AN INSPIRING ROAD TO DRUG ABUSE RECOVERY

When he was working at a North Vancouver hair salon more than a decade ago,
John Langer wore long-sleeve sweaters in the summer to hide the track marks
that dotted his rail-thin arms. At the time, he was living in a rooming
hotel on East Hastings and taking the SeaBus to work. He was shooting
heroin and doing coke.

His drug use was a cyclical pendulum that had started back in his early
teens. At 14, he was doing pot, LSD, opium and pills. In and out of the
court system in Ontario, he soon found his way to the streets. By 17 he was
living in B.C. and developing a serious coke habit that forced him to do
petty crimes to feed his expensive addiction.

His cycle was always the same: find a job, get a girlfriend and an
apartment and then go to jail. All the trouble he's ever had in his life
started with me getting loaded," he admitted.

At 18, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Thinking he was on his
deathbed, he went on a bender with his just arrived credit card. Later,
however, doctors told him that he would live with treatment. He was alive
but he'd racked up some serious debts. So, along with the chemo, he was
using coke and heroin. In 1987, he was sent to Oakalla Prison.

He didn't however, kick his habit while in jail. In fact, Langer, now 40,
said some of the best drugs are scored inside prison because it was too
dangerous to rip somebody off inside.

He later learned a trade, hair styling, and began to work. But soon, the
cycle began again. With his long-sleeve sweaters and collared shirts nobody
knew he was injecting heroin. I'm trying to tell the outside world that I
don't have a problem. Basically the epitome of denial," he explained.

He met his future wife in 1994 but the cycle of drugs and booze continued.
It's a never-ending self-destruction cycle," he added, noting that his wife
stayed by his side despite his addiction.

In 1997 he crashed and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. But he doesn't
use that as a crutch for his drug abuse. I hold myself responsible. I take
100 per cent responsibility," he said.

As he'd done so many times before he got clean for a short period and lived
a normal, productive life. But then he started popping pills.

To better explain how an addict's mind works he talks about switching drugs
to give his body a break in the same manner a farmer rotates crops. Except
in this case, addicts might start smoking drugs to give the veins in their
arms a rest.

Unlike many addict's stories, Langer's has a positive ending.

On February 14, 2001, Langer, who stopped drinking in 1997, told his wife
he was giving up drugs, completely.

He visited an addiction doctor and did a home detox for six days. He later
entered a 12-step recovery program. He's been clean ever since. He is
happily married and has reconciled with his own family. He's excited about
life.

Shortly after kicking his addiction, Langer began volunteering at the Union
Gospel in Vancouver and later the Salvation Army in the Downtown Eastside.

Then, a couple of years ago while he was driving with his wife in North
Vancouver, she pointed out the North Shore Salvation Army on Lonsdale.

After volunteering for a short time there, Langer, who had earned his Level
3 industrial first aid certificate and was working on a construction site
in Surrey, was offered a contract job with the Army. I jumped at it," he said.

Then he was offered a permanent job as a crisis in-take worker. People can
identify with him," said Karen Haineault, a community support worker for
North Shore Salvation Army .

Langer also understands that kids on meth and other addicts need to have
access to detox and rehab on the North Shore. They can't wait for a bed in
the Fraser Valley or Downtown Eastside for a bed to come open when they
make the decision to detox. There's nothing on the North Shore," he said.

As a band-aid solution, Haineault, community ministries director Peter
Defehr and Langer will sometimes give up their weekends to spend helping a
teen detox, even if that means driving them around and watching over them
for several days straight.

If they can help just one of the teens turn around their life in the same
manner Langer has, he says it's entirely worth it.