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Recovery in the News
Battling addictions, Paul Poirier has found his Turning Point
Susan Allen
Times Argus
June 9, 2008
Idle time is dangerous for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. There are too many temptations. Just ask Paul Poirier, who has been sober for two years and nine months, and detoxed from a methadone addiction last year.
Poirier is currently the executive director of the adult recovery facility Turning Point Center of Central Vermont, a volunteer position that has clearly become a personal passion — and helps keep him on the straight and narrow.
"Idle time is the worst thing. Isolation is the worst thing," Poirier said last week, walking by two men watching television in the center's lounge, past two pool tables in the game room (the walls painted New England Patriot colors over the objections of Giants' fans), and back into the large, open communal area where Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups regularly meet.
"My worst part in recovery was having too much time alone," he added.
Poirier said he had been an alcoholic for years, and was only persuaded to attend a medical detox center in Massachusetts after friends, including former Gov. Philip Hoff, Poirier's wife and even his children intervened and encouraged him to take that step. It worked; he got sober.
He had more trouble beating the addiction to pain medication, which began when a Dec. 31, 2004, fall on ice on Montpelier's Main Street left him with five severed ribs and on-going pain that continues to this day.
"I remember falling. I had played sports all my life … I knew I was hurt badly," he recalled of the life-altering fall. Although his rib cage was reconstructed, he suffered nerve damage, internal bleeding and blood clots. Two clots are still present and Poirier takes blood thinning medication that must be adjusted every two weeks.
He started with morphine in the hospital, but moved on to other addictive pain medications after his discharge.
"I was discharged with a month's supply of OxyContin, but it didn't last a month," Poirier said. "Eventually the drug that gave me the most benefit was methadone."
Last year, Poirier again entered a detox program, this time at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, to deal with the methadone addiction. He's still in pain, he said, but off methadone and instead working with Massachusetts General Hospital, associated with Harvard University, in hopes of entering a spinal manipulation therapy program.
It's a difficult story to hear. I had covered Poirier's respectable career in politics that included eight years in the Vermont House (where he served as a powerful Majority Leader), an unsuccessful run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House, a lobbyist for Green Mountain Power Corp. and until the accident, an advocate for patients at the Vermont State Hospital through Vermont Protection and Advocacy.
In the Vermont House, he was a critical ally of then-House Speaker Ralph Wright, and the two worked closely to pass legislation they considered important to working class Vermonters. Poirier could predict the vote tally on almost any bill (commonly called "voting counting," and a vital skill for a majority leader) like few before him or since.
Seated in Turning Point last week, it was clear from the look on his face and his genuine enthusiasm for his work there that he's pleased to have worked his way back to being that "respectable" man.
"My life has become productive again," said Poirier, who now serves on the Barre City Council and expects to officially announce his candidacy for the Vermont House later this summer.
Poirier is candid about his personal struggles.
But it's talking about Turning Point that puts a smile on his face. Since he took over in January, volunteers at the center have cleaned and painted the facility, turned a storage area into a kitchen (Barre Mayor Thomas Lauzon donated cabinets that had been stored in his barn), and now serve Sunday breakfasts that might include pancakes or French toast to a regular 40 or so recovering alcoholics before that morning's AA meeting.
Meetings are also held for Narcotics Anonymous, Al Anon (for the families of alcoholics), sufferers of traumatic brain injuries and their families, Wit's End for the parents of children and teens with addictions, and a vet-to-vet program for veterans.
Poirier is also working with Rev. Ralph Howe at Hedding United Methodist Church to set up a teen night every Friday to allow young people to use the game room and talk with other teens about any problems.
The Turning Point centers started in White River Junction, and now there are nine drop-in support centers across the state. The Barre center, which is officially open 92 hours a week (longer if individuals ask for extra hours for a specific reason), opened three years ago and is funded for the coming fiscal year with $50,000 in federal funds that are routed through the Vermont Department of Health.
Poirier called that a bargain for taxpayers. Given the price of a prison bed (roughly $40,000 per year), "If we keep two people from going back to jail, we have more than paid for ourselves," he noted. And, he estimated, "We keep more than two a year from going back to jail."
More than 500 people signed in at the facility in April (they use only first names to protect the confidentiality of recovering alcoholics and addicts), with an additional number of unknown visitors attending the various "Anonymous" meetings, which don't require a sign in.
Although counseling and other services are not provided at Turning Point, Poirier said on occasion he has found permanent housing or a job for some recovering substance abusers. In fact, Job Corps of Williston has contracted with Turning Point to screen applicants to its programs who live in central Vermont.
Working at Turning Point has been a support for Poirier, as well, as he continues to stay sober and drug-free.
"I've been able to become an outgoing person again," he said. When clients walk into Turning Point, Poirier said, "I can say, 'I know what you're talking about. I've been there, done that.'
"I never in my life thought I'd be associated with a recovery house," he said. "I never thought I'd be saying I'm a person in recovery."
Clearly Poirier has been in a dark place. But he's back, as his active participation on the City Council proves.
"I'm excited about issues again."
© 2008 Times Argus