Kicking junk with TRASH
>> Jailhouse fundraiser aims to help addicts wrestle with the bear

by CHRIS BARRY
You know, kids, kicking a dope habit can be a difficult and nasty business. Not that I would necessarily know, mind you, but I watch a lot of daytime television and I've heard the stories. And I can tell you that if there is anything worse than going through heroin withdrawal yourself, it's being stuck in a room with some whiny baby who is barfing, shitting and sweating all over the place and discovering for the first time just how unpleasant an experience detoxing truly is. Trust me, this is not humanity at its finest.

It takes a special person to volunteer their time to sit through someone else's detoxification process. I mean, the whole ordeal takes at least a few days and I think it's safe to say that sitting around in some junkie's apartment, feeding them tea and special herbs and practicing reflexology on their sweaty yellow feet while trying to dodge the puke they keep spraying into the atmosphere is not most people's idea of a swell time. You've really got to be a trooper.

This is why you've got to admire the volunteers who devote themselves to TRASH--a local grassroots organization dedicated to helping junkies detox. In business for just under a year now and operating primarily by word of mouth, TRASH, which stands for Techniques and References for Addict Self-Help, has already guided several dozen addicts through the fun of withdrawal and claims to have a 90 per cent success rate.

Of course, as anyone who has ever tried wrestling with the bear will tell you, detoxing is the easy part, it's staying clean that really presents the challenge. But as head TRASH-woman Catherine Lavarenne explains, "A lot of the people who come to us have only just recently become addicted to heroin and have already tried to stop by themselves, which is practically impossible. And not everybody has the time to wait or the money to get in to the established detox centres. We are there to help and guide people through the process, discreetly and in the comfort of their own homes. Once they've detoxed we can only hope they will have the strength and wisdom to stay off dope for good."

Not surprisingly, however, finding responsible volunteers who are prepared to devote 24 hours a day for several days at a time is not that easy and, in recent months, TRASH has been forced to deny its benevolence to legions of wannabe-ex-junkies.

"The last thing we want to do," says Lavarenne, "is have somebody get themselves mentally prepared to withdraw and then let them down by not having one of our volunteers show up. So we are trying to augment our volunteer network with a couple of paid employees who can go at this full-time."

In other words, the TRASH gang needs money. Yes, the requisite applications have gone out to the requisite government and charitable organizations that fund this kind of thing, but the jury is still out on whether TRASH is in line for them big philanthropy bucks or not. In the meantime, a benefit is going down for them this Saturday, October 14 at Jailhouse Rock featuring local oom-pah punks the Subumlauts, Line 3 and Akuma. Admission is $5. :