MOVING OUT OF THE 'WAR ZONE' CRUCIAL TO HIS RECOVERY

After a two-decade drinking career, Lance Furby knew he was
approaching the bottom when he started drinking Listerine.

The 42-year-old Prince George native -- who got caught up in the
pub-and-party lifestyle of neon-lit Hastings Street as a young man in
the 1980s -- could no longer afford beer, rum or Southern Comfort, his
favourite "candy."

He was jobless, homeless and had a costly cocaine habit to
boot.

"When I started considering mouthwash as a cocktail, that's when I
started to think this was wrong. That's when I really started thinking
this is not the direction I want to continue in," said Furby.

Even as he drank himself into a stupor and injected coke into veins
that got so thin he had to switch to crack, he had "fleeting moments
of clarity" when he knew he was better than his demons.

The subtle thing about addiction, said the soft-spoken Metis man, is
that it lies.

"It wants us alone and by ourselves so it can start whispering the
subtle lies, saying, 'It's all right if you do this.'"

"It was menial. It was bleak," said Furby, recalling his old life. "It
reduced my character. I just felt there was more to my life than what
I was doing."

But it took more than just swilling mouthwash mixed with pop to make
Furby hit rock bottom. Three years of homelessness and watching
friends die of exposure finally made harsh reality seep into his
drug-dazed brain.

After numerous attempts to get clean and yet another three-month list,
Furby checked himself in at the Phoenix Centre in Surrey.

For the next 22 months, he learned how to unravel the ingrained
routines of a 20-year addiction.

Along the way, he also found something he never had before: a goal.

Today, Furby is attending courses at Kwantlen, in the hopes of
pursuing a social work degree. He is also on the B.C. Housing waitlist
for a place in Surrey.

He has made his peace with his past and is cautiously optimistic about
the future.

"There are some challenges," admitted Furby. "But I'm not afraid.

"I'm just grateful for the good problems I have now."

What's Needed?

Moving out of the "war zone" of the Downtown Eastside was crucial to
Lance Furby's road to recovery. "If you want to get clean, you have to
change your playpen and your play pals," he said.

Three things Furby said would help addicts in the Downtown Eastside:

- - More detox beds. Furby said it was frustrating and disheartening to
call Access1 for help, only to be told there was no room.

- - Housing after treatment, so recovered addicts don't go back on the
street again, and preferably away from the Downtown Eastside.

- - Programs that help addicts develop and pursue academic and career
goals, "so they can move forward and have something achievable to aim
for."