LYNN — The nine graduates of this year’s Lynn Drug Court represent a small victory in the battle of addiction.
Those were the words of Judge Albert Conlon, opening the Drug Court graduation ceremony at Lynn District Court on Wednesday.
The nine graduates are Rafael Alvarado, the graduate speaker, Ian Cameron, Gerald Libby, John Furey, Corey Lapia, Mark O’Keefe, Ariana Reny, Samantha Rosano and Christopher Sullo.
“It’s clear to everyone that we’re fighting a war that we’re losing,” Conlon said. “This really represents a small victory in that battle.”
In an effort to address the rise in criminal offenses, substance abuse related issues and the overdose epidemic among probationers and to reduce the pernicious effects of drug distribution in the community, drug court sessions were established throughout the state. Drug courts provide intensive substance abuse treatment, using a team approach with judicial supervision, reads a Lynn Drug Court brochure for the event.
The Lynn Drug Court session began in September 1999, and has served hundreds of people. With the help of treatment providers, probationers have been able to address their substance abuse issues in a wide variety of treatment settings, reads an event brochure.
One of those beneficiaries of Lynn Drug Court is Alvarado, the graduate speaker for the Class of 2017.
Alvarado, 50, lives in Bernardston, a small Massachusetts town close to Vermont. With the help of Drug Court, he’s been able to turn his life around, one marred by addiction, which began when he was 12 to 13 years old after he got involved in drugs and gangs.
Alvarado said he’s a tri-state kid — he grew up in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts, all at the same time. He said he’s not just recovering from drugs, but considers himself a product of, and victim of city streets. Growing up, he said he was in the worst of neighborhoods. He grew up in a racial war among the Italians, Jewish and black people.
Alvarado said he used to box, and that the streets took the fear of boxing out of him. As the only son in his family, he had no one to run to, and chose to defend himself, getting into drugs and gangs at a young age.
He said he’s seen a lot — guns, knives, syringes, crack pipes– which comes with the territory. By the time he was 15, he picked up serious drug-induced charges, which had a lot to do with the people he was hanging around with at the time. Alvarado said he has had 147 arraignments and 101 convictions, many for serious charges.
Because of his record, Alvarado said people didn’t want to take a chance on him. Things started to turn around for him after a judge in Boston took a chance on him by giving him custody of his daughter, even while he was in jail. But when he got to Lynn, he said he was riding his motorcycle and got run over on Union Street, paralyzing him for 11 months.
Alvarado said he was on some heavy duty medication and was falling down and the day he went to “f up,” a police officer took the time and told him not to ruin what he had, that he saw Alvarado with his daughter all the time.
He said the officer put him into custody, and then sent the police department’s gang task force after him. All Alvarado said he asked was to not be cuffed in front of his kids, that he would walk down to the cruiser and, from that day he had some hope. That’s when he got involved with the Lynn Drug Court program.
“Recovery is hope and action,” Alvarado said. “Without hope, there’s no recovery … I needed a lot of people in my life that would give me that empathy and would give me that compassion to teach me how to relive again. I didn’t know how to live.”
Alvarado said he put his family through a lot with his addiction — they’ve been in jail with him, in hospitals and enslaved in their own house because of him. Now, he knows to stay away from people he used to hang around and protect what he’s got now. He visits his mother every week now, but before that, hadn’t had a relationship with his family for more than 20 years.
“You gotta give something to get something and all I gave was the effort,” Alvarado said. “I didn’t really give much. And the people that were opening doors for me and they would just take the two seconds to hear me out … I just want to thank everyone who was part of my process.”
Antonio Gutierrez, founder of Lynn Youth Street Outreach Advocacy and a member of the Drug Court Team, spoke of his own struggle with addiction. He said he’s been clean for 18 years, 2 months and 13 days. He started using when he was 9 and got clean for the first time at 32.
Gutierrez said he spent three years trying to get clean between detoxes and programs, and at 35, made the decision to go back to New York, where he grew up, and pick up again.
On the night his mother died, he said he shot a bag of dope in her hospital bathroom. Gutierrez said she died in his arms, but that still didn’t stop him from using. At 35, his father had two heart attacks and a massive stroke. He was back in New York and after seeing the condition he was in, he made the decision to smoke crack, because if he shot heroin, he wouldn’t get clean.
In his father’s hospital bathroom, he smoked crack. For seven days, he watched his father die and said he has been clean since. Gutierrez said he doesn’t forget where he came from and now works in the community to help people who have gone through similar struggles.
“It doesn’t end here,” Gutierrez said to the graduates. “This is fantastic. This is great and that’s not taking away from what you did, but it doesn’t stop here … I have built an integrity, where I could be broke in my pockets, but I am who I say I am. Not only do I speak it, but I walk it.
“I’m proud of myself … because there’s very little of us. We’ve buried many. And it hurts to see, with the disease of addiction. It doesn’t want you laying down. It wants you dead walking around and we don’t have to live like that.”
State Sen. Thomas McGee (D-Lynn) presented citations from the State House and Senate to the graduates.
“As you see, there’s a courtroom full of people here who really are pulling for you,” McGee said. “You’ve worked hard to make a difference in your lives. So, we in the legislature recognize that, and my colleagues from the House who couldn’t be here today, they send their congratulations as well … Today is the first day in a better road for tomorrow.”
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she was so proud of all of the graduates and that it’s impressive to hear how much they’ve overcome.
“I know the amount of work they must be putting in to turn their lives from one direction to a positive one,” Kennedy said. “And I just couldn’t be prouder if they were my own children. I’m so happy for all of them and for their families.”