Among the bustle of conversations that fill the air of Sharon’s Nook in Grand Bank, the 22-year-old from Fortune told The Southern Gazette that she is coming upon one-year drug free.
It’s an accomplishment she owes in part to being part of the methadone treatment program.
“It has changed my life big time,” said Boland.
Although she has made attempts in the past to stay clean, she said that nothing worked until she started the treatment program.
“I always had a slip. If it was only one a month, once a week or once a year it still mattered to me trying to get my son back and the thing is with that I had to be clean at all times.”
Boland was not long after finishing a four-month detox program when she found out she was pregnant with her now two-year-old son. She made an attempt to stay clean, but was once again overtaken by her addiction.
“I stayed clean while I was pregnant, but to be honest it wasn’t much longer after (he was born) that I ended up going back on drugs again, and that’s when my son got put into kinship care, - then that’s when I went back at the drugs really hard and that’s when I end up in jail.”
She served a 13-month for break and enter.
“I broke into a friends house to get a fix,” she said.
Boland said that her son is the main reason she wanted to win the battle over her addiction.
“To be honest if I didn’t have my little boy I probably wouldn’t of cared so much,” she said. “But he’s motivation for me everyday. Getting out of jail I didn’t care about nothing , but the only thing (pushing) me to stay clean was my little boy. No doubt, he keeps me on track wanting to be a better person and stay clean.”
Boland said that since she has been free from drugs she is a different person from the one she knew before.
“It’s not just one change it’s every change,” she said. “I’m a different person really, if anybody looked at me before I was known as the drug addict, you know steal the eyes out of your head type thing…”
She said that now people are looking at her in a different light, “but now I am known as a lot better person, I got respect and I got a reputation like I should of before,” she said as she fought back the tears.
Boland feels that having to travel from Grand Bank to Marystown for treatment is deterring some people who need the program from looking into it.
“There are so many people here that would want to get on it but they can’t afford it,” she said. “Going back and forth to St. John’s they would probably be able to do that, but having to go back and forth to Marystown everyday is the biggest thing.”
Boland said that she travels 45 minutes from her home in Fortune to Marystown five days a week in order to receive her treatment, and that does not include any wait time once she gets to the pharmacy.
She also has to travel to St. John’s once a month in order to get a prescription for the medication.
Currently methadone is only administered at two locations in Marystown. Boland would like to see the program offered closer to her home town. She has spoken to locations in her area and asked if they were able to provide the medication, and she has even made her concerns known to Carol Ann Haley, MHA for Burin- Grand Bank. But there has not been a lot of developments.
She said that having to travel to receive the medication has been an issue for her given that she doesn’t drive, and has to rely on a family friend to bring her over to Marystown. “He drives me back and forth everyday because he sees the progress, and he knows if he keeps doing this for me then I’m just going to keep being the person I am now, and that’s the only reason that I have that support because of where I have come since I’ve been on methadone. But you know anything could happen to him. I could get a call saying he had a heart attack or anything like that. I know it is not all about me, but if I have got to go without my (medication) for even one day I would probably really crack up. It’s the same thing as doing drugs. You’ll still withdraw from it, it’s not the same thing but it’s a substitute.”
When she first started on the methadone treatment, she felt the withdrawl symptoms from giving up drugs.
“Just experiencing that was not nice, so I can’t imagine if I have to come off it cold turkey.”
