MAN LOSES EVERYTHING TO GAIN MORE

PRYOR, Okla. -- Mark Young's problem was his weight.

When he graduated high school in 1992, he weighed 275 pounds.

"Whenever you're significantly overweight, you do just about anything
to make your life different," said Young.

While in college at Northeastern State University, he tried methamphetamine.

He began to lose weight, and then he began to abuse the drug.

"The abuse led to me losing everything in my life," he said.

Eventually, Young was manufacturing methamphetamine to support a
habit that would control him for eight years.

Although Young used regularly, he referred to himself as a
"functional addict" - holding a job and making money.

But the addiction progressed and he had to use more and more to get
the same feeling. And he began gaining weight again.

During the latter years of his addiction, Young met his wife, who
also used methamphetamine. The couple used drugs together until they
got in trouble with the law for manufacturing.

Since drug court will not accept manufacturing charges, his attorney
worked with the district attorney's office to reduce the charges to
something drug court would accept. Young spent six months in the
county jail waiting to be accepted in the program.

"I was lucky because my charges were severe enough that I could have
went to prison for a long time," he said. "By the grace of God, they
lowered it where I could get into the program."

After he got out of jail, Young went to work for a tire shop in Adair
where Ernie Berg gave him a job. Young was very grateful for Berg
giving him an opportunity.

He told himself if he got accepted into drug court, he was going to
give himself his own sentence, seven years of significant schooling.
He applied for drug court, along with his wife, and they both were accepted.

Young and his wife have not used drugs again.

"Aug. 22, 2002, is a day that will set in my mind for the rest of my
life," he said.

That is Young's sobriety date.

"It is the end of one time period and the beginning of a whole new
time period that I didn't even understand," he said.

Young had never been in trouble before and being faced with a long
sentence in prison made an impact.

"Where I was in my life was a crazy place," he said. "I immediately
knew I had to change."

He wishes he would have been in trouble before and maybe he could
have avoided the 10 years of using drugs.

"I didn't want to grow up to be a drug addict," he said. "I would
really think, 'How did this happen? How did I get hereUKP'"

Young and his wife sailed through the drug court program without any
hang-ups. He said the reason is because he had a wonderful support
system, especially his mother and the judge. Young said the judge
worked hard to give him an opportunity.

"I never will understand why, except maybe he knew that people can
change," he said.

"The number one key to people being successful is that they have a
support system," he said. "If you're an addict and you don't have
one, my suggestion is you better go find one ... because you don't do
it by yourself."

Young married his wife the day after they both graduated drug court.
The same judge who presided over drug court performed the wedding ceremony.

Both he and his wife immediately went to college. His wife works in a
hospital and Young got his degree in accounting. He works in
accounting in Tulsa.

"I was going to do something significant with my life," he said.
"When I got the opportunity and I graduated drug court, that's what I did."

Since then, Young and his wife have a home, two vehicles and
successful jobs. In March 2005, the couple had a baby girl.

"This is our success story ... that little girl," he said.

Young recently completed his first four classes required for a
master's degree in accounting and vinance. He is going to take a year
off and take his Certified Public Accountant test.

"That says so much about what drug court can do for somebody," he said.

"I would hope I could talk about that and explain that to people
without judgment," he said. "But, unfortunately, that's not the way
the world is."

Young wants to tell his story and to give back somehow.

"The only way I know how is to let people know that it works," he said.

However, Young is worried about being accepted and was afraid his
past with drugs might hurt his effort to obtain his CPA
certification. For this reason, he chose to withhold his real name in
this story.

"It's hard when you're trying to break through in the world," he
said. "You don't want people to think bad of you for failing at one
point in your life."

But Young admits he had to fail.

"I figured out for myself that I had to learn from failure to do
anything that I've done today," said Young. "That's why I'm sitting
here is because drug court gave me that opportunity to lose
everything and gain it all back. Anybody can do that."

Young recognizes that he is an addict. Being an addict, Young became
addicted to new, healthier things, like running.

This time Young lost his weight in a safe, healthy way.

"It's healthy to get addicted to the right things," he said.