ADDICTIONS: GETTING IN AND GETTING OUT

Dan O'Neill is the counsellor at Kitimat's Northwest Addictions
Service office, located on the third floor of Century House.

As such, he knows better than anyone the extent of addiction problems
in our community.

And in blunt terms he shares that knowledge with Sentinel
readers.

Alcohol and marijuana are called 'gateway drugs' for a reason, says
Northwest Addictions Services counsellor Dan O'Neill.

That's because those who become addicted to them "more often than not"
move on to hard drugs.

And, according to his caseload, that means cocaine.

Describing cocaine as "rampant" in our community, O'Neill points out
this is an ideal place for a coke dealer to set up because of the
number of high paying jobs.

"That's why it is so prevalent in Kitimat."

That and the fact cocaine addicts infect others - "What you hang
around with, you learn," he explains.

O'Neill uses a car analogy to explain the difference between alcohol
and cocaine.

Alcohol, he says, is the Volkswagen, cocaine the Cadillac - once you
drive the Caddy, your interest in the VW falls off.

"And every time you get in the Volkswagen, you want to be in the
Cadillac."

Whichever you drive, the result is the same: "it brings out the lowest
levels of human behaviour".

People will sell things, young women prostitute themselves and young
people commit crimes to get their drug of choice.

After 14 years as a counsellor here, O'Neill has seen the pattern:
high school aged kids starting out drinking and smoking pot,
graduating to cocaine and ultimately ending up on the streets of Vancouver.

Saying chemical dependency is ego-driven, he explains ego is nothing
more than the mental picture a person has of him or herself.

It all revolves around the individual's quest for "inner freedom" -
which he describes as a sense of fulfillment or peace.

"Happiness is an inside job," O'Neill stresses. "It has to come from
within you, you don't get it from the external."

Yet for some people ego tells them to do just that, to find that inner
freedom on the outside.

Some people try to consume their way to that freedom believing more is
better.

Others turn to sex.

Still others to gambling.

It's what O'Neill calls "counterfeit freedom".

When all those attempts fail to deliver the sought after inner peace,
they take the chemical path, be it alcohol or drugs.

O'Neill explains the drug, whatever it might be, "creates a paradise
for a short period of time", the illusion of having achieved "freedom".

The sad irony is that in the pursuit of that freedom the users end up
in slavery.

Of course, there are those who will say they won't get addicted, that
they can handle it.

"That's ego talking," O'Neill says.

And it's that same ego that, having got them in, keeps a lot of people
from beginning the process of getting out by walking through his door
- - especially males.

(Next week, Getting Out)