The N.E.W.S Interview with Jimmy H

Reimagined Podcast presented by Twin Cities Recovery Project, The News, Navigate, Educate, Wellness, and Services, hosted by Abu the Great. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to The News, Navigate, Educate, Wellness, and Service. Yes, sir, The News. We're here today to talk to you about navigating the community upon release from prison. Today we're going to be talking about three of these different organizations that have a reentry programs for individuals coming back into society. So the first program is Freedom Works. It exists primarily to help former offenders who are returning to society from incarceration. These young men and women who are coming home are provided guidance and structure to men and women who are trusting Jesus to change them through the comprehensive lifelong aftercare that transformed justice-involved offenders into courageous peacemakers, committed criminals into understanding citizens, and absent fathers into loving fathers. So this here is a Christian-based program for people who are trying to get their spirituality and their behavior intact. What are the phases for this reentry aftercare program? Phase one, transitions. Our men learn to have freedom while they develop trust and credibility. Phase two, our men exercise their openness in relationships while building their personal support network. Phase three, building their new life alongside their support network, our men start to work on new goals for their next step in their lives of freedom. Step four, our men continue to experience new freedoms as they reach out and back to both the local community as well as the Freedom Works community. Now what is reentry and aftercare schedule? Monday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., these men are able to go to work, school, or find other structured things to do in the community. On Monday nights from 6 to 6.30 p.m., there's a house meeting. From 7 p.m., it's community Bible study. On Thursday from 6.15 to 8 p.m., connection, fellowships, and dinner with Freedom Works alumni, mentors, volunteers, and community. Fridays, second Friday of each month, food drive. We'd be on the van by 5 p.m. to ride with the group. We will arrive back at the residence at 9.30. The weekend expectations are required to attend a weekly support group of their choice. Local church services participants are required to attend a weekly church service of their choice. That is the Freedom Works reentry service program. The next reentry program that we will talk about will be Easter Seals. The reentry program approach is to provide one-on-one support through a reentry counselor and access a variety of course services. Supporting second chance reentry works one-on-one with individual exiting incarceration to connect them to the resources that help stabilize their lives and avoid a return to prison. This program provides job placement, help finding work, job skills, child support services, mental health care, legal aid, and mentor. Service this program provides mental health care, navigating the system, supportive network, mentor, one-on-one support, skill training, help finding work, job replacement, and advocacy. The population this program serves are all age, criminal justice history, females and males. Sounds like a very good program if you ask me. And it's one that's much needed in our community right now. We have a lot of young people and older people coming home who don't know how to hold down a job and some who's never had a job. That is why we wanted to bring you all these different reentry programs to show you all in the community that there are some places that put forth the effort to rehabilitate or lend a helping hand to those who are coming home with the stigma of being incarcerated. You know, one of the most powerful words in the world, if you ask me, the most powerful word in America is felon. Because when you got that label on you, a lot of times you're cut off from so many different things that should be your human right. You can't vote, some jobs you can't have, you can't own a gun to protect yourself. There's just so many different things and the way that people look at you when you have felon by your name, you know, it's really, oh man, it's heartbreaking. The next place I would like to talk about is Emerge. Emerge is a community organization in North Minneapolis who has a few different branches. They have a program, it's called SOAR, and it's for people who are coming out of incarceration and who are trying to get their life in order. Emerge is really great in that aspect of help. I love doing this work. This is the thing I think I was kind of made for, man. I love helping people, especially in my community. I am a person who, like everybody else, man, criminal behavior, sometimes I still do have thoughts. It's not nothing big anymore, but it's still anything you do outside the law is a crime and I understand all that. Some of the ways people are treated when they are trying to change their lives is ridiculous, man. It's like, wow, does a person ever get a chance to make amends? Because I've done something wrong in the past, are you going to hold that against me for life? I just think that a person goes and does their time and has come home showing that they're trying to find a job, trying to be a productive member of this society. We need to at least give them that chance to show us, are they serious enough? Don't treat me like, oh, you're just going to be going back to jail anyway, so, no, you don't know that, man, and you wouldn't want anyone to treat you like that or your family members. I think we just need to be more caring and concerning for ourselves and other people and giving people a chance, a second, a third, a fourth chance. Who is we to say that someone can't change? We always want to place judgment on people and thinking that I was saying once a thief, always a thief. I don't find that to be true in the sense that people actually do want to do good and do better. I just ask that we all give them a chance and that if there's anything Twin Cities Recovery can do or if there's any programs out there that helps with getting people back on track, please hook up with me, hook up with us at Twin Cities Recovery Project, 3400 East Lake Street or 1011 West Broadway, 2102 Lorry Avenue, North Damari Station. Reimagined Podcast presented by Twin Cities Recovery Project, The News, Navigate, Educate, Wellness, and Services, hosted by Abu the Great. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to The News, Navigate, Educate, Wellness, and Service. Peer recovery support groups are really starting to pop up and you can start to see a lot of individuals getting together. People are just having peer support meetings where they're getting together and really helping each other out and not putting a label on them because a lot of people are feeling stigmatized because many of these people are on Medicaid-assisted treatment. With Medicaid-assisted treatment and some of these groups, NAs, AAs, and things like that, there's a big divide on if you are sober or not if you're taking medication. The whole thing is people don't understand that recovery is a personal journey and for a person like me who takes Suboxone, who rely on another substance to help me stay off of my drug of choice or substance of choice that is deadly to me, I choose the latter. I choose the Medicaid-assisted treatment because it's helping me stay stable. A lot of people just don't understand what Medicaid-assisted treatment even is. They think it's another drug, but I don't get any euphoria from taking Suboxone. I don't get no high. I'm not sitting and nodding out and all of that. Some people with different body chemistry may have some different reactions. Yes, yes, and there's going to be a new meeting starting Wednesday at Milkweed Coffee at 5.30. Go check it out if this is something that could be helpful. Trailblazers is a space for people who practice harm reduction through plant medicines, cannabis in particular. In recovery, many people have felt shamed, unwelcome, discredited, ostracized, and not taken serious if an individual decides to include cannabis inside of their recovery space. For those who believe in the medicated benefit from this plant do not seem abandoned or to exist much at all. The belief that we deserve the same respect and space both inside of the recovery community and society at large is not a wild idea. Trailblazers is a meeting where people can go to talk about their recovery without judgment for practicing harm reduction in this capacity. All are welcome. We are here to provide space, support, and inspiring strength while minimizing stigma. We want to be the face of why we are just as acceptable and exceptional as anyone else that is working towards a better life. Milkweed seems like the right choice as a venue as it is a local business that takes great care of their product and mission. We are so grateful for having a space that holds such an amazing value. We hope to see you there at Milkweed Coffee on Wednesdays at 5.30 p.m. Thank you. Reimagined Podcast presented by Twin Cities Recovery Project, The News, Navigate, Educate Wellness and Services, hosted by Abu the Great. Good morning everyone. Good morning. Welcome to The News, Navigate, Educate Wellness and Service. Good evening everyone. Welcome back. We're here with Jimmy H., the founder of the new Trailblazer meeting, a person in long-term recovery. He's here to tell us a little bit about himself. Without further introductions, Jimmy H. Hey, what up? What's up, Jimmy? How you doing, man? I'm having a day, but this is really helping, not going to lie, keeping me busy. Thank you for coming in, man. We're here today, man, to talk a little bit about your new meeting that you're getting started up, the Trailblazers, and a little bit about your background, where you're from, how'd you get here, and what's getting you to stay? I got that. Hey, I'm Jimmy. Some people know me as Jimmy the Drunk. On my right, I've recently called myself Anchor Sale, because I think that you need to be a sale and help people get where they need to be. I started Trailblazers recently. I'm a person with long-term recovery. I've lived in Minneapolis for 11 years, and it's hard to imagine going anywhere else. I didn't like my upbringing, so I moved somewhere that I felt that I could be accepted. In the suburbs where I grew up is where I had more dealings with the police. Not a fan of those experiences. I didn't receive a lot of help. I received help when I got here. I had to get sober. I was homeless. I was houseless, and I had some really scary experiences. I lost who I was. I looked in the mirror one day, and I literally did not know who I was. I didn't know what the decisions I was making were, and I wasn't conscious of them, which was scary. I was a gutter drunk. I went to detox at 1800 Chicago and had a very eye-opening experience. I went to Vinland National Center, which is a wonderful treatment center in Loretto, Minnesota that specializes in TBIs. Afterwards, I lived in a sober house for a year. That is currently where I work as well, but that didn't happen until later. During the sober house, I lived there for a year, went to outpatient while I was there, was slow to get a job because I wanted to get this right. I started doing an attempt job that I could sign up for shifts, and then I went to work at a hotel, and I made my work ethic the first part of my recovery. Mind, spirit, and heart were my first things to take care of. From a hotel, I went and helped, and I ran a very successful ice cream shop and company for a while, though some people wouldn't agree. Afterwards, I had a mental breakdown. It was a rough split from that job, and I didn't know what to do with my life. My mental health was really bad for the first time in my recovery. I went to Loso Compo off Lake Street, and I was eating with a friend, and a man walked in. He was probably a six-foot-four African-American dude, and he came up and asked if I had any money. He didn't know it, but I knew him. He lived in my shelter, and for the first time, I experienced what I believed to be like survivor's guilt, that I'm this five-foot-six little white dude, and I got out. Why shouldn't he be able to? So sobbing, I bought his food, and I told him that I feel like I'm messed up as a person, and that my heart is kind of screwed. He hugged me, and he looked me in the eyes, and he said, there's nothing wrong with your heart, or this wouldn't be happening. That experience messed me up, and the next day, I went to the House of Charity, which is now Agate Housing in downtown Minneapolis, which gave me a safe place to stay for the two years that I needed it, and I talked to Jeff, the director, and I said, I want to do advocacy work. What do I do? Do I go to college? What do I do? I want to help people, and he said, well, let me introduce you to some CPRSs that kind of have like a residency type thing here. That's where I got introduced to Kairos. I went through the certification. I became a CPRS. I help addicts in the community, connect them with resources, and I couldn't be placed, so I made a placement. I made my own way, and now I work at the Sober House that helped save my life, and I just try to give people a good sense of self, help them build themselves into a person that they will respect, the same that I did, whatever that means for them, and I try to have fun with people because I think recovery can be a little rigid and serious, which is, I think, kind of a tragedy. Rule 62. Well, I know that with that, you and this new trailblazer meeting that you're starting might get some backlash because it's about medicated-assisted treatment, and you deal with cannabis as one of those medicated-assisted treatments. If you can, can you talk a little bit about the reason why you're starting this meeting and more about why cannabis is a form of medicated-assisted treatment and why it shouldn't be looked at as a person still trying to get high? Absolutely. I'm going to talk about my relationship with cannabis first and foremost. For me, I have borderline personality disorder. I have CPTSD. I know that's not in the DSM, but I have very complex trauma that stemmed at a very early age, and when I was younger, I started using cannabis, and I always said from a younger age, like before it was legal, that this was the only thing that helped me, and it got me through hard times at home, and it got me through hard times at school, and then I discovered drinking, and that changed everything. Drinking ruined my life. Alcohol, in my opinion, is one of the greatest evils of man, and so I drink my way into homelessness, all right? I don't smoke my way into homelessness. In my first year and three months of recovery, I did not use any mood-altering substances except for non-addictive, non-habit-forming medications prescribed to me by my doctor and only as prescribed. After a year and three months, I had spent that time thinking about my relationship with cannabis, and I had come to terms with the fact that something felt missing from my life, and I knew what it was. So I made a very careful decision, and I went back, and for that time, I felt ostracized many times in recovery programs. I felt rejected. People would not hang out with me. People stigmatized me within a stigmatized group, and I couldn't be honest, and the biggest thing about recovery is honesty, right? So if we discourage honesty and we turn people away from programs like AA and NA, then I don't understand, especially AA, because the whole message is the only requirement to be a member is the desire to stop drinking. So I have that desire, and I did, and then it's like, oh, but it's an absence, and it gets confusing, all right? It gets confusing, and I've had a hard time. For two, three years of my recovery, I felt like I had to lie to people and that the only way for me to be accepted is to do something that I don't believe in, that I don't believe is necessary for my recovery, because I've been fine. I have stability. I've lived in the same house for three years. I've never been able to say that in my adult life. You want to see me five years ago, you'll have a different argument about how that affects my life. So I had a really hard time. A lot of people made me feel unwelcome, and if anybody's listening who disagrees with that, I'm telling you from personal experience that that is my feeling and that is my experience. And I know a lot of people who agree with you when it comes to Medicaid-assisted treatment. You are really ostracized. You are really made to feel like you are not a part of the recovery community. That comes from my own experience. I am a person in long-term recovery who takes Suboxone. So I understand your frustration. I understand why you would want to start a meeting especially for people who think and feel like you do about cannabis. Exactly. And the crazy part is I feel like I see more acceptance towards people who use medically-assisted treatment like Suboxone and methadone, and it confuses me. I needed to start this meeting because, as I said, I felt really ostracized and everything, and I got a job in recovery, and I decided that I should probably get my medical card. So I did that. And the shame and the guilt that I felt was being pushed on me that I did feel, I really struggled with this again. I got my MedCard, and that day, the shame and guilt went away, and I felt empowered. And I started to realize how many people were self-medicating that are probably qualified for the same program that I am. I felt empowered, and I got kind of an attitude, and I looked for a space like this. I could not find it. There's online, but I decided that if we're going to legalize and if people are doing this and people feel shame and they're having to keep secrets in recovery, that is not conducive to staying sober. People are driven out of 12-step recovery programs, and you know what they do? They feel alone, and they relapse. And you know what happens when people relapse? They die. So I needed to create a space for people like me where we can congregate because if we congregate, we can advocate for ourselves, and if we can advocate for ourselves, then maybe we can be at least as accepted as people who use suboxone and methadone. I mean, for real. So Trailblazers is recovery-focused, non-12-step, secular. The deal is that we go there, talk about recovery. We talk about advocacy for people like us. We do daily readings. We do an inventory. But again, it's recovery-based. It's an open conversation. It's not rigid. Nobody's watching your clean time. Nobody's asking you what step you're on. We're all just like people in recovery who are trying to do this. I made it non-12-step because I know people who are afraid of 12-step programs, and let me tell you, a lot of those people want to show up, and a lot of people in 12-step programs have showed up, and this meeting is for you, even if you have questions. That is great, man, really, really great, man. It is refreshing to see someone who felt so strong about something and not worry about what everyone else was going to say about him. I know it probably was hard for you in the work that you do as a CPRS. It's still not as well accepted, even in that realm, as it should be, but I can see the thing changing to a more understanding community. I know you had some incarceration, not incarcerated, but you've worked around a lot of people who have been incarcerated, so you know how to lead people, in a way, through the system on trying to get back into the community after incarceration. What is it that you can tell someone coming to Trailblazer who's just getting out of incarceration, who's trying to find their way, they don't want to tell nobody that they're using marijuana because it might get them sent back to jail or anything. What do you tell them? That's a complicated question, because things are about to rapidly change in Minnesota, and I do believe that part of new legislation may involve help low-level offenders get back out. I'm not entirely sure about that, but I'm pretty sure it is. What I would say is, if you want to come to the meeting and you have questions, definitely show up. Who knows? Maybe somebody at the meeting has experience with that, but I would say talk to your PO and figure out what exactly the laws are revolved around medical cannabis and parole. I think it depends on what level you're at, stuff like that, but I've seen people succeed in, I believe, getting their medical card who are on probation. Now, I will say, play it safe. The system may be horrible, but if there's one thing I've seen it do, it's help people get their mind right a little bit by staying clean. If you can do that, you can prove that you're not out here trying to just smoke out. I think it's possible, but obviously, it's so important to do it legally. The worst thing is that low-level, non-violent offenders are going to jail for this, not to mention disproportionate statistics. I think that's what so many people are afraid of about this new legalization of cannabis, and especially people that's in recovery who say that marijuana's a gateway drug, that People are going to use this freedom to be able to smoke to say that because it's legalized and it's because it's given to me by a doctor, I can smoke as much as I want. I don't think that's the premise of the medicated-assisted treatment focus on marijuana. I know a lot of people who cannot use any substance ever again. I respect that. I totally respect it. I mean, I'm just asking for that same respect. Everyone's recovery is kind of like a snowflake. Every single person's recovery is completely unique and individual. Do I believe that many people in recovery who don't make a careful decision and aren't conscious of it, I do believe that there are people who would abuse it and that it would be a gateway. Now, however, I do know that there are people like me. I do know that there's an adjustment period because, let's be real, it's gotten a lot stronger lately. But so, there's an adjustment period, you know, and there's also like, there's people it won't work for. I knew, I knew somehow inside of me that it would work for me, and I did eventually get a doctor to tell me that I was correct in that assessment. Like Trailblazers, we're not here like a bunch of goofy Spicolis running around like stoners and being like, ha ha. No, not. I'm trying to be the face of how it can work. Not how it can work for everyone, how it can work and work well. I'm an example of that. I've had some degree of success in my recovery, and I have been incorporating cannabis into my recovery and wellness for three years. I would say that, like, I understand the stigma, and I understand the fear that people have. I understand they are saying these things to protect themselves and their people. I understand that. The fact of the matter is, is that we are grown, you know? Yes. And we make our own decisions. And the great thing about it is that you're not telling people, you know, just because I got my card, I can smoke out. You are telling people to be thoughtful in the process. Make sure this is something that you are getting to use for a medicine. I want to say pitch, but your message in the whole thing. And I believe that people with an adverse feeling towards it really needs to listen to the message and not just think about, oh, they just want to smoke weed. I'll say, I'm the founder of this meeting. I did this totally by myself. It's open. If people have had long-term success making the same choice that I did, you can come. If you have apprehensions and you haven't yet, you can come. If you do not intend on using cannabis and you just want to be educated, you can come. I will say if you come to cast your opinions and judgment, you cannot come. And I personally will ask you to leave and I will write this shit. That is not what this space is for. I'll repeat again, this space is for people to feel accepted. If you walk into this space with judgments and reservations against us, please stay home. All right. All right. Well, thank you, Jimmy, for that aspect of this conversation. But I would like to move to another part of the work that we do, and it's the epidemic of the overdose in our community and the fentanyl craze that is happening to so many young people in our community. It's just amazing, man. As a CPRS, I know you see it a lot. I see it a lot. How will you and the Trailblazers approach the conversation when people come to you? Yeah, it's heavy. I have a lot of very strong feelings about fentanyl. And I forgot the name of the other, the thing that it's being cut with now. I've heard it called Trank before. Actually, the other day on the bus, I got to see what those lesions look like for the first time. And it kind of scarred me, man. And I could see the look on the person's face, he had to be younger than me, I'm 32. The look on his face was, I think he knew that he had hit the point where there might not be a way to treat that. This is haunting. I was houseless five years ago. This is different. This changed. It's in everything. I wouldn't feel comfortable buying a drug off the street because it's in everything. And it's scary. It's scary because I've had clients say, I was one of the lucky ones in treatment. Do you know what the treatment intake person told me? I'm one of 5% of people who thought they were just using one drug, but were actually testing positive for fentanyl too. Do you know how disturbing that is? That's across the board for all drugs. That's across the board. So people are using one thing, they're getting addicted to the other. And it's creating more addicts to a worse drug. People who are rolling the dice every single day. And they're already rolling the dice buying anything else. So how is Trailblazers going to approach this? I view it the same as MAT. It's harm reduction. The fact of the matter is that I know people who have been addicted to methamphetamine. I know people who have been addicted to heroin. They are my current friends. And many of them say to me, thank you for this space. Because if I didn't have my relationship with cannabis, I'd probably be out there. I'll tell you what, I'd be out there drinking right now. And so if somebody has reservations about going into recovery, A, because they can't go into the rooms and use harm reduction with cannabis. Maybe that's their choice. Maybe that's the MAT that they would like to use. Maybe that's the one that helps them the most. Maybe they don't want to use an opiate or something as a treatment. And so I approach it by opening these people with open arms. I want us to be an accepting group. I'm a CPRS. So if somebody relapses, I have to stay by their side. That didn't start when I became a CPRS. My best friend is only a year sober. He's turned his life around. I stuck by his side when a lot of people didn't. I want this space to exist for people who have gone back out and want to try medically assisted treatment. And I encourage people to go to other meetings. I don't want this to be your only meeting. I mean, come on. We all need as much recovery as we can get. The fact of the matter is, it's harm reduction. And I want to approach it as such. I want to establish advocacy in so many ways revolving this subject. I have a huge heart to go into those master plans that I have would take a long time. Well, thank you, Jimmy. I believe that your fight is a great one. I hope and pray people give it a chance and give it an understanding where they're not so judgmental and dismissive to what we're talking about here. We're talking about medicated assisted treatment. We're not talking about Cheech and Chong smoke out. We're not talking about bloods blazing people are going to be thinking of when they think about marijuana as medicated assisted treatment. We're looking at this exactly like we look at methadone, like we look at suboxone or anabuse or any of those things that people use to help them get past their addiction. With that said, thank you for coming. I'll say one last thing. So we're here. I believe more demographics should be served in recovery. That's the goal of this. I want to be an advocate for a lot of different areas. This is just one ambition. Trailblazers is going to be at 530 every Wednesday at Milkweed Coffee on East Lake Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I will say that I chose this space very carefully. Milkweed is amazing business. I would recommend you check out anyway. They make all their own alternative milks. They serve vegan pastries that are actually just killer. And they also have a good selection of mild THC seltzers. Now it is possible if we get enough people to go that this will outgrow that space. And again, that's at 530 p.m. Wednesdays, Milkweed Coffee, East Lake Street. You know, we ain't here to keep our eyes on your side of the road. At least I'm not. I'm not here to keep my eyes on your use or your consumption. We're here so people can ask questions, relate, and yeah. To you be your way and to me be mine. Yeah, we focus on gratitude and growth in this house. Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you.