INSITE SAVED HIM UNTIL HE DETOXED

Travis Redpath Used the Supervised Injection Site Until He Realized
It Was Time to Get Clean

It's hard to miss the big black Xs inked into Travis Redpath's neck.

For the ex-heroin and crack addict, those tattoos advertise a
commitment to being free from substance abuse, a lifestyle he's proud
to have adopted after finishing addiction treatment three years ago.

"It was the first promise I made to myself that I've kept, and will
continue to keep," says Redpath, 23.

At 14 years old, Redpath was living every parent's dream for their
child. Overachieving, highly talented and intelligent, the blond,
blueeyed kid's life was accelerating on a trajectory toward success.
He grew up in Shaughnessy, one of Vancouver's most affluent
neighbourhoods, attended top schools including St. George's private
school and University Hill secondary, and was a nationally ranked
competitive swimmer.

"I was told since I was very young I would be an Olympic athlete or a
paleontologist," Redpath says.

But faced with increasing pressure to excel and social isolation
dealt by the fists of vicious bullies, Redpath says he slipped into a
depression he didn't know how to cope with.

His first attempts to self-medicate had him perpetually stoned.

"It took me outside of myself," he says. "It allowed me to
disassociate from what was in front of me, or not really care about
what was going on in my life."

Ultimately, it allowed him to escape the person he had come to
dislike most: himself.

After only a year of escalating marijuana abuse, combined with a
family history of addictions, Redpath's life began to spiral out of control.

From Shaughnessy to the Downtown Eastside

"From the beginning, there was no real moderation for me," Redpath
says. "All I was concerned about was the end result."

He was so obsessed with being high that by 15, he had quit swimming,
his grades were slipping and he was stealing cash from his parents to
pay for drugs.

Last week, agencies from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside along with the
B.C. government, doctors and nurses' associations argued in Canada's
highest court that health care should trump federal drug laws and
that Insite, the city's supervised drug-injection facility, should
remain open. If they lose, a facility with overwhelming research
showing it saves lives and helps addicts access drug treatment could
be shut down. Here is the story of one Vancouver man who believes
Insite saved him.

Although he says he mostly used marijuana and alcohol, a group of
older kids gradually introduced him to harder drugs including acid,
magic mushrooms and ecstasy.

Redpath says he was resourceful about hiding his drug use from his parents.

When calls came from the school about his increasing absenteeism,
Redpath would intercept them or make up believable excuses.

By 16, he had dropped out of high school and had started using
cocaine and heroin he regularly scored on Hastings Street.

"I wasn't naive about the implications," he says. "I thought I was
too smart to let it get out of hand."

But no matter how smart he was, the irrationality of addiction had taken hold.

His body was physically dependent on heroin and he would inject at
times just to avoid violent withdrawal symptoms.

Redpath says he was 17 when he realized he was an addict. Unable to
hide it any longer, he packed his car one night and left his family's
west-side home.

Years later, when Redpath reconnected with his family, he learned
that his dad used to drive the alleys late at night looking for his
teenage son.

"It's not like my parents didn't look for me or want to help me," he
says. "I was just gone."

He spent the next three years sleeping in shelters, parks and
"crack-shack" hotels in the Downtown Eastside. Other than a few
short-lived jobs and stints as a day labourer, he made his money by
stealing goods to pawn.

He says the addiction overruled any qualms he had about victimizing others.

"I take full ownership over every last scuzzy thing that I did," he
says. "I always wanted to get away from it."

But despite numerous attempts to get clean, Redpath always relapsed.

"I had a firm belief that . . . I was going to die a junkie."

Insite a saving grace

Redpath was already a heavy heroin user when he first walked in the
doors of Insite in 2005 when he was 17 years old.

He'd heard from other users that it was a place to get clean needles
and sterilized water to shoot up. Before he found Insite, Redpath
used pop cans he scrounged from recycle bins to cook his drugs, and
dirty water from puddles to inject with.

"When you're in that state, you're not thinking to take care of
yourself," he says.

He never overdosed at Insite, but he did have several neardeath
experiences at friends' apartments. He says he felt safer knowing
he'd be supervised by medically trained staff who could keep him from
a fatal overdose.

Over the next three years, Redpath used the supervised drug-injection
site as many as four or five times a day. He says Insite not only
kept him alive, it also kept him free of disease. Despite four years
of injecting heroin into his veins, he isn't infected with HIV/AIDS
or hepatitis, which are spread among injection-drug users who share needles.

Most of all, Redpath says the compassionate care he received at
Insite made him feel valued when he felt worthless.

"People looked down their noses at me; I was a f---ing crack addict,"
he says. "But at Insite, I never felt judged once."

Redpath says addiction treatment information was readily available,
but at first, he wasn't ready to hear it. He was 20 years old when he
finally got serious about giving up drugs.

At first, Redpath detoxed for a few days at a youth centre, but after
struggling with pain and incessant vomiting and diarrhea, he turned
to Innervisions Recovery Society in Coquitlam. After 54 gruelling
days, the 20-year-old walked out a free man.

"Not everyone who uses Insite will stay a heroin addict forever," he says.

"Look at me. I pay my taxes, I'm a productive member of society, I'm
a reformed criminal."

Redpath says he's sickened by the idea that Insite could be shut down.

"The only way you could really have an issue with Insite is if you
look at drug addiction as being a moral failing," he says.

"I took every single opportunity in the world and pissed them away,
and almost killed myself in the process.

"That's not a moral failing; there was something seriously wrong with me."

He says he's living proof that keeping addicts alive and disease-free
long enough that they have a chance to recover is a worthwhile service.

Redpath has a full-time job, a girlfriend, a nice place to live and
he spends much of his free time volunteering in the Downtown
Eastside, often helping people in the same facilities that helped him
just a few years ago.

"The best thing I can do to make it up to anyone I've harmed . . . is
just to continue to stay clean and help people whenever I can."