NOW ON THE AIR, DRUG THERAPY

A Former User Provides Forum

As the guest on "Recovery Expressions" drove home a point last week
about the state's criminal records law and substance abuse, the phone
lines lit up.

You've got to get the housing equation in there, the caller said. "If
you are homeless and jobless - that alone makes you want to go back to
prison."

Lawrence Dugan, the show's host, interjected. "Why do you want to go
back to prison?"

"I'm just saying," the caller responded, "if you have no home, no
income, how [are] you going to survive?"

Dugan's guest, Loren E. Roberts, a former addict, ex-offender, and now
therapist, chimed in: "We do have an option, and one option is not to
go back to jail. We have to get out of that mindset."

It's typical chatter for this Sunday morning talk show, which focuses
on addiction and recovery. From 9 to 10 in a small studio in Grove
Hall, Dugan listens as former addicts call in to talk about life in
recovery, the dating scene, raising children, or how the penal system
let them down.

A big guy, with broad shoulders, a raspy voice, and a long, difficult
past on the streets, Dugan wants to hear their problems.

Those who run the weekly show - broadcast on WTCH-FM (106.1) and
streamed live on the Internet - say there isn't anything else like it
in the Boston area that allows addicts to phone in and talk to people
who have also struggled to stay drug free.

"It's radio that is projecting therapy," said Roberts, who is also the
show's executive producer.

Calls ring in from Boston to South Carolina to Atlanta. Some callers
fire off questions, others praises; some simply want to talk.

The "Recovery Expressions" team knows about the hard road to getting
clean. Dugan, who grew up in Roxbury and Dorchester, spent 31 of his
54 years in and out of prison and on drugs; Roberts spent 30 of his 57
years in similar straits. Both are now drug free.

Dugan began hosting the show in January, after the station recognized
a need to reach out to a struggling segment of a community, where
liquor stores dot street corners and drug use and violence from drug
crimes are rampant.

"We needed a show that dealt with substance abuse . . . a place where
people can vent," said Charles Clemmons, the station's cofounder.

Now sharing the mike with cohost Kevin Thomas, Dugan said he wants to
help empower others to build themselves up.

Dugan started using when he was 15. Back then he and friends stole
cash registers, took the money, and bought clothes and marijuana. He
later went on to use heroin, cocaine, and crack. He has been clean
many times before, sometimes a year, other times longer. He got
married, had a son, became a minister, and held down steady jobs. But
when his wife left him, he returned to drugs.

The turning point came for him in a Columbia Road crack
house.

As Dugan and other addicts used crack in one room of the apartment,
the teenagers who sold them the drugs waited for new orders in
another, Dugan said. The teens would send a 10-year-old boy to check
on the addicts.

At one point, the boy asked Dugan for his car keys so the teens could
joy ride; Dugan handed them over - for pieces of crack. When they
returned, he told them to drive it longer - in exchange for more
crack. Some days later, still high and walking on Columbia Road, he
saw the boys rolling by in his car as rain pelted him.

That was his final wake-up call, seven years ago, he said. He checked
in to a 12-step program, surrendered to his addiction, and has been
clean since.

"Recovery Expressions" is Dugan's chance for redemption.

"I feel inside that I let people down," said Dugan, now a mental
health counselor at Bournewood Hospital in Brookline, where Roberts
also works as a youth therapist.

"Every Sunday morning, I feel I have an obligation to do this show,"
said Dugan. "I know what it's like to be messed up. What's different
is I have a lot more information and I have a lot more motivation.
I've been to the point where I feel like I might use something. But if
I use, where would I be?

"Whatever happens from doing the show happens, as long as I am staying
clean - and helping others stay clean."