ADDICTS' FAMILIES TURN OUT

100 Walk Through Eastside Streets

Eva Stano did something she couldn't do for almost 20 years-- she
spoke openly about her son's addiction.

"He was homeless, shooting crack, he was stealing, jail," Stano said.
"It just progressed, more and more . . . I would never in a million
years have thought one of my children would have this problem."

More than 100 people from families with members suffering from
addictions marched with counsellors and support workers in yesterday's
Families Against Addiction awareness walk, an event thought up by
Stano and organized by her daughter, Katia.

The crowd walked through the Downtown Eastside carrying white balloons
with messages in black marker. Some read, "I'm walking for George,"
"I'm walking for Angela," "For Tabitha," "For my sons."

The point? To fight the shame surrounding addiction. To help people
talk about what's killing their loved ones.

Katia Stano said police once came to their house with machine-guns to
arrest her brother.

The family felt ashamed of him, Katia said, and guilty they felt that
way while he suffered.

It's a common misunderstanding that addicts can simply choose to stop,
said Judi Oakes, an addiction councillor for the Edgewood addiction
treatment centre in Nanaimo.

"You can't just stop," Oakes said. "The need to do the drug is greater
than their love for their family."

Most addicts need help from families, support groups or professional
counsellors, she said.

"If you don't know you're sick, you don't know to get well," she
said.

Eva Stano spent too many years hiding her son's addiction, she said.
She and her family called for help and her son is now in a treatment
centre, three months clean.

"I love my boy," Stano said. "We have to speak and we have to know if
some other family like ours suffers somewhere, too."