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[train rumbling]
[subway announcer] Doors are opening.
[Roz] People are ODing anywhere.
In between cars, in abandoned houses and lots.
On the sidewalk, on people's step.
In apartments.
Anywhere they use.
Hey, sunshine.
Or they drop 'em off, in their car,
like, roll people out of their car.
I've had some kids come
and get us when their parent is overdosing.
I didn't know how to administer Narcan,
I didn't carry Narcan,
so I wanted to learn more stuff.
Then I learned how to reverse an overdose
and I'm into my 169th reversal.
He's all right.
Right?
Yeah. He's okay.
[Jerome] America's overdose and addiction crisis
is one of our most daunting
and complex public health challenges ever.
This epidemic is blind to color,
geography and class,
as addiction can happen to anyone.
Stigma and judgment are keeping people
with the disease of addiction
from getting the help they need,
and this, in my opinion,
is killing more people than overdoses.
This opioid crisis
is not a problem so much as it is a symptom.
It's a symptom of our failure to recognize
untreated behavioral health issues.
It's a symptom of our failure to build
resilience into communities.
It's a failure of our recognition to see
that there is massive, untreated
and undertreated pain in our country,
both emotional, mental and physical.
And so we really need to lean in to truly better
prevention, treatment, and recovery services
that include all of those things.
Otherwise, we're just going to keep playing Whac-A-Mole
over and over again.
-[tense music plays] -[clock ticks]
Tell us about this problem,
because you say it's a pandemic.
How did we get to these pandemic proportions?
Well, I think it definitely is a pandemic
in the United States today.
And we got there, essentially,
in the late 1990s
there was a paradigm shift for treating chronic pain.
[Baymax] On a scale of one to ten,
how would you rate your pain?
You know, give me, on the scale of one to ten
with these emojis,
how you feel right now.
[Nzinga] Untreated pain undermines your ability
to manage anything else.
And so it became,
by all means necessary,
you get physical pain down to zero.
[Ryan] Pain was added as the fifth vital sign,
under intense lobbying pressure from pharmaceutical companies.
And it was this perfect storm of circumstances.
[Chris] This was on the wall of every
emergency department room I worked in,
you know, zero to ten, what's your pain level at?
Nurses were compelled to recheck on the patients,
"Oh, what's your pain level? We've got to get that down. "
What folks don't realize is,
uh, back 20, 25 years ago, when I was in medical school
and they told me pain was the fifth vital sign,
it came from a good place.
We did, and still do have an epidemic of untreated
and undertreated pain in this country.
We, threw opioids at the problem, foolishly.
Now we're pulling them back.
We need to take care of the person and the patient
because it has implications beyond that individual
and on society.
[Rich] It's like the country had to hit bottom,
where 70,000 folks died of an overdose
'til anybody even said,
"Hey, wait a minute, maybe we're doing something wrong. "
[Nzinga] They only were saying
physical pain is the fifth vital sign.
Completely underappreciating
that emotional pain
actually has more impact on functioning
than does physical pain.
[Ryan] Emotional pain is the biggest pain that we have.
I think everybody's suffering from a level of emotional pain.
We haven't done a very good job
at looking at the underlying causes
of that pain and that trauma and that suffering.
[Brendan] People who have depression, anxiety,
substance use. . they're not siloed.
To me, they're all about, "How do people deal with pain?"
"How are people trying to get away from their pain?"
It's not just opioids.
[Nzinga] The story is being told as
the physical pain crisis
led to the opioid crisis.
When the real story is that
the emotional pain crisis. .
has always been leading to a drug crisis.
It's just been a different drug.
And so if we really want to get to the root,
we have to get to the root of all the pain,
not just the physical pain.
♪
[traffic din]
[Roz] I carry the syringe box, um,
where I will collect syringes.
I have this Narcan. .
and I have, um, a pulse ox,
and I also carry a face shield.
I carry shoes. .
in case I might need shoes.
I have Narcan.
More Narcan.
And I carry syringes.
I carry lots of works. .
so that people can use safely.
[train rumbles past]
[Roz] People in Kensington has never gotten. .
the proper treatment, the proper resources, ever.
We've been treated as the bottom of the barrel
for so long.
Especially those suffering from addiction,
lack of resources, lack of services.
And you have more and more kids on the street.
Kids that are really not from here.
But then yet they become our neighbors,
and now we have to take care of them.
Which is what we do now.
I think to be a responder, right,
you have to have some kind of skill,
either social work skills
or a hell of a lot of experience
when dealing with folks, because. .
if you don't, then you get lost just like everybody else.
'Cause I'm an attempted homicide survivor.
-I lived through that shit. -[sirens wailing]
So, Operation Save Our City is a movement
that I started in 2012.
I probably should have started back in '94
after the homicide
of my boyfriend, Tyrell Jackson,
and the attempted homicide of myself.
My other trauma, losing my twin sister to suicide.
So then you learn how to deal with that trauma.
And then you deal with
the trauma of my brother's murder.
So I've been, kind of, trying to bring awareness
to trauma and how to deal with it in healthy ways.
And initially started working
with families of homicide victims,
And it's evolved into working with those
in active addiction.
The way that I started to expand,
what I was doing was because I felt like. .
working with, essentially, death all the time
was too hard on my heart for a little while.
I'm like, "I need to do something
a little bit different, but still serving. "
So I started to feed people.
I had, like, a lot of snacks all the time.
People would donate clothes, and socks, and toiletries.
So I found that that was. .
that was good for me for the moment.
Hey, sunshine.
Any syringes over here?
No? Okay.
And then it evolved.
People were overdosing and. .
and I didn't know what to do with that.
It looks like somebody is dying,
like, they're gray, they're blue. .
unresponsive.
Just not with us anymore,
until you realize there's this medicine,
this Narcan that essentially brings them back
from the dead, and. .
then they're alive.
He's sleeping.
Looks so young.
Looks like he's in his twenties.
Mmm.
♪
[dispatcher speaking indistinctly over radio]
[siren wailing]
Yeah, that one might be overdosing.
[siren wailing]
[siren stops]
-[Josh] You good? -[man] [indistinct]
[man] [indistinct] fell asleep.
-[man] Hey. -[Josh] Hey, big guy.
[man] Bro. Bro?
[man] Bro?
I don't think he's on, uh. .
[Josh] No, he's not. He's not.
[man speaking indistinctly]
[Josh] Let me get an ambulance for him.
[man] Okay. Thank you.
[Josh] Victor-David-53.
[dispatcher] David-53.
[Josh] Can I get an ambulance for a man down here at, uh,
Southampton and Bradson Street?
It's not an overdose.
[dispatcher] Got it.
[Josh] Sir? Sir?
I'm gonna have an ambulance
just to make sure you're good,
-your vitals are all right. -[man] Nah, I'm good.
-[Josh] You sure? -[man] Yeah
-[car door slamming shut] -[Josh murmuring]
Yeah, you get a lot of overdoses in this area, so I. .
I thought it was an overdose, but he, uh. .
when I first took a glimpse at it.
♪
[Jessie] We're basically like ground zero here,
at least for Boston and Massachusetts.
Just geographically, the most overdoses happen
right here in this neighborhood within 500 meters
of where we're sitting right now.
This is the area that they call Methadone Mile,
if you're negative.
If you're positive, you call it a Recovery Mile.
[Brendan] We get a lot of flak for this neighborhood.
You know, it's deemed Methadone Mile,
but it paints a negative caricature
of a neighborhood that's shown up for people for decades.
There's so many people who find their hope in recovery here.
[Marty] I think it's unfair and unfortunate that
the press woke up one day and realized,
"Oh, we have an epidemic and let's. . let's cover Melnea
and Mass Ave and let's. . let's just constantly
just pound it into the ground. "
Because the issue of addiction was long before
Melnea and Mass Ave.
[woman] If it's so infamous,
why is it so hard to get a handle on it?
[woman 2] Well, it's kind of complicated
because the police do not arrest substance abusers.
If they commit other crimes,
they will come in and arrest them.
But that area has people who are recovering
from drug addiction because there's many shelters there.
They have homeless people, but if they don't want help,
you can't force them into it.
[Josh] When you're out here and you're engaging
some of these folks,
you'll see there's a lot of talent.
A lot of skills.
Master carpenters, people that used to work construction,
people that had their own companies,
ex-law enforcement officers out there.
I think I've seen it all.
It looks bad when you see folks
shooting up in their necks, shooting up in their legs.
So folks that don't understand addiction,
they'll drive by
and just point at them,
talk a bunch of trash,
call them every name in the book
instead of taking the time out to hear this person's story.
And everybody has a story.
[Marty] Melnea and Mass Ave
is kind of the poster issue for addiction,
but that's not the only place
where people who are sick and suffering are using.
They're using in living rooms and kitchens
and all over the place.
I mean, we're losing people.
♪
[Marty] This issue certainly means a lot to me.
Um, I have a lot of,
as we all do, have people we know
that are affected by drugs and alcohol.
As a state representative, I worked hard on the issue,
in recovery myself. . 24 years.
When I was running for rep the first time,
I didn't talk about being in recovery,
I was just kind of doing my thing,
and people came up to me
during the campaign and said, you know, "It's too bad
what's out there in the street about you. "
And I said, "What are you talking about?"
"Well, your drunk driving? You know?"
"You know, I know it's tough. "
And I'm like, "I didn't get arrested for drunk driving. "
And so I found that my worlds immediately clashed.
We're the only campaign
that has people in every single neighborhood
in the city of Boston.
[applauding, whistling]
When I first got elected, my first real budget was '98,
and in that budget I was fighting
for addiction recovery money.
So once I started to get more active in that area,
I started to talk more about my story.
I think it's okay for people to know I'm in recovery,
because it's not a secret.
In 2013, I had the opportunity
to fulfill another dream of mine.
I had the chance. . the mayor of Boston,
who had been there for 20 years
made the decision not to run for re-election.
When I was running for mayor,
there was a reporter for The Globe,
and, uh, she was going to do a story on my recovery.
It was, kind of, the first time
that I was actually going outside my comfort zone.
People knew I was in recovery
when I was a state representative
and I talked about, you know,
fighting for programs and I talked about it. .
but this is, like, now I'm running for mayor
and it's a whole different stage.
[James] There was a rally, the day before the election,
and most of these people were in recovery.
[Marty] A lot of people that were in my campaign
were in recovery, I'd known them for a long time.
Some I knew before we both got into recovery,
and some that I met.
I think there was a sense of pride there.
I had the recovery community behind me that. .
that were really. . literally working
because they understood that one of their own
was running for mayor of Boston.
[woman] I think that him being in recovery
will broaden the horizon
of people who he understands.
In order for you to understand
where I'm at and where I've been,
you have to have gone through what I've gone through.
I am so grateful and honored for tonight's results.
For this kid from Taft Street in Dorchester.
[cheering]
You've made Boston a place of comebacks
and second chances.
[whooping]
And my life story is made possible by this city.
My friends in the recovery community
who know the importance of second chances
just like I do: thank you.
[cheering and applause]
[Marty] I have no problem with people knowing
I'm an alcoholic and I'm in recovery.
People worried about the stigma of it, but I don't care.
People don't think. . if people want to think
differently of me, I don't. . that's fine.
I mean, all I know is that. . that my life is unbelievable
because I was able to get into recovery.
[Brendan] When I was starting out my professional career,
I felt like my past, my substance use history
was a stain on my character.
I felt like I had to hide it
or be ashamed of it in some way.
And now I can use it as an asset,
because I have leadership at the top who can own that
and be up front about.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.
♪
[Marty] Good evening. Thank you, Massachusetts.
[crowd chanting] Marty, Marty!
Thank you.
Good evening, delegates.
My name is Marty Walsh, and I'm an alcoholic.
On April 23rd, 1995. I hit rock bottom.
I woke up with little memory of the night before,
and even less hope for the days to come.
18 years later, I became the mayor of Boston,
the city of big dreams and a big heart.
[cheering]
When I got to the podium that day, I said,
"Hi, my name is Marty Walsh and I'm an alcoholic
and I'm the mayor of Boston. "
And people laughed.
A. . a. . and then they kind of stopped and looked
and they were like, "Oh, man, he's telling the truth. "
and they didn't know what to do.
[laughing]
Um, and, you know, I just felt it was important
for us at that point to talk about it.
Um, I'm going to continue to talk about it.
I'm going to continue to talk about my recovery.
I'm going to continue to work on these issues of recovery.
♪
[Darren] The world is like a place where you see
so many people that are like each other
and trying to copy other people and do all these things.
But it's like no one's willing
to stand alone because it's. .
it's scary.
♪
We're so conditioned to fit in
and the definition that people have for men,
and how we should be carrying ourselves,
is just, like, so ingrained into our society.
We always go for the comfortable things
instead of just, like, throwing ourselves out there,
being willing to be like, "All right,
I'm just going to change the way everyone thinks. "
[humming in meditation]
In this world, everybody's just moving,
but I feel like I'm at an advantage
when I start my day, sitting still and realizing
that I don't have to be caught up in the waves
and the pace of the world.
Like, I could just set my own pace.
It was. .
yeah, it was. . it was rough for me growing up.
I felt like everything that I did,
everything that everyone saw had to be. .
this, like, masculine image.
Anything that someone could point at and be, like,
"Oh, you do this?" Like, it had to be eliminated.
I mean, I was, like, extremely sensitive.
Anything anybody said was just like, "oh, man. "
I mean, when I was playing football and stuff,
we were always super physical at practices,
and they would have us just, like,
trying to kill each other, and so it was, like,
physical stuff I could deal with,
like words and things like that,
like, what people thought about me was just, like,
lethal blows every time.
And then someone puts. .
a pill in front of your face, it's, like. .
you'll say no to something when you have
something to say yes to,
and just, like, at that point, I don't got much going on.
If someone tells me that this will make me feel better,
I'm trying to feel better, so. .
it started like that.
Once I started really, like, using and stuff like that,
it was, like, my life got better.
I got bigger, and magically had a spot on the varsity team,
and then that, of course, comes with, you know,
people want to be around people
that are on the varsity football team, and starting.
Had a pretty good season
my junior year in high school.
And I got started
getting recruited after that.
I went to Georgia Tech.
I played all four years.
My sophomore year,
I got popped for weed possession
and I had to take a drug test.
They had, like, a mouth swab thing that they could detect,
like, if you used, like, 24 or 48 hours or something.
And, of course, I did the night before,
and so they popped me for that
and that was, like, two strikes out of three.
Somehow I never got popped again,
and we played through my whole senior year.
[announcer] With the 28th pick in the sixth round,
number 204,
the Baltimore Ravens select Darren Waller,
wide receiver from Georgia Tech.
♪
[Darren] They put me right in the drug program
coming out of college.
Saw my college history.
Literally made a plan and just, like,
sabotaged myself out of the league,
just, like, failed every test
up until they just suspended me from everything.
[reporter] And the first news story of the day talks about
the Ravens tight end Darren Waller
and his suspension from the NFL
for the 2017 season.
[Darren] Almost two months
after the end of the suspension,
I was still, like, using and getting high,
and I got started on, like, cocaine by then.
They had a dude that was on the grounds
of the practice facility, and he was selling pills.
If he didn't have 'em, like,
I would just go to the hood and pick 'em up.
August 11th, 2017 was, like, the last day
that I used, 'cause, uh,
and I just, like, overdosed in my car
in, like, a grocery store parking lot.
I was, like, a quarter mile away from the practice facility
and the apartment that I was living in at the time.
But that was when things clicked, I was like,
"All right, something gotta change or I'm dying. "
And I told my parents,
and they kind of shared my family history,
and there's just, like, a lot of bad stuff
in both sides of my family.
Dang, like, my family been doing this,
and it's just, like, nobody's changed it.
And then the league offered me a chance to go
to an amazing place.
My whole, like, perspective in my mind just. .
was changed after that.
♪
God had me playing football for a reason,
I just felt a higher power telling me that
I was going to be back playing,
but it would be, like, for a bigger reason
than just impressing people.
It would be, you know, 'cause I enjoy it,
and then there's, like, a platform to. .
you know, impact other people.
[car door clicking open]
[car door clicking shut]
Once more to the breach.
I'm going to practice the poem I'm doing tonight.
If I can do the poem while driving,
there won't be anything
to throw my focus when I'm on stage.
[exhales]
"The last time I saw you alive,
I wish I would have talked ugly to you.
Said, put the straw down,
no, I don't want to take another line,
I should be writing them,
my friend,
you are a composer of music and magic. .
call your limbs to serve
a purpose greater than self-indulgence,
do not be fooled into thinking
your pain has sharper teeth than anyone else's. . "
[indistinct talking]
[applause]
[MC] There might be a reason why I read those poems.
But mostly I just admire a person that's in this room.
Because they're amazing, because they're brave.
I am so proud of them.
So, your spotlight for this evening
is Joseph Green,
[applauding, cheering]
-[Joseph] Hello. -[audience] Hello.
My name is Joseph Green and poetry saved my life.
I also try to use poetry to help save lives.
♪
Most of my poems are about relationships
and things of that sort.
Mainly because I felt like I wasn't an expert enough
on anything to really talk about the world.
And then, I kind of caught fire.
I went on a tour, put out an album,
and I found myself at this place where I found
this art that mattered to me,
but it still doesn't feel like I'm doing
what I'm supposed to be doing with it.
Good morning, everybody.
[Joseph] I'm good, how are you? Good.
Morning.
Good morning. Joseph, man, what's your name?
-[indistinct] -Nice to meet you. Joseph.
Nice to meet you.
I have a poem that I wrote,
called "Talk Ugly. "
And I did it on stage at a competition
and someone who worked at a foster care
after school program came up to me and said,
"Hey, would you come and talk to my young people
at the foster care?"
And this was the first time anyone had asked me
to do anything based around my story.
People asked me to come out and, like, do poetry,
but not, like, will you come and share your story
with these young people who are also going through
all of these things
in the hopes that it might be inspirational.
Never thought of anything in my life as inspirational.
Good morning.
I didn't mean. . I knew it was going to happen.
I knew I was the last person you were expecting.
-It's okay. I'm Joseph. -I'm Chelsea.
-I'm [indistinct] -Nice to meet you. Joseph.
That was when I realized. .
that what I needed to do
was use this art. .
to work with youth.
-Joseph. What's your name? -Kia.
Nice to meet you, Kia. Joseph.
Why I do what I do, why I'm not doing. .
harm reduction work, or why I don't work directly
in a recovery space or clinic.
I'm a storyteller.
I'm also someone who helps other people tell stories
because more important than knowing
what we are fighting against is knowing,
and never forgetting, what we are fighting for.
It's nice to meet you.
Everything that I've done in my life
up until this moment
was meant for me to be here right now,
having this conversation with you.
Something that I've been through,
something that I've survived,
something that I've lived through
is meant to touch the heart of somebody
in this audience.
We have a responsibility to ourselves
and to the world that we want to live in
to use our voice,
use our story to make the change
in the world that we want to see.
This poem is called "Talk Ugly. "
"The last time I saw you alive,
the last time I saw you alive,
the last time I saw you alive
I wish I would have talked ugly to you.
Said put the straw down,
no, I don't want to take another line,
I should be writing them, my friend,
you are a composer of music and magic,
instruct your limbs to serve a purpose
greater than self-indulgence.
Do not be fooled into thinking
your pain has sharper teeth than anyone else's.
I had a chance, but said nothing
because I was high. "
This is how I got started, a bottle of jack and a mirror,
memories and scissors,
dreams drenched in ether, sliced by razors
potential rolled like $20 bills,
numbing the feeling on the tip of my tongue
that I, or this tongue,
should be serving a greater purpose.
In a last ditch attempt of self-assessment,
I decide to look at my life
through the eyes of loved ones where they see everything,
especially the ugly, from years of drug use,
from lying to, to lying with, angels, friends I had forsaken
taking so much more than I had given.
I had streamlined self-centeredness
into a science.
But there was a righteousness there.
A willingness to craft this illness
through alchemy and poetry into a seer stone,
but honestly,
how could I speak ugly to you,
when I was yet to speak it to myself?
"In these nightmares of hindsight,
there is no poetry, no alliteration
to soften the blow, some realities have no simile,
truth is like truth.
How could I form my lips to call your suicide a tragedy
when I left you alone in that room?
Kept company by narcotics and a thousand ghosts
draped in your disappointments,
I can only imagine all the voices you heard,
all but mine.
Smear make up all to disgust if you must, trust,
the truth is seldom pretty, but she is always beautiful.
It's in times like these that I need you to please
talk ugly to me, my pain needs it.
Too many times we caress sadness
when it needs to be shaken, torn from its place of comfort,
forced to grow wings to survive.
Don't just tell me I can grow up and be whatever I want.
Tell me that whatever I want
better be something I am willing to achieve.
That dreams will dissipate under the weight of addiction
and that there is a distinct difference
between living like a rock star
and actually being one, sometimes,
no matter how many poems you've written,
you are just an addict and a poser.
Fear not.
We are all
divinely flawed individuals.
Perfectly ugly.
There's no point hiding behind pretty lies,
we are the sum of the scars that hold together
the remainder of our pretty pieces.
the last time I saw you alive,
the last time I saw you alive, I wish. .
I would've talked ugly to you.
It would have been the most beautiful thing. .
I never said. "
Emerald Academy, thank you so much.
[applauding, cheering]
♪
[Lauren] Substance use disorder, at its core,
it's a disease of loneliness, brokenness.
It's a shame-based disease.
People use in secret.
It is an outward manifestation
of internal struggle
and internal brokenness.
We all experience pain,
but we don't talk about it outwardly.
If you ask any of my hundreds of friends in recovery,
why did you use drugs and alcohol,
they'll tell you one answer,
which is "To feel different. "
-[Lauren] Good morning. -[audience] Good morning.
So many of you know my journey and how I ended up here,
I actually
never knew a day on this earth
that was not touched by substance use disorder.
But it wasn't until several decades later
that I actually ever discovered recovery.
I met Ricky when I was a senior in high school.
He had actually dropped out of high school
and was working at this headstart preschool.
We just became incredibly close friends.
And then a few years later, Ricky came out.
[Ricky] The reason I came out was because
I started to feel that same anxiety and depression
that I felt when I was around 13 or so.
[speaking in Spanish]
[Ricky] It was because I was just holding so much in.
I remember my first experience
with any type of a substance was when I was 11.
I started drinking then
and I started to experiment
with other things like marijuana and cocaine.
It did its work for a while, you know?
After college, I moved to. . to Ghana, West Africa,
and I lived there for,
altogether, two and a half years.
During those couple of years,
I think things went downhill fairly quickly for him.
And then I came back and. .
late stage alcohol use disorder at that point,
he had pancreatitis.
I mean, he was drinking constantly and hiding it.
But I had no idea.
I guess the first day I ever really figured out
that he was living with alcoholism. .
he was drooling uncontrollably, crying uncontrollably,
slurring his words.
He was pretty incoherent.
And mind you, I had no idea he was drinking.
[siren wailing]
The paramedics took him to level one trauma center.
And at some point they come down
and they tell me and his parents
that his blood alcohol level was over 400.
It explained a lot, but I had no idea.
And then I spent the next two years
learning a whole lot about this disease
and what it does to a human being.
[Ricky] I was just so consumed with anxiety and depression
that all I wanted to do was drink
because I didn't want to be sober.
It was just too much pain and too much hurt.
Then, all of a sudden my body just slowly started to shut down
and I had to be hospitalized for it.
And then soon after that,
when I tried to drink again. .
it wasn't the same.
He attempted suicide twice in 24 hours,
once by overdose and once by, uh, stabbing himself.
He called me to tell me that he was bleeding.
So, in his transport to the hospital,
he arrives, covered in his own blood,
and the emergency department physician
discharges him upon arrival.
I call her to say, you know,
"I'm on my way, can you call
and look at an involuntary mental health detention?"
And she yells at me on the phone and says
that he is using emergency services inappropriately.
I later requested the discharge paperwork.
They're all in capital letters
and says that you are using
emergency services inappropriately.
You actually decide you ever want to get sober,
you should call detox.
And that his alcoholism is not an emergency.
I was shocked,
but I didn't have a clue either.
I thought they would know. I thought they could help.
[speaking Spanish]
[Lauren] Ricky's poor mom, she would come to the ICU,
or she would come to the psych hospital.
She doesn't speak English,
she would hold the doctor's hands and say. .
"Por favor, curar lo. "
"Please cure him. Please cure him. "
Um, and. .
nothing.
[speaking Spanish]
[Lauren] One night he overdosed
on the same cocktail that had landed him in the ICU.
And that same attending physician
in the emergency department
discharged him upon arrival,
but he was unconscious.
I said, "How do you want me to take him home?"
But they still discharged him,
and then 24 hours later,
he slit his wrists and stabbed himself
and was discharged, again, upon arrival,
by the same attending physician.
I called my best girlfriend and her boyfriend,
and they drove to this hospital
and I sat in the back and held Ricky,
so he couldn't jump out of the vehicle.
He was committed involuntarily on a psychiatric hold.
He would stabilize every time
he would go to the psych hospital.
He would detox and he would have some clarity.
At that point, he at least had a choice.
You know, if Ricky's story taught me anything,
it's to never give up the moment before the miracle.
And Ricky. .
now has seven. . going on seven and a half years
in long term recovery, and he is here.
-Can you please stand? -[audience cheering]
So, Ricky got into recovery in August of 2012.
And I got busy learning everything I could
about our state's broken behavioral health system,
and. . and how could Ricky
have fallen through so many cracks,
and how could our system have failed him so horribly?
I mean, I was furious.
Blood boiling, angry
at this system that had nearly killed my best friend,
whose life meant everything to me,
and apparently very little to. .
anybody else.
[Nzinga] We have to change our mindset to,
if we're going to call it an epidemic,
which it is. .
it's an addiction epidemic,
not an opioid epidemic.
And if we're really saying
we care about this epidemic,
we have to take care of this entire epidemic,
and we have to take care of everybody
who's in this epidemic.
♪
[train rumbles]
[siren wailing]
Oh, there he is.
Cuz?
-[Roz] What's up, cuz? -[Cuz] [indistinct]
-[Roz] I got your razors. -[Cuz] All right, cool.
[Roz] I only could get three.
[Cuz] All right.
[Roz] And I can see you when the store opens.
-[Cuz] Okay, thank you. -[Roz] All right?
-[Cuz] Yeah. -[Roz] Necesita concho.
-Huh? -Necesita concho.
At first, I didn't understand
that concept of supplying people
with any kind of syringes or works
until I understood that. .
there were so many things that we can prevent
as far as harm reduction.
HIV, the spread of hepatitis C. .
and all of the diseases that are spreading fast
in Kensington, and throughout the city.
So, for me, harm reduction
is meeting people where they are,
and making sure that they have clean works.
Making sure they understand
the outbreaks that are happening,
and how we can prevent that.
Making sure people use safely,
giving them tips on not to use alone,
Narcan training,
all of these things that is necessary
for our people who are using.
♪
What's up, sunshine?
My street outreach is really just, uh,
love on the sunshines.
My sunshines are my people.
The people who are in active addiction,
the people that I serve.
Sunshine!
Hey, sunshine.
Just trying to connect them
to different resources that are around us.
I give out syringes,
clean syringes
and just conversation with folks.
Tell them where to go.
If they need hugs, I got that, too.
[laughing] They're all free.
Just really, like, meeting people where they are and. .
not passing judgment.
Just loving all people.
Sunshine, what's up?
[man] Somebody interviewing the best person. .
[Roz laughing]
[man] Tell me that's what this is for.
I love you, man.
This is for the best person to help us out in Kensington.
Yes, she is.
Yes, I am the one to sit here and say this.
Yes, she calls me sunshine,
but she is the one who's shining out here.
Oh, you're nice. You're sweet.
This is what she do for us, I'm not going to lie, y'all.
-This is what she do for us. -Where are you going?
-'Bout to go downtown. -Okay.
[indistinct] on the Storefront.
[Roz] The Kensington Storefront
is a collaboration
of different agencies that decided to build
a space of healing,
safe space, resources, workshops.
Things like that.
Watch! You gon' get hit by a car, sunshine!
[man] All right. Thank you, ma'am.
You can be one in active addiction,
to a kid just coming home from school. .
it's just anybody.
We have open mic night.
We have movie night.
we have adult coloring, tea and textile,
where people get to weave.
Snacks. Lots of snacks.
All of it's good.
What I try to do with art in Kensington
is just beautify the space.
And I always find that art brings healing
to those who are hurting.
So art is important
in spaces where people are experiencing
so many different kinds of traumas.
So on here we have
all these positive sayings.
"Always give your problems and everything to God. "
"Recovery must become a choice. " Hm.
"I once slept on cardboard,
now I have 20 months clean and sober. "
"Working on sobriety. "
"As long as I have breath, there is hope beyond addiction. "
"Be kind, loving and tolerant towards all. "
That's a good one.
[truck rumbles past]
-Hey! -[man] Hello.
[Roz] Ay dios mio.
How long it's gon' take you to finish?
Well, I. . I expect to finish this, this week.
-Nice. It looks beautiful. -I have to do this week.
-Yeah. -Thank you for doing this.
You're welcome. What are you?
-What do you represent. -Um, well, I'm Roz.
I represent Kensington.
-Ah, Kensington. -Yeah, I live here.
-I work here. -Okay.
So this is appreciated, right here.
Thank you.
We need beautiful things in Kensington.
-This is beautiful, right? -Yes.
You know what was under here, right?
Oh, yeah.
So we had the encampment here for a long time.
So many people died under here,
so many people overdosed.
-[man] Really? In this area? -[Roz] Yeah.
In this, right here.
Right here, so many people were displaced when they. .
when they took away the encampment.
Now they're not. .
now they're scattered all over Kensington
with nowhere to go.
But this is beautiful, though.
-This is nice. -[indistinct]
Yeah.
Now, what made you come up with the design?
[siren wails in the distance]
[Charlie] You know, I didn't run for governor
to work on this issue.
It just sort of found me wherever I went.
And so then, I started talking about it.
And once I started talking about it,
a lot of people would come up to me
almost everywhere I went,
and started telling me their stories.
And I got to tell you, I had a whole bunch of people,
especially when I was in Boston,
who would come up to me and say, you know,
"You really ought to talk to Mayor Walsh about this.
He knows a lot about this issue. "
And I'd say, "Yeah, sure, I'll talk to Mayor Walsh,"
guy's probably not going to vote for me,
but what the hell?
Um, and then they would literally
reach into their pocket,
and they would take out their phone. .
and they would say, "No, really,
you should talk to Mayor W. . I got his number right here!"
[audience laughs]
"I call him whenever I'm. .
not feeling quite right,
and he always takes my call. .
and he helps me. "
But back in the day. .
this is hand-to-hand combat.
And the people who were waging that war
were literally waging it one person at a time.
You know, we're talking about pioneers here.
[Marty] Having a mayor that's in recovery
has been a really important part
of all the investments we've made
in recovery services across the city.
And he knows personally what does it mean
to get people on a path to a better tomorrow.
[Devin] I think having a mayor in recovery
has basically given us unprecedented support to do. .
you know, both financial and city support,
to invest in innovative programing
to solve some of the issues that we see on the street.
For example, opening the engagement center.
We see a lot of people are outside during the day.
They're outside because they don't have
a place to be during the day.
If you were to talk to them, they would tell you
that they need a place to sit down,
they need a place where they can access
water, bathrooms.
They need things to do.
And so we basically surveyed people on the street.
They told us what they needed to go inside during the day
and we built it.
[Mario] When we first opened up the engagement center
and I was trying to get clients inside,
they said, "Nope, that's a setup. "
They said, "Y'all are trying to put us
in that tent to lock us all up. "
The first few days,
we probably got about between ten and 20 people.
You could tell, like, everybody had this face,
like, "I don't know yet. "
And as they were coming back,
they were coming back with more people. .
until finally I was like, "Wait a minute,
"like, we got, like, 120 people here,
like, I think I need more staff. "
[woman] It's an open, very low threshold,
low barrier space where folks can come in,
they can get a cup of coffee, we have restrooms.
Have you been busy?
Uh, maximum capacity since we've opened,
so we have people waiting for us,
uh, when we open the doors.
These are folks that sleep out in the street at night,
these are folks that are in the shelters,
these are folks that are receiving services
during the day and. . and need a safe place to go.
[Mario] Hey, Bill, I need you guys over
to transport one of our people
to the, uh, to the methadone clinic.
She's going to need some, uh, some help with transportation.
We're harm reduction-focused.
Because there's a lot of active addiction.
So, when they told me that they were looking
to put an outreach Boston police officer
to work in and around the engagement center,
I said, "Are you crazy?"
Everybody's going to leave.
We said that this was a safe place for them to go,
like, we know that people don't like the police.
So they said, "Well, can you meet this officer
and at least try?"
And then I met Officer De La Rosa.
[sirens wailing in distance]
[Josh] Hey, hey, hey. How you doing, brah-brah?
God bless you, bro.
-Is this your tent? -[man] Yeah.
[Josh] You need help with. .
-you're obviously homeless. -[man] Yeah.
[Josh] What happened with your housing?
[man] I didn't have a Section eight housing,
-I ain't got Social Security. -[Josh] Yeah.
[man] I don't know if I could get [indistinct]
I was going a little bit faster.
I've only been here, like, six, seven months.
-I haven't been. . -[Josh] Oh, where are you from?
I'm Josh De La Rosa, by the way.
Okay, I'm the outreach officer in the area, so, yeah.
I'm not here to, uh, to get you arrested or anything.
I'm just here to find out what's your situation.
This is what I do on a day to day basis.
Have you been to the engagement center?
-[man] [indistinct] -[Josh] Yeah.
Let me give you my card.
The other thing is, if you, um,
if you have any open cases or any warrants,
I can help you out.
What's up, brother? How you doing, man?
Yeah, so, if you have any open cases,
or any warrants I can, uh. .
we can do away
so you can stay in treatment, all right?
All right.
God bless you, man. Don't forget to call, all right?
The community did not trust police officers.
Police officers rolled up,
it was like a us versus them mentality.
Now, Boston police, we steered way more
towards the community policing
where we're helping individuals out in the streets.
We're not out there to have that us versus them mentality.
We want to get out there and build the community's trust.
When you walk up to somebody in the neighborhood,
they're like, "Why are you guys harassing us?"
And I'm. . , "Hey, I'm not here to harass.
This is my. . this is my role. "
And then they. . their guards. .
are let down.
And then they engage me and, like, "Oh, wow,
I didn't know the police department had this. "
I'm like, "Yeah, look at my cruiser.
It's says street outreach unit. "
My first year on the job,
I was able to take about five guns off the street.
And a bunch of drugs.
But as far as helping people,
it wasn't really helping anybody.
After about three years of doing that
on the patrol division,
I submitted a request to go to the Drug Control Unit.
I did it for about a year,
and it was overwhelming to see
how many drug dealers were in the city of Boston.
There's absolutely no way you can do away
with the drugs in the city.
And I figured the best way. .
to fight this war against drugs
is to take away the clients. [chuckling]
Take away their clients.
Take 'em, put 'em into treatment,
and offer them any support along the way.
[Mario] If he didn't have that badge and that uniform on,
you would never in a million years
think that he was a police officer.
So when he came in, like,
I had a lot of people pull me to the side
and say, "Hey, like, why is he here?
Like, this is not cool. "
And I'm like, "Hold on, give him a chance.
He's not here to lock you up, he's not here to arrest you.
He doesn't want to do anything like that.
He wants to try to help y'all. "
Get on. . go get on the list. Mario's doing the list.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep.
[Josh and man speak in Spanish]
[Josh] I got you, brother. I'm about to set up over here.
What's up brother, how you doing?
-[woman] Hey! -[Josh] Hey, good morning.
[Mario] And he came up with this great idea
and he says,
"Mario, is it possible that I can cut hair here?"
I said, "Excuse me?"
He says, "Can I cut hair here?"
I said, "Well, do you know how to cut hair?"
He says, "Yeah, I'm a barber. "
Oh, uh, Mario's got the list. He's doing the list now.
[Mario] Okay. All right.
He was like, "My idea, like,
is to try to build a rapport with them.
Like, I want to cut their hair and be able to talk to them. "
I said, "Okay, let's. . let's do it. "
If anybody wants their hair cut and you want to get on the list,
meet me at the front over there.
[Josh] It was very difficult to do outreach
because of the uniform.
I figured I'd use one of my gifts,
which is cutting hair.
By giving haircuts,
I'd be able to connect with the community.
So I started giving haircuts
and everybody started talking to me.
Everybody knew what was my purpose out there for.
I was out there to get people the help they needed,
and get them into treatment.
Not that many people want to talk to the cops,
but everybody will talk to their barber.
♪
-[Mario] Ready? -Yeah.
I grew up in a household
that pretty much sold drugs.
My father was a drug dealer.
My grandparents were drug dealers,
my aunts and uncles were drug dealers,
my cousins were drug dealers.
My father ended up getting arrested and deported.
My mother, also getting high off cocaine. .
and some of the men she dated
would not only abuse her,
but would also abuse my brother and myself.
♪
My brother and I, we would walk the streets
one or two in the morning and break into cars.
I would jump over backyards, take bicycles,
switch out the pieces, spray paint it.
That was how my upbringings were.
I literally learned how to cut hair and braid hair
because I thought that one day
I was going to do life in prison.
I said, "This is how I'm going to make my money in jail.
Cutting hair. "
-What are we doing here? -[man] Ah, just cut it off, man.
-All off? -All off.
Bald? You don't want to fade it up?
Fade it up. Do. . do the best.
-Make you look smooth? -Make me look smooth, man.
-'Aight, brother. -You the man.
It started this big thing where, like,
now everybody's looking for Josh.
And you. . you probably won't get it till Monday,
'cause I'm going to. . it's a. . yeah,
-it's a lot of people. -Oh.
-[man shouting indistinctly] -Hold on, you got to wait.
No, he's next, and then you after. . he's almost done.
You next for the haircut. Yeah.
About ten, 15 minutes.
Everybody wants a haircut.
Everybody wants Josh
to drive them to Tewksbury Detox.
Everybody's looking for this guy.
And he's great.
You'll be surprised
how these individuals that are bound by substance
react to. . towards somebody
that's showing compassion to them.
Because they've lost the care.
They. . they've lost the care for themselves.
So when they see somebody caring for them. .
that just changes the dynamic,
and it reignites something in them,
and it says to them, "Wow, this person cares about me.
I need to start caring about myself. "
[traffic din]
-[man] [indistinct]? -Yeah.
-Where you played at? -Uh, Oakland.
Las Vegas now, but. .
-Oh, wow. -[indistinct] Vegas?
Yeah, we moving to Vegas this year.
[man] When?
Uh, they made it official, like. .
February, couple weeks outta the Superbowl.
[man] Oh, really? I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah, so, I'm just now, like, finding a place out here.
So you're playing tight end for Oakland?
-Yep. -So what's that? Starting?
-Yeah. -[man] [indistinct]
[Darren] I signed with the Raiders. .
right after the game where we played the Raiders,
'cause they saw me, like, working out before the game.
I remember getting there, and I was just, like, on a mission.
The first games I was playing in
and people were just like, "Whoa, like, what is going on?"
After that, it was up from there.
They just didn't expect things
out of the guy that was suspended multiple times
out of the league for a year,
and just like, you know, drug addict.
They didn't really know the depths of my recovery,
'cause I hadn't really said anything.
[Rich] Speaking of not easy.
Man, this is what I love about Hard Knocks in NFL films.
This. . this story. .
on Darren Waller.
I'd not heard of him.
And there's nothing better
than learning about players
who are trying to make it in the NFL. .
and who are going through a comeback. .
and who find out what the comeback is.
[Darren] So, today is August 11th.
On the 12th, I'll be clean for two years.
Uh, and, you know, it's going pretty well.
You got to take it. .
you got to take it one day at a time.
'Cause it's just like, you look at it as,
well, "I got to be clean for the rest of my life,"
I never would have thought I would be at two years,
you know, two years ago, let alone, like, a few weeks.
[horn blaring]
[John] Kick off, cover, let's go.
Everybody's running somewhere.
Find a spot, go to work. Let's go!
[Darren] When I was in Baltimore,
I was just, like, a vegetable.
I was, like, getting high literally every day.
[John] Let's go, Waller!
You all right? Get up.
[Darren] You know, I didn't really know
if I really wanted to be there.
I was just, like, super burnt out,
and I was like, "Am I going to stick with it
or am I going to just, you know, fold up?"
Hey, Darren. Darren! You all right?
Let's go, then. Let's go, baby.
Go make a play. Go make a play!
[Darren] I got no shame. I got no guilt anymore.
So, yeah, I just went from there and then Hard Knocks
and they were like, "Hey, we want to talk to you
about your story. " and I was like, "Word. "
Before then, I had already had my mind made up.
I was like, I was just about to just
flip the script on everything.
I'm going to be that guy that's in public talking about,
you know, just how down bad I was,
just to show people you can be real,
you can be honest and your life can suck,
but, it's, like, you can still bounce back.
I didn't really know, like, the magnitude of it,
like how many people it would impact.
But I knew that
if somebody saw it, they could relate.
[Mitch] I was watching it here at home one day
and all of a sudden he started talking about his past,
and I could relate to a lot of it.
On one of the episodes,
he's actually in the car
and he's on his way to a meeting
and he gets dropped off at the meeting
and of course, the cameras go off.
But I just felt a connection, you know?
Like, I. . that's my life.
Growing up, I was very active in sports.
I collected cards.
I played at the playground all the time with my friends.
And who didn't want to be Bo Jackson
when you were a little kid, you know?
I've been a season ticket holder for about seven years now.
And I go down six
out of the eight regular season home games.
2019 home opener,
we are playing Denver Broncos, Monday Night Football.
We wake up in the morning, we get on an airplane.
Me and my wife and my little baby boy, Bryson.
We take off and we fly into San Francisco.
We are attempting to get to the BART station
and the train breaks down.
Right around that time was my ten year celebrated recovery.
When you're in recovery and you hit a milestone,
you present somebody with a chip.
That chip symbolizes
not only a change in your life in that moment,
but also the journey and the path along the way.
You think about how hard you had to work to get to that.
My wife had bought me this chip.
On it was a Raider symbol.
A triangle that represents unity, recovery and hope.
And on the bottom, it said "sober nation"
[he laughs]
I asked her where she got it and she said she got it online.
And so I said, "is there a way
that we can get another one for a two year?"
I think I had expectations of getting there early
to greet the guys, and. . like I normally do every year.
And, uh, I had a two year sobriety coin. .
for Darren Waller.
I knew that if we couldn't get there on time,
he would have probably already walked right past the tunnel
and back into the locker room.
So, the train breaks down.
I'm looking at Katie going,
"It's just not going to happen today. "
And. . and I'm pretty bummed about it,
and she's like, "No, you have faith. . have faith.
It's going to be all right, it's going to be all right. "
I was like, "We'll see. "
You know, we'll see, and sure enough,
you know, something happened.
And the train got going and we got on our way.
When we got to the BART station in Oakland,
we just went straight to the stadium and went inside
and made our way down to the front tunnel there.
[Darren] Everyone was warming up on the field
and I was just like, you know, a little nervous.
It's, like, my first game ever starting, you know?
And I was just, like, locked in on, like,
football, and, like, my assignment,
and da-da-da and have a good warm up.
[Mitch] We get down to the front row where I usually sit at
and I see a couple of guys walking off the field
and go, "hey," you know, give them high fives. "
And then I look over and I see Darren,
and he's walking off the field,
and he's probably about 30 feet away from me.
And then, you know, I came across that guy,
like, he was always in, like, the same spot,
like, at the tunnel, on the right side at the front.
[Mitch] And I yelled to him, "Hey, Darren.
Darren!"
And he looks up and he sees me
and I said, "Hey, I got something for you.
When he came over and he said, "Hey, how's it doing man?"
I introduced myself, "Hey, my name's Mitch.
I'm in recovery.
I was inspired by your story on Hard Knocks,
and then I just, uh,
I wanted to present you with this coin. "
And he handed me a chip, and it was just like. .
I just kind of had a flashback of, like, everything.
I was just, like, at peace.
It was just, like, I'm supposed to be doing this.
That chip was on my mind the whole game,
I was just like, "I'm about to go crazy. "
It just had me, like, locked in.
This chip was playing here, and this guy was able
to give it to me before the game,
you know, I don't have to worry about none of this.
♪
[sportscaster] Carr lofts one, air underneath of it.
Waller goes up and makes the grab.
Carr to throw again.
Underneath and complete to Darren Waller.
Already the third reception
for the third year tight end out of Georgia Tech.
Carr, quick out to tight end Darren Waller.
[Mitch] I didn't really know anything about him or his story
until I saw Hard Knocks.
A lot of things that you see
on public media and television these days
are the problem.
You never really see the solution to it.
I wanted him to feel like, "Hey, man, you got a fan.
You know, I don't know how many people
are in the stadium rooting for you,
but I'm rooting for you, brother.
[Darren] I'm always carrying the coin in my backpack.
It's, just, always a reminder.
You know, it's bigger than the results of the game,
or how I'm looking on TV or what people saying 'bout me.
You know, people look at me as a sense of hope now.
I try to take that seriously, but also I try to make sure,
you know, I'm walking the walk, not faking the fun.
Yeah, they told me I was going to get an opportunity,
and it's just, you know, soon as you hear that,
after all the, you know, things that I've been through,
like, all good. . I get one opportunity?
You know, that's all I need.
I want to get into that world
of achievements and things like that.
I want to be in a world of changing minds
and help people unlock who they really are.
[Joseph] So I do a lot of work in school systems.
And I think that our society
is wasting the opportunity. .
to advance the social,
emotional learning of individuals
by making school
about the productivity of academics only.
Call and response.
When I say spoken, you say word.
-Spoken. -[students] Word.
When I say to be, you say heard.
-To be. -[students] Heard.
When I say, "Hey, guys, how are you doing today?
I hope that you're having a great time. "
You say, "Oh, yeah, we are having a great time.
Thank you so very much. "
Hey, guys, nice to see you today.
I hope you're having a great time.
[overlapping responses]
Okay, it broke down at the end there,
but I had fun, I don't know if you had fun.
My name is Joseph Green,
and I'm here to lead you in a gratitude workshop.
Now, that means
you've been listening to us talk for a bit.
Now I'm going to get you to talk to me for a bit,
and we're going to share, we're going to write.
We're going to have a good time. Everything's going to be great.
But before we do that,
I want to talk about creative mindfulness.
How many of you think you are creative people?
Okay. Hands down.
How many people in this room are people?
-Great. Hands down. -[students giggling]
All the people on the second one
are also creative people,
because a creative person is not just about art,
or poetry, or singing, or dancing,
or whatever it is that you think of
when you think of creative.
If you have ever solved a problem in your life,
you are a creative person.
Now I need a few people to tell me
what their definition of mindfulness is.
What do they think it means to be mindful?
This side of the room, who do I got?
I think it means being aware
of how your decisions affect others.
[Joseph] "Being aware of how your decisions
affect others. "
That is a good one.
You'll be a lot happier.
[Joseph] "You'll be a lot happier. "
I'd like to end with that one.
Because I find that happiness, a lot of times,
is removing all of the junk that you have in your head
and being happy and content
with who you are and where you are.
Even when we make mistakes,
being able to forgive ourselves.
"This wasn't a mistake.
My F wasn't a mistake,
my F was an opportunity and a reminder
that I need to study harder, or that I need to seek help.
I'm not a bad person because I got an F.
This is just an obstacle that I'm going to use
to becoming a better version of myself. "
I don't want anyone to be nervous about the word poetry.
If you don't think you write good poetry,
don't think of it as poetry,
just think of it as sentences
that are elaborate and have detail.
You have a piece of paper in front of you.
Right now, it is empty.
What I need you to do is very, very simple.
I need you to write your name and do
one, two, three, four, five, like a list.
Your list will consist of five things. .
that you are grateful for.
When I. . I go into spaces with young people
and I say I'm here as a guide,
a facilitator, if you will.
But if we had gotten it right. .
I wouldn't be here right now.
You wouldn't need this program the way that it's set up.
Prevention wouldn't be this random outside thing
that we have to insert into a system.
Hopefulness and mindfulness
and all of those things would just be intrinsic
in our society and in the work that we do.
Now, bringing it all together.
You're going to write, "Gratefulness is. . "
and then you're going to finish that out
with a sentence
that is a little poetic, right?
And what I mean by poetic is we're going to add
some adjectives, right?
We're going to maybe put a metaphor,
or a simile in there.
Or, possibly. .
you like this thing, this?
Yes, yes, yes.
I bought a leather jacket the other day
and I danced in front of the mirror like I was Elvis.
But that's just between me and you.
All right.
So, example:
"Gratefulness is my mother reading my worries away
and rubbing the illness from my forehead
with her loving caress whenever I was sick. "
More details.
You don't even call it poetry if you want,
but it's just a very detailed sentence that creates an image.
So you don't have to be good at poetry to be doing this.
If you write sentences, this is the exercise for you.
Three things, one sentence for each of those things
so that we can share
and feel on another level
the things that we are grateful for.
Your time starts now.
We don't feed young people soul while at school,
but they're there for 40 hours a week,
and while they're there,
they're told that what they do in this space
is going to affect who they become
for the rest of their life.
Well, if that's the case. .
wouldn't you imagine that
if they were taught how to deal
with stress and pain and trauma
at this young age,
then that would ripple through the rest of their lives?
Where's the class that teaches you
that you get more out of serving
than you do out of serving yourself?
We're missing it.
All right.
So this is how this is going to go.
I'm going to point at the first person
and you're going to step forward,
say your name, and read your list,
and then the next person, and the next person,
and next person, and next person.
And when we are done,
we're going to give everybody a round of applause.
My name's Elaine and gratefulness is my friends
supporting me and washing my worries away
as a scared nervous, six. .
fresh sixth-grader [indistinct]
Gratefulness is my family giving. .
giving me food when I'm hungry.
Gratefulness is my house
giving me protection when a bad storm hits.
Gratefulness is Marvel making me laugh
and enjoy watching superhero friends save the world,
and through tough times, they still get together
and gain confidence to keep thriving.
Gratefulness is my dad
introducing me to my favorite music.
Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Death Metal, Black Metal,
Classic Rock, Eighties Rock, Trash and Punk Rock.
Gratefulness is my family
who loves and cares for me no matter what.
My personality makes me unique
with everything about me.
My body, because I love myself
no matter what people think of my shape.
And I'm grateful for playing Mario with my dad.
And, like, he used to help me
-and now I'm better than him. -[Joseph laughing]
Gratefulness is my eyes,
seeing my friends crinkling while smiling,
gleaming in the starlight and crying,
letting my feelings out.
-[Joseph] Clap it up! -[applause]
Well done.
I want a high five as you go back to your seats.
High five!
Back to your seats, please!
Thank you! Awesome!
There is. .
within you, the ability to repeat this
at any point in time that you want.
All you need is a piece of paper, a pen, a cell phone,
something that you can record your gratefulness into.
How many of you wrote about somebody else?
Another person, another human being?
I challenge you to share
what you wrote with that human being
in the next 24 hours.
You can just say it to them, you can write it down
and give it to them anonymously.
But I. . I challenge you
to spread this gratefulness throughout the world.
Thank you for your time, thank you for your words.
Thank you for your energy, thank you for your honesty.
I sincerely appreciated everything you all did.
Give yourselves a round of applause.
[applause]
The work of allowing the human spirit
to have a way to express itself
and express what it's going through
is vital work.
So much so that it shouldn't be
an exterior thing
that sometimes is allowed to crack
the surface of the educational system.
It should be the educational system.
As much work as we put into educating their brains,
we should be putting in educating their minds
and their spirits.
♪
[Lauren] We don't conduct death reviews
for substance use disorder deaths. .
because there's no question about what went wrong.
There's no question about
what could have been done differently.
We know that when you provide people access
to hope and help and light and love
and quality treatment
within their window of willingness,
they recover.
So, Ricky got into recovery
and I started learning everything that I could
about mental health conditions
and substance use disorder,
and then everything I could about how laws are made
and how laws have changed.
I had heard through the board work about
something called the Adult Behavioral Health Task Force,
and it was something the legislature had convened
to try to look at gaps
in our behavioral health system.
So I showed up and I gave this presentation
about Ricky's story,
and I found out that not one of them knew
that you could not involuntarily commit someone
for substance use disorder under Washington state law.
Representative Eileen Cody,
she came up to me that day and said,
"Hey, kid, I want to work on that with you. "
And six months later, we had a bill.
And in January of 2015,
Ricky's Law was introduced in the state legislature
for the first time.
Good evening, Mr. Chair,
and members of the committee.
My name is Lauren Davis,
and I serve on the King County
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Administrative Board.
My best friend, Ricky Garcia, the namesake of this bill,
nearly lost his life,
because he could not be involuntarily committed
for chemical dependency treatment.
September 1st, 2011 was my 25th birthday.
I spent that day in Harborview's ICU
holding my best friend Ricky's hand
as I watched the ventilator pump. .
pump his chest up and down.
This was not an isolated incident.
From 2011 to 2012,
I served as Ricky's primary caregiver
as he battled alcohol and opiate addiction.
He suffered multiple overdoses and suicide attempts,
several of which were nearly fatal.
It was during that time that I learned the harrowing truth
about our state's behavioral health system.
If your loved one is at risk of serious harm,
or gravely disabled by a mental illness,
they can be committed involuntarily
for lifesaving psychiatric treatment.
If your loved one is at risk of serious harm
or gravely disabled by addiction,
nothing can be done.
As a nurse in in-patient psychiatry put it,
"We won't let people kill themselves
by jumping off of a bridge.
But we will let them kill themselves
with drugs and alcohol. "
Recovery is possible for anyone suffering
from the insidious disease of addiction,
so long as families can connect their loved one
to lifesaving treatment.
In August 2012,
on Ricky's final hospitalization,
I watched the psychiatrist look across
at my beloved best friend
and tell him "If we were in another state
and I could commit you involuntarily
for addiction treatment, I would.
But my hands are tied in Washington. "
My heart broke that day.
It broke for Ricky,
and it broke for every family
who has ever had to feel so hopeless.
Who has ever had to feel so small.
Please pass Ricky's law,
House Bill 1713,
'cause every life is worth saving,
no matter the diagnosis.
Thank you.
[speaking Spanish]
[Eileen] One of our constituents, Lauren Davis,
who is on the King County Task Force
for Mental Health Advisory Committee,
uh, really has been a pusher on this.
She had a friend that the bill
has been named after, Ricky Garcia,
who didn't get the appropriate care.
So his story really helped us
move this forward in recognizing
that actually we are not providing
the care that people need at this time,
that many people have been committed
into the wrong system under mental health,
because that was the only way they could get any help.
So it is my hope that this will actually
provide us better care and actually cheaper care
in the long run.
So I urge support.
[anchor] As the legislative session winds down,
we're getting a look inside one very personal crusade
in Olympia.
Ricky's law is named after a suicide survivor
and former drug addict
who's now four years clean and sober.
Ricky Garcia hopes the bill bearing his name
will help save lives.
[reporter] Memories of Ricky's addiction
and multiple suicide attempts
that the best friends have told over and over
during the last two legislative sessions
in Olympia.
[male voice] Madam President, 40 yays, two nays,
seven excused.
[president] Having received a constitutional majority
in gross third substantive House Bill 1713
is declared passed.
The title of bill will be the title of the act.
[gavel bangs]
[Lauren] It was one of the. .
"Pinch me, so I know I'm not dreaming" moments.
I posted a photo of me and Ricky
from the first hearing on Ricky's law ever. .
that came up on my Facebook memories.
It was incredible.
I mean, just to see the words on the paper.
To see an actual document
in legalese and legislative speak
that was going to knit together
the hole in the system
that Ricky fell squarely through.
♪
Anybody need snacks?
Free snacks!
Free Narcan!
Free facemask!
Sunshine, you need a bandana?
You need a face mask, though, sunshine.
COVID's real.
All right, love.
People who have COVID,
who are suffering from addiction
and homelessness.
It's so different because you can't quarantine anywhere,
they can't get tested.
I had COVID, so it was scary
and just isolating.
As an advocate, I'm always on the street.
But being home
and not with the people that I serve,
it was difficult.
[Roz] Today I'm going to show you how to, um. .
reverse an overdose.
How many folks here have ever seen an overdose?
Wow. That's a lot.
So I've administered probably
about 435 overdoses.
All right, so, now we've just found Josh,
who is. .
on the kitchen floor and he's unresponsive.
And you're calling out his name,
you're clapping your hands.
You're saying. . you're gonna say,
"Josh, I'm going to give you Narcan. "
I am checking around to make sure
there's no syringes.
I'm going to take my Narcan kit. .
you're going to tilt Josh's head back. .
and you're going to push bunny ears. .
Just like this. .
and you're going to insert it.
So what you're going to do
is you going to put it into his nose
and you're going to just spray.
And once you've done that,
it's already. . it's done.
Now that. . we are going to
take out our face shields.
May be difficult right now 'cause of COVID.
You're going to pinch to nose. .
the nose to the nose, the mouth to the mouth.
You're going to put it on his face,
and you're going to give him two rescue breaths,
make sure his head is tilted up.
One Mississippi, two Mississippi,
three Mississippi, four Mississippi,
five Mississippi.
Two more rescue breaths.
[Roz blows]
You're going to keep doing this until for about four minutes,
four to five minutes.
If Josh is still unresponsive,
you're going to give him a second dose.
♪
When you turn pain into positivity,
it's gratifying for me,
because you're in a sad place for a long time,
and then when you do something good,
you can see that it's working
with the people
that you're doing the outreach with.
[man] That's perfect, thank you. Thank you, miss.
All right. Y'all need Narcan?
-Y'all good on Narcan? -[man] Yeah, we have Narcan.
-You got it? Okay. -[man] Thank you.
All right. Thanks, y'all.
I'm healing by doing something for someone else.
So, I'm hoping that people
can kind of receive that energy
and do the same thing.
Say, for instance, like,
if Josh didn't have a name,
if I didn't know Josh's name.
I would call him my sunshine.
I got my sunshine shirt. Everybody's my sunshine.
I kept hearing the word junkie,
and addict, and crackhead,
and all of these negative things
towards a person who was struggling.
So a sunshine was someone, at first,
someone in active addiction
and suffering from homelessness.
And I couldn't remember everybody's name.
So "sunshine" was it.
And then it just evolved where if I forgot your name,
then you was just a sunshine.
Everybody's a sunshine. That's just what it is.
If you come down to Kensington, you a sunshine.
Hey, sunshine!
♪
[train rumbles past]
I have no idea what the future holds for me.
Work. Lots of work.
Lots of pounding the pavement
with a shitload of Narcan,
gun locks, tourniquets.
Lots of snacks, lots and lots of Oreos.
And lots of love.
That's it. Every day.
[Marty] Addiction devastates
every single community across our country.
When you think about what issues can we agree on?
We can agree on transportation.
We can agree on the need for more housing, most of us,
and we certainly can agree on the fact
of the devastation of the addiction crisis.
The human cost is certainly too steep
for us not to make this a priority right now.
I know we've been doing that here in this conference
for the last four or five years,
making it a priority and I've said this every year.
This is probably. . should be the biggest, um,
gathering that we have during the week
because every single person is affected by it.
[President Biden] This is a young man
who fell in the grip of addiction
and knows hopelessness
and comes from the other end of the bottle.
Do you think there's anyone in this city who believes more
in giving someone a second chance
than your Mayor?
I don't, I don't think there's a single person.
[applause]
[reporter] Today, President elect Joe Biden
will make an official announcement nominating
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary.
[Marty] In my twenties,
I went into treatment for alcoholism.
I'm a proud member of the recovery community today.
When I was mentioned
as a potential nominee for this job,
I went online and I was reading
all the different areas of the Department of Labor,
and when I got to the section
that talked about mental health
and substance use,
uh, it perked my attention.
Uh, for my personal story. .
but also for my time
in the legislature, as Mayor, or whatever it was,
there isn't a member in this room today. .
not a person in this room today. .
that a family member,
or a close friend, or one person removed. .
are dealing with the issue of mental health. .
or substance use problems,
whether that's drugs or alcohol.
And it's something that, quite honestly,
we need to do a lot more for.
I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure we have parity
for mental health and substance use disorder,
and that people have access to treatment.
Because that is a game changer for people.
That is a game changer for families.
Because when somebody has a mental health issue
and they're willing to get help,
or somebody has a substance use disorder issue,
they're willing to get help, you have a moment.
You have a moment to make that happen.
And you can't wait 'til next Tuesday,
or next Thursday, or next week, or next month,
because that opportunity is going to be gone.
And there's other chances there
that you'll lose that person.
So my answer to you, my long answer to you. .
my short answer should've been "Yes, I do. .
I will work with you. "
-[VP Harris] I, Martin Walsh. . -[Marty] I, Martin Walsh. .
- . do solemnly swear. . - . do solemnly swear. .
that I will support and defend. .
the Constitution of the United States. .
Constitution of the United States
- . against all enemies. . - . against all enemies. .
- . foreign and domestic. . - . foreign and domestic. .
Being appointed Secretary of Labor
is hugely symbolic for the recovery community,
because it shows that people in recovery can achieve
the highest ranks of their profession
without stigma, without guilt, without shame.
-[VP Harris] So help me God. -[Marty] So help me God.
Congratulations, Mr. Secretary.
Thank you, madame.
-[applauding] -[Marty] Thank you.
[Brendan] We stand on the shoulders of giants.
People like Mayor Walsh,
other public figures in recovery,
because they had the bravery
and the fortitude to go out and say,
"I'm in recovery, this is part of my story
and I still deserve a seat at the table. "
[Rich] Your story's amazing, Darren.
What you are. . who you are,
what you are, what you've become,
where you've been, where you're going,
what you've got going for you is truly remarkable.
I honestly did not know your story
until Hard Knocks last year.
If I had told that kid from the Baltimore Ravens
what's going on right now for you,
what would you have said?
[Darren] No looking back,
I was just trying to impress so many people
and be all things to all people.
And now, it's just, like, a much more simpler life.
And the things I do are pleasing to me,
so it's just a much more simple way of living than before.
You don't really have as much control
over what you think you have control over.
And admitting that and realizing
that you need help, that you can't do it alone,
and, you know, just getting transparent
and honest with yourself to the point that it hurts.
But after that initial pain
comes freedom and, you know,
hope for your future, whereas it was all clouded by,
you know, darkness and negativity before.
[commentator] One more catch by Waller
and he'll break Tim Brown's
all time single season record.
Eight minutes on the play clock,
3rd in three.
Waller is back, looks in underneath,
got Waller, there's the record.
Congratulations to Darren Waller.
The all-time single season
reception leader for the, now,
Las Vegas Raiders.
[Derek] I'm not shocked that he broke the record.
I definitely wanted to see that for him,
because he works so hard and what he's overcome.
You put that in the perspective
of what he's been able to accomplish
and overcome in his life.
Um, and I can't. .
I don't think there's anyone in the world
that wouldn't root for the guy.
[Darren] You know, I feel like some of my greatest moments
even come where people don't even think
that they'd be, like, the peak moments
it's like games where I'm able
to still have the same mindset,
and I know that, like, I still have
the same consistent attitude
and I feel like that's when I'm most proud of myself,
and it turns into nights like this,
just staying prepared and still having
the right attitude, so I'm definitely grateful
for this moment, but I don't want this to be
my greatest day as a Raider.
I want to keep going.
♪
So they say women have to be asked seven times
to run for office,
and I think I was closer to 70 than seven.
[Ricky] I've known Lauren for a very long time.
Never, one day, did she ever tell me "Oh, Ricky, like,
I'm going to one day run for office. .
and then help more people. "
'Cause that's what, ultimately, she wants to do.
[Lauren] We always say if you're not at the table,
you're on the menu.
If we don't have advocates at the table,
recovery is literally left out.
A Representative, Ruth Kaji
called me on a Wednesday night
and said, "I'm announcing my retirement tomorrow
on the House floor and I'm offering you
my endorsement to run for my seat.
Are you ready to run?"
So I eventually conceded
that I could do more good from their seat
than I could from mine.
[Ricky] You know, I had no doubt she would do it. [chuckles]
And I had no doubt she would get elected.
And I still have no doubt in her.
Lauren Davis with 74. 2% for a total of. .
[whooping, cheering, applauding]
[woman translating for Ricky's mother]
She loves her, she's her daughter.
Because Bella's Ricky's guardian angel.
[Ricky's mother speaking Spanish]
My husband had cancer at that time,
and his only wish was
to call Lauren, his guardian angel. .
to come and save Ricky.
Ricky didn't listen to nobody,
but he listened to Lauren.
[people chuckling]
There was a quote by an outreach worker
to individuals experiencing homelessness
and active addiction, and it says that. .
the obstacle to my clients' engagement and treatment
is not an absence of pain,
it's an absence of hope.
[Nzinga] I've been taking care of people
who've been dying from substances
for 20 years.
Opioids. .
your loved one is here today,
your loved one is dead tomorrow.
That's why people can grasp
the opioid crisis.
But you talk to anybody who's been through addiction
or had a loved one who's been through addiction,
even though the process is longer,
just dying, dying, dying, dying, dying,
while that illness is active and untreated.
It's still killing people.
Even if you're alive today, if you're disconnected. .
if there's not meaning in your life. .
we need to be able to feel that compassion around
that kind of dying, the same way we feel
the compassion around dying, dying.
[Joseph] As I've gone out into the world,
I've seen so many people fighting,
giving their life and their energy,
trying to make the world a better place,
and I wrote this poem in tribute to them.
Uh, it's a journey, but rock with me.
It's called "St. Jude," who, among other things,
is the patron saint of lost causes.
"May we lost causes find
at the height of our sobriety
that which we could not find at the bottom of our addiction.
Salvation was never there, trust me, I look often
and with a thorough eye of a man
willing to face anything except his own truth.
My truth, a jealous and relentless lover
who always refused to play the role of mistress.
She would lie with me when I thought I was alone,
sit next to me on the train
when I thought I was running away,
and if I adjusted the frequency just so,
I could hear her whisper, "I can set you free. "
She was there the day I sat shaking
in the corner of my drug dealer's kitchen,
waiting for him to fall asleep
so that I might creep into his stash spot
and put a Band-Aid over this bullet wound
of an addiction.
She was there the day the man who welcomed me in
like a father said with his eyes,
like Christ to Judas, "I know it was you,"
selfish son with sinister intent
and stealing fingers,
taking from the register his money, his trust,
but somehow never his faith.
She was there the day my best friend
stopped talking to me, he had been through this before
and could recognize the signs
and refused to be on the receiving end
of yet another suicide note.
She was also there the day I learned that
what the world had taught me was a moral failing,
was in fact a disease.
A poison passed effortlessly
through the veins of my family tree,
she told me on that day,
"Never forget, love is to forgiveness,
as recovery is to redemption,
where you find one, you will always find the other.
We must fall out of love with punishing ourselves
for the pain our actions have caused other people.
"I'm sorry" will only ever be
a bucket of sand trying to smother a forest fire.
And while apologies are an important step,
if the universe is to ever extract
the remaining usefulness from us,
forgiveness has to be an olive branch
we eventually extend to ourselves.
We must learn to live this life
with the spirit of Saint Jude,
let us use this life and this light
and these words as a beacon of hope for anyone
who has ever considered themselves a lost cause.
We fight for the breakers and the broken,
for the feared and the fearful,
for the damaged and the damagers,
so they know that they are not alone,
that we are all here hurting and healing together.
We fight for the millions we've lost,
for the families searching for purpose
amongst the embers of lives extinguished far too soon.
We fight for communities that have been ravaged
by a system that has too long punished the crime
instead of treating the disease.
We fight,
so that we might make this world
as we would have it be,
not just by knowing what we are fighting against,
but by knowing
and never forgetting
what we are fighting for. "
♪
♪ Nobody wants to wait For little miracles ♪
♪ Little miracles ♪
♪ Nobody wants to say I'm feeling insecure ♪
♪ Feeling insecure ♪
♪ It's hard to be this big When I'm feeling small ♪
♪ I'm feeling small ♪
♪ But I will keep on trying Even when I fall ♪
♪ So, put one foot in front of the other ♪
♪ One foot in front Of the other ♪
♪ We gotta love one another We gotta love one another ♪
♪ One foot in front Of the other ♪
♪ We gotta love one another We gotta love one another ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ Nobody wants to wait For little miracles ♪
♪ Little miracles ♪
♪ Nobody wants to say I'm feeling so unsure ♪
♪ I'm feeling so unsure ♪
♪ It's hard to be this big When I'm feelin' immature ♪
♪ But I'm gon' keep on tryin' Even when I fall ♪
♪ So, put one foot In front of the other ♪
♪ One foot In front of the other ♪
♪ We gotta love one another We gotta love one another ♪
♪ One foot In front of the other ♪
♪ One foot in front Of the other ♪
♪ We gotta love one another ♪
♪ We gotta love One another ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle ♪
♪ Oh, you may not see A pot of gold ♪
♪ But rainbows Are the sky's way ♪
♪ Of telling us We are enough ♪
♪ And if you wanna beat Your chest ♪
♪ 'Cause you feel The emptiness ♪
♪ Go on And feel your loneliness ♪
♪ Then call me 'Cause we're both in this ♪
♪ I don't wanna quit Before the miracle ♪
♪ Before the miracle Oh ♪
♪