Chris Packham was living the dream.
The 1995 San Jose State alumnus had a wife, kids and his dream job as a professional fighter, competing overseas in the K-1 martial arts organization in Japan.
But like many in that line of work, the end came unannounced and unexpected after he suffered a ripped iris and “completely detached” retina, leaving him blind in his left eye.
That’s when his life seemed to fall apart.
“[After that], depression hit in,” Packham said. “And when depression hit in, drinking and other drugs became available. For two years, I kind of destroyed myself.”
According to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, one-third of adults who suffer from substance abuse also experience depression.
Packham turned to methamphetamine and vodka.
He said he wasn’t interested in painkillers to heal his physical ailments; it was his emotional wounds that needed to be bandaged by the substances.
“Alcohol helped numb [the emotional pain],” he said. “And meth helped really numb it.”
The reality is, Packham is far from alone. Substances such as meth and alcohol are traditionally regarded as “social drugs,” but some experts theorize those substances cover up underlying problems.
Mary Cook, program coordinator for the Alcohol and Drug Studies program at San Jose City College, estimates that about 10% to 15% of people go down the “substance-centric path.”
“People often use socially, fairly heavily, in their 18 to early 20s,” Cook said.
She explains that once people hit their mid-twenties, they choose a path, one of which can be moderation. Some people cut heavy use of substances out of their lives once settled.
“On the other hand, you have people who are 30 and still hitting the bars every weekend and it’s still heavily embedded in their world,” Cook said.
People who go down that path are often masking feelings such as loneliness, trauma and loss, Cook said.
“[Young adulthood] is when folks really start facing some demons,” said William Armaline, director of the SJSU Human Rights Collaborative and former professor of the Drugs and Society course. “One of the ways that folks cover those demons is drug use.”
Packham said at age 30, his addictions were very much still entrenched.
He had never run into trouble with the law, but in 2004 he was arrested for fraud and faced six years in prison. His wife then took their kids and returned to her original home in Mexico.
“She left,” he said. “That was my lowest point.”
Rock bottom can look different for a variety of addicts.
“[Many people], because of the lifestyle, burn bridges,” Cook said. “They cut off their family or their friends. They get fired, they get evicted. So, increasingly their support system gets smaller and smaller.”
According to an October 2018 study by the California Health Care Foundation, 15% of Californians aged 18-25 had a substance abuse disorder with any substance in 2015-16. As much as 36% of the same age bracket reported binge alcohol use.
“I’ve had countless students that struggle with addiction,” Armaline said. “I’ve had countless family members that struggle with it, friends that have struggled with it and died from it.”
Packham’s wife returned to the Bay Area and helped him hire a lawyer. After finally confiding to the lawyer that he had an addiction, an arrangement was made. Packham was sentenced to six months of treatment in a rehabilitation facility.
“That six-month treatment saved my life,” he said.
His rehabilitation was made possible because of Proposition 36, a landmark piece of legislation in California that allows non-violent drug offenders to complete drug rehabilitation treatment rather than be sentenced to incarceration.
Fourteen years later, Packham is completely sober with no relapses. He now works as a drug and alcohol counselor for New Life Recovery Centers in San Jose.
“Back then I used to hurt people,” Packham said. “Now I heal people.”
Packham estimated the average rehab treatment in San Jose costs about $10,000 out-of-pocket for 30 days of treatment, which might be too high for a lot of those who suffer from addiction.
“It’s not the same for a wealthy tech executive out here to deal with a cocaine habit as it is for someone who is [living] paycheck to paycheck with kids, who’s dealing with a painkiller habit because their doctor put them on there when they broke their foot or whatever,” Armaline said.
Most people with addiction and recovery experiences believe in legislation similar to Proposition 36. Packham, Cook and Armaline say that laws should focus on treating those suffering from addiction as patients, not criminals.
However, the research doesn’t support drug treatment as a means to thwart recidivism.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the UCLA completed a study in 2007 showing that four in 10 defendants that complete the program are rearrested for drugs less than 30 months after their initial conviction. Only 25% even completed the mandated drug treatment.
Packham said those numbers don’t mean that kind of legislation isn’t the correct direction in which to head.
“True freedom comes from choosing,” he said. “If we can choose, and we have the education to choose which avenue we want to go . . . We might not choose the right choice sometimes, but sometimes we will. But if you’re in jail, you’re just buying time and learning how to do scams.”
In 2014, California voters also approved Proposition 47 which recategorizes non-violent drug possession from a felony offense to a misdemeanor.
But Cook thinks the turn made by California needs to be sharper. She said despite being defined as a disease by many medical associations, addiction is still considered a criminal element.
“We need to be just as efficient with addiction as we are with criminal justice,” Cook said.
Cook said the same amount of attention placed on people with mental disabilities should be placed on those who struggle with addiction.
“Right now if I throw a chair through my dentist’s window next door, I get treatment right away,” she said. “Policemen come and they lock my ass up. But if I say I need a detox, I say I need treatment – I’m on a waiting list . . . You tell an addict [to] call back in two weeks, and they could die.”
