A life-sentence of DESPAIR

Ian Desjarlais was lucky to survive his term in prison, where many find themselves in a loop where their addictions are fuelled instead of treated

- KATHARINE LAKE BERZ

Ian Desjarlais says he yearns for Canadians to recognize addicts in prison as people in need of relief, not reprimand.

The vomiting and shaking didn’t surprise him.

But the withdrawal cravings were something else. So intense Ian Desjarlais had to cling to the halfway house couch to fight the urge to comb the floor for mislaid crystals of meth.

In the darkest hours and minutes, the Indigenous 39-year-old conjured up the faces of men he had known behind bars — men in the grip of addiction — their faces a vivid reminder of what he was fighting against.

Some of those men were dead. Others returned to prison so fast, after breaking parole by using drugs, that their shortlived freedom seemed just a brief intermission in a life-sentence of despair.

During those gruelling first days of recovery, Ian drank water in hopeful sips. He shivered, frightened and alone. He pleaded for sleep. But every moment he endured brought him one step closer to breaking free of the drugs that claim so many in Canada’s federal prisons.

It was the hardest thing he’s ever done.

“It was excruciating,” Ian said, shaking his head.

“It was a battle for my body and my mind.”

His fight ended in triumph. He made it through the battle of prison addiction and the battle of withdrawal and emerged into a lasting recovery.

But his feat is, tragically, far too rare.

As Canada grapples with a severe national drug crisis, experts say the country’s prisons are overwhelmed and underprepared. Convicts are sent into a miserable loop where prison fuels their addictions instead of stamping them out, making it nearly impossible for them to reintegrate into society and almost certain to re-offend.

Everyone pays the price.