ESCAPING METH

PENDLETON -- Larry Nicholson lived in a cardboard box under a bridge
in Milton-Freewater one winter more than a decade ago.

His addiction to methamphetamine took him to the bridge, but it was
the loss of his cardboard box that led him to treatment.

Not because he wanted to be rehabilitated, but because he was hoping
for a warm place to stay and three meals a day.

He was walking back to his box one day when he saw the garbage truck
haul away his home. He decided it was time to move on and began
hitchhiking to Portland.

He never got out of Milton-Freewater because, he said, no one would
pick him up.

Nicholson said he was freezing, hungry and tired, and he remembered
that police sometimes would transport people to the detoxification
center in Pendleton. He figured that would be an easy way to get warm
and get fed. So he walked the short distance to the police station.

Later that day, Police Chief Bill Biggs drove him to detox. He drove
fast, Nicholson recalled.

"Looking back, I think the reason he drove so fast was because I
smelled so bad," Nicholson said.

Nicholson got more than he bargained for at the center.

He made it through detox, then went to the Eastern Oregon Alcoholism
Foundation, which also treats drug addicts. He stayed in treatment for
a year.

Eventually, he ended up working at the treatment center. Then he went
back to school to earn his certification as a drug and alcohol counselor.

Nicholson is not alone. Many people who abuse drugs and alcohol, then
successfully complete treatment, feel called to help others with their
struggles.

Nicholson said it was the blessings he received during his treatment
that led him to become a role model to the men -- many in the same
dire circumstances he was in -- that he now sees on a daily basis.

"If I can push these folks into believing they are worthy of
everything life has to offer, I've done my job," Nicholson said.

And, he said, if someone had told him 141U2 years ago, back when he
still called a box home, that someday he would be happily married, the
owner of a home and two cars, he would have called them an idiot.

Rocky Road to Recovery

Despite Nicholson's determination to help other people with drug and
alcohol problems, the road from a meth addiction to recovery is a rocky one.

Nicholson said some meth users go through a number of treatment
programs before they make it.

Meth is highly addictive, and can damage or kill neurotransmitters in
the brain, making recovery more difficult. Some people die because
they can't stop taking the drug.

Almost everyone who comes through the door at the foundation has a
meth problem, therapists say.

The Eastern Oregon Alcoholism Foundation is Umatilla County's only
residential treatment facility.

The men's center has 21 beds. The women's treatment center houses 18
women and nine children, because parents in recovery tend to do better
if their children are with them, officials say. And it's better for
the kids, too.

"People are out there dying, waiting for a bed," said Teri Martin,
clinical supervisor for the women's treatment program. "We need
funding and a bigger place."

The foundation also operates separate transition homes for men and
women. And it is beginning a new program where parents and children
will go through treatment together.

Nena's Story

Nena Fields, 22, who has two young sons, has been in treatment for
seven months.

Since Sept. 13, she and her boys have lived at the women's transition
center, a five-bedroom house on a hill overlooking Pendleton. The
center received a grant to buy the house, which has been dubbed
Rusty's House.

Fields said she and her sons, Reuben, 4, and Silas, 1, now lead a far
different life than they used to. Fields had been using meth since she
was 14. She and Reuben spent a lot of time in what Fields called
"really bad drug houses."

"My oldest one was adapted to that life, up all night with Mom,
parties with friends," Fields said. "Mommy would be up for days on end
and then crash."

Fields also was involved with two men who beat her. One tried to
strangle her and whipped her with an electric cord.

Still, until she went into treatment, Fields said she thought she was
being a good mom, even though most of Reuben's meals came from
fast-food joints. Candy was always on hand for him.

"It took me a long time to realize I neglected my kids," Fields
said.

"I fed them and gave them what they wanted, but that's not what it's
all about."

"After Dad died, Mom put us through a lot more crap," Fields said.
"She was in a lot of unhealthy relationships. She took us on her
adventure through Oregon with her drunken boyfriends."

Fields and her siblings ended up in foster care. Fields was 5. She
maintains strong ties to her foster parents in The Dalles.

But early in her teenage years, a judge gave the children the choice
to return to their mother, and since her two siblings chose to do
that, she did, too.

Fields said her mother taught her to take meth.

Martin, as well as Charlotte Jeffries, an alcohol and drug counselor
who directs the women's transition program, are trying to help Fields
deal with the aftermath of her early life.

"She was just angry over everything," Jeffries said.

Martin said Fields had no boundaries and no concept of what an abusive
relationship was.

But, Martin said, Fields has transformed into an excellent mother who
bathes and feeds her children on a regular schedule.

Fields is trying to earn her general equivalency diploma and hopes
eventually to become a nurse.

The Toll of Addiction

In 1994, Richard, who asked that his last name not be used, found
himself homeless and on the streets.

He dived into Dumpsters to retrieve bottles and aluminum cans to
recycle so he could buy a bottle of whiskey or some meth.

His marriage -- to another addict -- was shattered, and their three
children were taken by the state and put up for adoption.

"My addiction took priority over my kids," said Richard, 43. "It's a
horrible thing to say."

After almost three years of sobriety, Richard talked while standing on
the stairs of the rental home in Pendleton he shares with his wife,
Peggy, their daughter Samantha, who is 31U2 months old, and their
beagle, Java.

He takes pride in his resurrection. He'd been through treatment
before. But his last stay at the foundation appears to have stuck.

"I used to walk by someone's house at night, and I'd see them sitting
there watching TV without a bottle of whiskey or a bag of weed and I
couldn't understand that," Richard said. "Now, I can sit there and
watch TV, talk with my wife and play with my baby, things the average
person takes for granted."

Richard works 32 hours a week at a convenience store and goes to
school full time at Blue Mountain Community College. He started last
winter and surprised himself by getting a 4.0 grade-point average. In
the spring quarter, he earned a 3.8 GPA.

"I wasn't sure how many brain cells I had left or if I could
concentrate," Richard said.

His ambition? To become a drug and alcohol counselor.

"My goal is to help others in recovery," Richard said.

Richard said he's found an inner peace he never had before, and that
sustains him. "Life today is what I always dreamed it would be."

Nicholson, who worked with Richard, said long stays in treatment
centers are particularly helpful for meth addicts.

But the reality is that the average stay for men at the foundation is
only 57 days.

Although he and other counselors said their job takes its toll,
Nicholson choked up when he talked about the progress Richard has made.

"The more the story gets out that change is possible, the better place
the world will be," Nicholson said.