TESTIMONY TO A DRUG-FREE LIFE

SUFFOLK - Few know his last name.

To the folks in Suffolk's Drug Court, he's just Larry - a felon whom
Circuit Judge Westbrook Parker frequently asks to lend inspiration to the
group.

In the beginning of nearly every Drug Court session, while Larry Gray sits
quietly in the back of the courtroom - hoping his presence will bring some
motivation - Parker calls out, "Whatcha say today, Larry?"

Larry typically answers with a simple, "keep working it." Go to the
Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Let the strict, jail-alternative program that
Parker oversees do what it's designed to do. It will help you get clean,
Larry promises.

While Larry still battles old temptations from his crack-smoking days, he's
not trying to cure a drug habit at the Thursday-morning sessions he attends
without fail.

And he's not a member of the court's administration.

He's just a 48-year-old Suffolk resident who, four years ago , kicked crack
cocaine out of his life.

His weekly presence, Larry said in his comforting but broken voice, is
meant to "show people what happened to me."

Heavy drug use caused Larry to suffer a stroke in 1989 that was so serious
it permanently slurred his speech.

"Maybe it will help those who are suffering get clean," he said.

Larry's trouble with drugs started on his 13th birthday when a group of
older boys dropped by his party with beer.

"What men do," Larry said, "I should do."

By 17, Larry was working, had become a father and had started smoking and
selling marijuana.

"Times were good," Larry said.

"I was making $200 to $300 a day on the street and able to support my
family and my drug habit."

That was until Larry took a hit of cocaine, which became a weekly habit.

"Then I got in trouble for strong-armed robbery," said Larry, who spent the
next year in jail.

He'd lost his job and desperately needed money.

Even in jail, Larry couldn't kick the habit. He worked nightly in the
jail's waiting room and smuggled in drugs to use and sell to fellow inmates.

While in jail, Larry also learned about another form of cocaine - crack.

"I saw something on the TV news about it," he said. "I said then that I
want to try that."

Shortly after his release, he did.

"It felt like heaven," he said.

Crack cocaine, because the effects hit the brain so quickly, causes intense
feelings of pleasure, said Karen Nicely , program coordinator for
outpatient services with the Western Tidewater Community Services Board .
Often users are addicted after the first hit, she said.

Larry's life continued on a downward spiral.

Smoking crack every day led to his stroke, which left him in a coma for
more than two weeks.

The doctor told Larry's mother, Francis Gray , that he had enough drugs in
his system to kill him.

But Larry returned home from the hospital and went straight for his crack pipe.

Finally, in 2001, facing 21 forgery charges for cashing stolen checks, he
realized something had to change.

"My lawyer said it was either jail or treatment," Larry said. "I said OK.
The war is over."

He served six months of a 32-year prison sentence .

This time he emerged determined to clean up his life.

It wasn't easy. "It takes hard work to get clean," Larry said. "To stay clean."

For the first 15 months, Larry attended daily Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

"And I still go all the time," he recently told the drug court participants
after Parker asked him to share. "You have to keep working your program."

Larry often goes to NA meetings with Kenny Miller , a Drug Court member
who's been clean longer than any other participant.

"That's why Larry is such an important piece of this program," said Nicely,
one of the court's administrators. "People look to him as someone who did it."

He didn't do it through Suffolk's Drug Court.

The program wasn't around then.

But he still learned how to manage an addiction, a struggle that's hard no
matter how you do it, Larry said.

Because Larry's stroke left him unable to drive, he has had to set aside
his pride to get help from family and friends.

After each Drug Court meeting, to keep his mind busy and his days full, he
walks around downtown to visit those who helped get him through.

You see, Larry said, "staying clean can be done. But you have to work at it."