Sober 6 years and counting

Johnnie Rosario spent nearly all of her adult life chasing, using, trafficking, and even cooking methamphetamine. Some of those years she spent in prison and jail, in and out of hand cuffs, police precincts, and courtrooms. By grace and love, her mother took her children from her during the non-sober years with a message: You can get them back when you’re done with your ********.

Then, on March 15, 2018, she quit. Cold turkey. Never looked back.

Today she is six years sober.

In her first year of sobriety, which was the most difficult for her, she spent quite a bit of her time and patience to pull me up on the wagon. Eventually I joined her, and she became my pillar of accountability until I was able to manage sobriety on my own.

The journey has been spectacular. A blessing, indeed. And it’s been a public journey that thousands of you helped both of us and so many others in recovery or wanting a way out who have been watching. You kept Johnnie accountable, too, and she proudly boasts of the kind words she has received from many of you over the years.

Johnnie is one of three founders and shareholders of Kandit, Inc. She was a fish out of water when we started things, but so was I. In the beginning, I was not used to being in the public eye or socializing with people, and she held my hand through it all, encouraging sincerity and teaching me about charm and charisma by her example. She was not used to the politics and the menace of hateful trolls, so we helped each other through all that.

Over the years we have spoken out about injustices that have earned us the resentment of the powers that are. And it’s always been the funniest thing to us that while we report the truth about evidence and accusations of political and police corruption, the only thing the indignant can say in reply is, ‘Oh, they’re just meth addicts.’

In my experience, the people quickest to say things like that ironically are addicts themselves. What’s that old saying we learned as kids? Point one finger at me and the others are pointed where?

But meth addiction is no joke. For the addict, it likely is the most difficult adversity of mental and physical health he, she, and they ever will live through. And it’s either you overcome it into a life of love, or you die in it with a heart blackened by a dark ocean of deceit, treacherous self indulgence, and regret. For everyone else, the meth epidemic has caused us to live in a society filled with voids of love and productivity, crime, pain, mental health anguish that never is treated, and suffering for so many.

Among the most painful points of this journey of the past six years for Johnnie were the times she tried to volunteer services to some in the organized but highly unfunded and political ‘recovery community,’ and they shunned us. Yes, for those of you in public office who don’t know this, not only are recovery services too far and few between and the staff positions underpaid, but the politics and the treachery within some of these organizations are so thick that addicts wanting to get better are turned away. Some attempt suicide. Some succeeded.

Painful as that was, that didn’t stop Johnnie. All she needed was her phone and her car, to take the calls and answer the messages and drive to someone in need. Over the past six years, she has personally helped scores of addicts to become citizens in recovery. There has been a lot of yelling. A lot of crying. A lot of hugging. A lot of living. A lot of love.

In the past six years, there has been a constant search for the truth. Along this journey we discovered The Truth, and have grown closer to the mother church, and further from ourselves, our egos. And just like that journey, this journey of sobriety – this story of life – is far from over. God willing, there still is so much more truth to uncover, corruption to topple, weights to lift at the gym, dogs and cats to find and rescue, addicts to embrace into sobriety, suffering people to clothe and feed, prisoners to console, struggling small businesses to promote, meals to share, and prayers to pray.