a new approach to rehabilitation.

The idea involves a long-term live-in program where addicts use peer
support, a lack of easy access to drugs and a highly structured
lifestyle to help them slowly tighten their grips on sobriety.

Clients at the site -- there are 14 now, though Mayencourt plans to
eventually increase that to 500 -- are currently working on a
rigorous daily schedule to restore and renovate the Cold War-era
Baldy Hughes military base where the community is set up. After that
is done, the clients will do a variety of jobs ranging from growing
food to producing products that can be sold to help finance the program.

The model is fashioned in the image of Italy's San Patrignano, an
almost 30-year-old recovery community where more than 20,000 addicts
have used peer support, skills training and a highly structured work
schedule to move from desperation to stability.

Though some feel San Patrignano, and its unwavering focus on
abstinence, is the wrong approach, a university study that tracked a
group of clients from the Italian facility found it to have a 72 per
cent success rate.

After going through detox and a standard therapy program, addicts at
his Baldy Hughes facility each commit to live in the community for
three years completely drug free, and will eventually have access to
a range of services that include high school classes, recreation
facilities and trades training.

For the 14 clients currently at the facility, the approach is already
paying dividends.

"I think a lot of people realize they have been through treatment
centre after treatment centre and that when they walk out the door
they don't have a good solid plan," said Scot Durward, a former
addict and the program co-ordinator. "This offers a long-term
solution to that. There are 14 people here that are residents and at
the end of the day everyone is going to bed clean and sober. That's huge."

Being in the business of managing career addicts, the Baldy Hughes
Therapeutic Community has not found that success without an equal
share of challenge.

In the almost four months the community has been running, about 12 of
the 30 clients brought into the program have had to leave.

One of those left over the tight restrictions the community imposes
on smoking -- clients are limited to seven cigarettes a day, a number
that will decrease as time passes.

Another was asked to leave over revelations that his criminal history
broke a community rule banning anyone convicted of a sex offence,
arson or any violent crimes such as manslaughter or murder.

Five have had to go because they slipped and used drugs while in the
program, Mayencourt said, and the others over a variety of other
separate issues.

For Mayencourt, many of these stories can be chalked up to the
realities of dealing with a vulnerable and unstable population.

But Mayencourt says he has learned a great deal, and that the program
needed a kick-start to show people what was possible.

He said now he is looking to hire about five staff members to run the
program, including an executive director, a life skills counsellor
and other professionals who can help the clients improve various
elements of their lives.