Rudy

Hi, my name is Rudy. I'm an alcoholic-addict, and Prop 36 saved my life. I started drinking when I was ten. By the time I was thirteen, I was an alcoholic. Drinking was all I did. I was skipping school and in a street gang. I went to three days of school a year, maybe. The rest of the time I was drinking, stealing and burglarizing--and ending up in juvenile hall. I was arrested almost once a week in those days, usually for fighting or stealing.

My friend introduced me to herion when I was twenty, right before he died of an overdose. But I liked the high so much that I kept on using anyway. I went through jobs, families, prisons--and I just kept using.

When I was in my fourties, I was totally out of control. I didn't care about nothing or no one--not even myself. Then I was offered Prop 36. I didn't know anything about it, but I took it. At first they wanted to send me to outpatient, but I told them I didn't have nothing, I was homeless and I'd rather stay in jail. I was used to that. But they sent me to Casa Raphael/Alpha Project in Vista instead. I got into the program, I stayed and I graduated. Now I sponsor other guys.

Instead of being in jail, on the street, or, worse, dead, I spent this Christmas sober and with family and my people on the reservation.

I have a younger brother, Mark, in prison for 25 to life. Two other cousins have the same sentence and a third cousin is heading in that direction. That could have been me. But instead of doing life, I'm living life--and loving it.

Ready more of Rudy's story here.