Pubdate: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2005 The Sudbury Star Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608 Author: Laura Stradiotto, staff writer A LIFE SPENT IN GRIP OF ADDICTION He started selling his dad's pot in Grade 6. By the time he was 15, Quin Grondin blew a hole through his nose from snorting so much cocaine and Ritalin. Snorting drugs damaged the septum between his nostrils, causing a hole in the middle of his nose. His nose was gushing blood but Grondin still had a bottle of coke left on him and didn't want it to go to waste. So when someone offered him a rig (needle), he changed his method of drug intake. Grondin's drugs of choice in the later stages of his addiction were morphine, heroin and "anything you could put in a needle." The only "skinny white kid with blue eyes" in a tough neighbourhood, Grondin grew up in London and Toronto and was "passed back and forth" between his mother and alcoholic father. "I grew up getting beaten," says Grondin, 23, in an interview at the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth, a drop-in centre for youth that offers limited counselling services. When he left southern Ontario, he travelled across Canada, ending up in Sudbury on numerous occasions because of a counsellor he met and confided in at the youth centre. Grondin has been in Sudbury for the past 15 months. He's hiding here during his rehabilitation, he says. But to get to this point, to have something awake within himself, three of Grondin's friends had to die of drug overdoses in Sudbury, he says. "When my buddy Rob died, it really hit me," he says. "We were so much alike." They shared a love for opiates. His friend's death from an overwhelming dosage of Fentanyl (morphine) patches moved Grondin to seek help. The next incident -- a near-death poke into his arm -- was the final push he needed to start treatment. The morphine he injected into his vein nearly exploded his heart. "I have a seven-year-old son -- I had him when I was 15 -- and I don't want him to come find me when he's 18 and hear that I died in a bathroom of a morphine overdose," he says. Today he's half-way through the methadone program. "I've been clean for a year, but not sober," he says. "Sober is a state of mind." Methadone is an opiate taken to prevent withdrawal syndrome. It's available at two clinics in Sudbury: The Ontario Addiction Treatment Centre on Notre Dame Avenue, and Methadone Sudbury, located on Larch Street. "I traded one set of drugs for another," he says, "but I still don't like the fact I'm on drugs. I want to get off methadone, go back to school and get a job." Today, Grondin has a criminal record -- weapons charges and break and enter offences -- from robbing university students back home in London. He hopes one day to get a pardon and become a social worker. Since he's "already screwed up" his teen years, he wants to deter others from going down the same road. That's one of the reasons he volunteered to work on a drug awareness video at the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth. "I've damaged myself so much they don't know what's wrong up here," Grondin says as he points to his head. "And there's something wrong with my liver. I have a heart problem, too." Besides heart and liver damage, the 23-year-old has developed epilepsy from years of drug abuse. Grondin says he's also dependent on methadone to prevent seizures, a condition he developed after eating "a bunch of Tylenol 3s". He went out that night, but blacked out and woke up in the back of an ambulance. Grondin acts as the narrator of the video What We've Learned. Featuring the testimonies of area youth who have struggled with addiction or witnessed the suicide and death of others from abuse, it's probably the most hard-hitting prevention material available for kids and teens. In the film, Jason Balicki, 23, posts the obituaries of three of his friends on the wall, all Sudbury youth who died from drug-related incidents in the last two years. "I've always been against drugs," says Balicki. "I've seen many lives destroyed by it." Between Balicki and Grondin within the last two years, six of their friends, area youth, have died because of drugs. For them, the effect of drugs within the community is real. "I don't know how many times I've walked down the streets here and have seen needles on the ground," says Balicki. Meanwhile, in the video, Grondin admits drug abuse has taken its toll. "I don't even feel comfortable in my skin," he says. The video will be screened at Rainbow Cinemas at 10 a.m., Sunday, Nov. 27. All area youth are invited -- there will be a door prize of a PSP (portable Sony Playstation). Admission is free. A fundraising luncheon will be held sometime in January where DVDs of the video will be sold. The video was made possible by a grant from the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. Film director Derek Newman, also a counsellor at the action centre, says the intent was to encourage youth to enter a video commercial contest about the risks of alcohol and drug abuse. Thirteen youth -- young men and women -- came forward to tell their personal stories in front of the camera. Instead of rewarding one youth for his or her story, Newman took it a step further and used the testimonies in a video, adding music by local musicians Matt Foy, Chris Newman, Faster Friday and Angie Nussey. The video was completed in the spring but sat untouched until September when Pete Sinclair, a friend of Derek Newman, volunteered his time to edit the work on his desktop computer. Marlene Gorman, the centre's executive director, decided the video needed to reach youth. "We work with these youth every day, but to hear their personal stories," she says pausing briefly, "every time I see it I get so emotional. It touches me. These youth have gone through so much but they are so resilient." Newman says parents should maintain an open dialogue with their children. Even if a teen tries drugs, he or she should feel comfortable speaking to parents about it. Parents should also watch for signs of drug abuse. "When you start shooting up, you look horrible," says Grondin. His arms were covered with track marks during his teen years and Grondin wonders how his mother could have missed the signs of needle use. Gorman says people may see a punk kid or addict when they look at some of the kids in the video, but they have "real life stories" and are trying desperately to get back on the right path. Grondin credits the youth centre for saving his life and encouraging him along the path to recovery. If you ask him, there aren't nearly enough resources for youth in Sudbury, or the North for that matter. There should be more government funding for drug prevention, hot meals for youth and drop-in centres. The youth centre, located on Elm Street, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday. Gorman says the only reason the centre is open past 4 p.m. is because it has partnered with the N'Swakamok Native Friendship Centre to share one-time government funding to pay a counsellor to stay the four extra hours. The funding will run out by March 2006. Gorman says there are discussions ongoing with officials at Pinegate Addictions Services to bring some of their resources to the centre. And FedNor has provided funding to create a marketing position -- which Newman has taken on while someone else counsels -- to develop a business which could employ the youth at the centre while funding the services they need. "There's never any stable funding," Gorman says. "We need to be open on the weekends and after 8 p.m. to reach more youth." The centre can afford only one full-time and two part-time youth counsellors. And when the centre sees up to 35 teens a day, it's impossible to establish relationships, gain trust and begin to counsel them all, says Newman. "The youth deserve more," he says. Monday: OxyContin misuse is a growing problem in Sudbury, having become the third most-popular drug of choice for addicts. The Star examines the prescription drug problem through those who work with addicts. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin