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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Purple’s the hue of a whole new life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It started out as fun, a way to extend the weekend partying.
Before long, though, Russell Cook was hooked on crystal meth. Smoked it every day. He failed a random drug test and lost his job as an EMT at Grady Hospital. He lost his apartment and sold whatever he owned to pay bills, and to keep using.
“I never used it when I was at work in the beginning, only on weekends,” he told me. “One day I was having fun with it. The next, I was in over my head and couldn’t get out.”
Cook is talking to me on his cellphone. He’s headed to have coffee with the guys at Purple Inc., a men’s residential substance abuse program. This red farmhouse off Lawrenceville Suwanee Road, which the Badie Tour visited, was Cook’s home for six months back in the spring of 2005.
We are inundated with tabloid news about Britney’s and Lindsay’s struggles with sobriety. They’ve got the money to dip in and out of rehab. Their stories make me wonder about everyday people with addictions.
Where can they go for somewhat affordable treatment?
In Gwinnett, Purple Inc., a for-profit recovery program, was founded in 2003 for that very purpose. Joel Bagley and his son, Brett, had experience with addiction. Credit Brett’s drug-craving teen years. The cost of his outpatient treatment inspired them years later to design a state-certified program - a less costly alternative.
As Brett, the program director, told me, “We treat the average Joes of Gwinnett County, from the EMT, to the judge, to the diesel mechanic, to the small business owner.”
In 2005, Cook’s parents decided it was time for a change. They sold Cook’s Nissan Xterra to help pay for the $2,000-a-month program. Cook’s father picked him up from the Walton County jail, where he faced drug-related charges and other violations.
“At this point, I had been doing meth for the past few years, large quantities of it,” Cook said. “I was completely insane.”
Initially, he was angry - at himself for his actions, that he liked getting high.
“I was not your star student,” the Shiloh High grad told me.
Cook can’t pinpoint a “moment of clarity” or any kind of epiphany that sparked his sobriety. He just remembers, months after being in the program, that he stopped thinking about getting high.
“There’s no way for me to tell you when the change happened,” Cook said. “I was working through the 12-step recovery program with a sponsor, and I just wanted to change. I wanted my insides to feel differently.”
Today he’s on a brighter path. He oversees the receiving department for a local Home Depot. He has a girlfriend and a 3-month-old daughter. He’s been sober for nearly three years.
Every week, he stops by Purple Inc. to talk to guys, help them along, keep them from lapsing. Not all will win the battle. Bagley, the program director, said many don’t.
“It’s simple to overcome an addiction,” Cook told me. “It’s just not easy.”
For more information about Purple Inc., visit www.purpletreatment.com or call 770-962-8215.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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