NO CURE FOR ADDICTION WITHOUT HEAVY LIFTING

When You Work, Says Former Heroin Addict Barry Joneson, 'You Start
Getting This Pride Inside'

It's a boiling hot summer morning in East Vancouver, and there's a
big, shiny red truck outside what real-estate pros would describe as
an old-timer in need of a little tender loving care. Inside is a
construction crew composed of four ex-drug addicts who've been on the
job since 7:30 a.m. dispensing it.

They look fit, healthy, clear-eyed . . . and a great advertisement
for the value of physical work.

Drug addicts? Yes, there are two former coke addicts and a couple
once hooked on heroin, including boss Barry Joneson, founder of
Pacific Labour and Demolition. "I've never in 15 years employed
anybody who wasn't either addicted or homeless," he says matter-of-factly.

Indeed, Joneson is proud of the fact that, without government
subsidies, his Burnaby-based construction business has helped scores
of addicts get back on their feet -- including his own son-in-law,
Travis Lawson.

Lawson, a 35-year-old former cocaine addict, has been clean for eight
years. He looks like a movie star. But he tells me he would have
wound up on the streets if he hadn't kicked his habit. None of his
family members would have had him at their house.

"I started stealing to support my addiction, stealing stuff from
them," the father of two said, noting he went through a New
Westminster recovery program before joining Pacific Labour, where
he's been working ever since.

Joneson, though, notes that not every addict can hold down a job.
Most come from dysfunctional homes. Some have been reduced "to the
animal level" and aren't able to communicate properly with other
people. They need love, tough love . . . and mutual support.

"The one thing addicts don't have is life skills," Joneson said. "The
drugs are just the most obvious symptom of a lot bigger problem:
They've been raised with not learning how to deal with anything in life."

The heavily tattooed Joneson is now in great shape. At 56, he can
still bench-press 305 pounds six times in a row. But he was an addict
for 20 years and homeless for four, which did terrible things to his
self-esteem.

His drug use spiralled out of control after his four-year-old son,
David, died following minor surgery. "I blamed myself," he said.

Joneson's mom and dad were alcoholics. He was told every day he was
good for nothing, and he spent a total of three years in jail for
shoplifting and other property crimes. Now, he's a firm believer in
the power of work in turning people's lives around: "You start
getting this pride inside. You start feeling good about yourself."

Getting a job is one thing. Keeping it is much harder, at least for
addicts. For that, they need to stay way from drugs and other drug
users. And that's why Joneson says so-called harm-reduction programs,
like the methadone maintenance program promoted by Vancouver's health
establishment, don't seem to work. Other members of Joneson's
construction crew don't want to be working alongside drug users
either. Former heroin addict Kevin Eaton, 31, says he was introduced
to drugs when he was 15. And last year, he lived mostly on the
streets of Vancouver.

But Eaton has been clean for nine months, and has been working for
Joneson for the past seven. He's gained 45 pounds, and enjoys the
exertion of the work: "I feel good. It's a good 'tired.'"

It's the kind of "tired" I think we need more of in Vancouver. At
least that's if we're to help folks in the Downtown Eastside get off
the scourge of drugs -- and recapture a little tender loving care for
themselves and those around them.