DRUG BATTLE A LONG FIGHT

Former Addicts Celebrate Recovery

Drug-Free For 15 Months, Single Mother Praises Portage Treatment Program

At 14, Louise took drugs for fun. At 17, it was deadly serious."I was
taking anything and everything. Drugs, alcohol, glue."

Louise, who asked that her last name not be used, then got a job as a
barmaid, where she fed her habit sniffing cocaine -- "I could go four days
without sleep" -- until an overdose finally scared her.

But ask how and when and why her addiction began and this 26-year-old
single mother still has to stop and think. She scrolls into her past,
recalling how her mother died when she was 5, and she never knew her father
at all. Put up for adoption, she says she retreated into an emotional shell
from which she is only now emerging.

"I want my daughter to have a healthy mother, and for her to be proud of
me," she said yesterday, joining 102 other graduates of the Portage
addiction treatment program in celebration of their recovery in Place des
Arts's Theatre Maisonneuve.

In its 30th year, Portage has helped 20,000 substance abusers combat their
demons and re-integrate into society by emphasizing self-help and viewing
addiction as an outward symptom of a life in crisis. Treatment centres in
Quebec, New Brunswick and now Ontario offer programs specifically geared to
adults, teenagers, mothers with children, and people with mental illness.
Portage claims 85 per cent of those who complete the residential treatment
- - usually about six months - remain drug-free.

Zack, 17, has been sober for two and a half years. He's looking ahead to
finishing high school this year, aiming for a career in radio or business.
This from a teen who was smoking marijuana at 11, then moved on to PCP. "I
was very depressed, and the drugs were a way to escape."

A fight with his older brother made him see he was out of control. "I went
to the bathroom to wash my face and I looked like death warmed over," he
said. "I had lost everything, my family, my friends. I was turning them
against me. They were trying to help, and I would just reject them."

Louise said by the time her daughter was born, she had reached rock bottom.
Her daughter's father was also a drug user, and showed no signs of wanting
to stop. "I was crying everyday, I was very unhappy...I knew I had to do
something or I'd kill myself." Desperate, she called Mylene, one of her
oldest childhood friends, someone who wasn't part of the wild crowd she'd
been hanging with in recent years. Within 15 minutes, her friend had called
her back with a referral to Portage's mother-child program.

"It's a miracle what's happened," Mylene said yesterday. "She's gone from
the absolute depths to an independent, outgoing person with a positive
outlook and everything to live for."

Louise - drug-free for 15 months - has high praise for the mother-child
program, which allowed her to keep her daughter while she got off drugs,
polished her parenting skills and rediscovered her long-lost self-esteem.