***New Hope with Cocaine Addiction: A True Story

Nothing is more painful than to see a family member or loved one start the path of drug abuse, especially cocaine. The end result is death, either from a disease like hepatitis or from the wrong end of a gun. Today, there are more deaths from drug overdose than from automobile accidents – some from suicide, by taking too many pills; other fatalities are from cocaine. Many of us know the problem, but can we understand, utilize and implement the solutions? Only someone who has been on both sides of life and death with cocaine, addiction and disease really understands what it takes for prevention as well as complete recovery.

This is my story.

Many people say I am a dead man walking. In fact, I stopped going to my high school and college reunions years ago because too many of my old friends and classmates had that "deer in the headlights" look when they saw me walk in! I would hear things like: "I thought you were kidnapped in Guatemala", or "The last I heard you were on a sailboat that did not make it the Canaries." In short, my family and friends thought I would never stop using cocaine or survive from life-threatening hepatitis C.

However in 1991, when I was managing a laboratory in Dallas, TX, a family intervention took me to a hospital for my last treatment of cocaine addiction – and since then, I have been free of all mood-altering substances. At the time, I was dying from hepatitis A, B and C virus infestations and cirrhosis of the liver. The doctors had given me 8 months to live – if I was lucky – and they wondered why I was still alive at that moment. They said a liver transplant was my only hope for survival, but I opted out of the transplant and treatment protocol. The doctors further diagnosed me as "delirious."

Delirious and dying, I found my own way to recover from hepatitis, even though for over 20 years in the past my sobriety was never long-lived. Everyone thought I would relapse and start doing cocaine all over again. You see, this was not my first intervention. There were many others. My family had already given up many years ago – but my brother never did, and sent the SWAT team during this last intervention. Luck was already long used up in years passed and still everyone said I did not have a prayer staying off cocaine or surviving hepatitis. BUT, I am still clean and sober since 1991… and since 1994 I have no viral load of hepatitis A, B or C with no antibodies or markers! Today, I am a 58-year-old man in the peak of health, according to experts, "a liver of a 20-year-old."

My father was a Tulane graduate with a medical clinic that was very familiar to me growing up. As a kid, I loved going to the lab in the clinic and using the microscope where the lab tech Rex would enjoy showing me the tests he was doing, how everything worked and what disease looked like in blood and urine under the microscope and the centrifuge, My mother would drop me off at the lab from time-to-time when she could not watch me. To her, I was okay and it was better than a babysitter. For me, it was an adventure!

I continued analysis work as an adult, becoming the chairman of a laboratory for over 8 years, and was a professional thought-leader in the nutritional and whole food supplement industry for over 24 years. By accumulating an in-depth understanding of nutrition, addiction and healing for the human body, coupled with my natural recovery from hepatitis A, B and C and cocaine addiction, I emerged into a particular focus to develop good liver health with solutions and prevention.

My goal is to help the world achieve healthy livers and for everyone to be free of the hideous entrapment of cocaine addiction.

Many in the health fields and social programs today suggest working with youth to help them get the right mindset early and in place to avoid addiction and disease - prevention is the key! However, many don't consider that good liver health is the central component to the restoration of self-reliance in our youth to avoid disease and addiction. One thing they do agree on is that depression and low self-esteem are the precursors for a youth turning to drugs as an escape and way to cope. Peer pressure and the excitement syndrome follows, and soon the weaker willed are using mood altering substances regularly.

I know for a fact that good liver health will sustain the correct chemical balance in the blood stream to thwart depression and low self-assurance at an early age. The fast food generation of x, y and z are overweight and do not exercise enough and many are living their lives in a virtual world of computer games, movies and TV. If there was a way to make good liver health fun, the kids of today would have a good chance to be drug-free in our world.

I have such a plan that will engage our youth into making wise choices in diet and activities where good liver health will prevail sustaining the correct chemical balance in the blood stream to thwart depression and low self-assurance. The result will be strong-willed and determined youth achieving their goals and becoming self-reliant with a utility of purposeful living. This is my vision; that will formulate higher learning and skill sets because the kids just want it.

My recovery from cocaine and hepatitis worked! Why? Because I found a way to see life better without it. My path could be a method for prevention of drug abuse and disease in our society. From my perspective, there are options that can be easily implemented. With my professional background combined with the unique dual recoveries, I have a keen insight and a unique view of creating new and successful approaches to the prevention programs.

My real life story of drug addiction and hepatitis can be more compelling than the virtual world the kids choose to live in, especially if they have a chance to hear my story. My vision is to help any organization that helps our youth of today, become the leaders of tomorrow.