At PEERS, junkies get a little respect

Users group helps those who
want to quit but also gives
a voice to those who don't

By Michael O'Keeffe
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

The junkies sit quietly on mismatched couches in the Broadway storefront,
smoking cigarettes and sipping coffee.

The room reeks of body odor and tobacco.

These men, dirty, unshaven, gaunt, are among Denver's most reviled residents.

So they come together each week to give each other support and respect.

"Not all dope fiends are slime dogs," says Mike, a thin, wiry man with
bright, intelligent eyes that illuminate a wrinkled, pale face.

"We have a genuine interest in helping each other."

The Regional Users Group was founded last May, pushed by Paul Simons, the
executive director of PEERS, a nonprofit group that promotes AIDS awareness
among intravenous drug users.

The group meets Wednesday afternoons at PEERS' headquarters at 2282 Broadway,
a former *botanica* that's become a community center for addicts and other
street people.

None of the men wanted their last names used in the newspaper.

This Wednesday, drug researchers Leslie Amass and John Hrynyszyn of the Vine
Street Center are guest speakers, talking about buprenorphine, an
experimental drug that weans addicts from heroin without painful withdrawl
symptoms.

But while the Regional Users Group includes recovering addicts and
disseminates information about treatments, it isn't another sobriety group.

Signs posted throughout PEERS' offices ask visitors not to shoot up while at
the storefront.

Members share tips about dope dealers with good stuff and dealers to avoid,
where to get clean needles, how to avoid police crackdowns.

They pick up needles left in downtown alleys by other dopers. They encourage
pharmacists to break the law and provide clean syringes to addicts. They
pushed for a bill to legalize needleexchange programs in Colorado but lost
when it was killed in February by the House of Representatives.

It's a fight RUG vows isn't over.

"We're not the most admirable of citizens," said Dominic, another regular.
"But we are citizens, and we deserve to be heard."

A bureaucracy that agrees helped to spawn the group.

The federal Centers for Disease Control requires the Colorado Department of
Public Health and Environment a significant source of PEERS' funding to
contact groups affected by AIDS programs before changes are made. Forming a
group was easier than polling street people, Simons said.

He didn't realize his support and a place to meet would turn addicts into
activists.

"These are probably the most empowered drug users in the country," he says,
laughing.

Mike says he's tired of apologizing for who and what he is.

"I've been a dope fiend for all but nine years of my life," he said. "It's
obvious to me I need dope, just like I need medicine for my heart.

"There's something about my metabolism that needs dope. I accept the fact
that I'm a dope fiend."
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Photo caption: Indio, who has been a heroin addict for 40 years, relaxes at
PEERS headquarters, which he says is a sanctuary from trouble on the streets.
PEERS is a nonprofit group that promotes AIDS awareness among intravenous
drug users. A support group of users meets at the center every Wednesday.
____________________________________________________
For more information call/write:

PEERS
(People Engaged in Education and Reduction Programs)
2701 Alcott Street
Suite 263/264
Denver, CO 80211
phone: (303) 4552472
fax: (303) 4552548