Sitting in front of the Wawa on 6th and Chestnut Street in Center City, Philadelphia, you’ll find an old-fashioned man beside you, asking for transportation money. Due to its location, the Wawa is a gathering place for Philadelphia’s homeless population. Rodney, though, has been in a recovery home, clean from drugs for three months.
After 30 years of addiction, Rodney’s motivation to get clean stemmed from the brutal experience on the streets. “I was tired of that life,” Rodney says. “All your friends are hyenas and wolves. They’re not real.”
On April 23rd, his 55th birthday, he walked into the 1638 S. 60th Street recovery home, where he is currently staying.
While methadone treatment is commonly used to replace heroin addiction, Rodney is against it. “It’s a legal heroin. It’s still an addiction. Stand outside 10th and Market methadone center and watch how [addicts] come out leaning.”
Any drug substitution, according to Rodney, is just replacing the problem with another one.
“We, [addicts], can’t use no drugs because we’re abusive… [I’ve seen] alcoholics destroy their lives just as bad as I have,” Rodney says. Instead of easing off of heroin, he abruptly quit, and suffered through sickness, constantly feeling hot, sweaty, dizzy, lightheaded, “like I ate some bad food.”
Still, he didn’t relapse. The only thing that got him through the experience was his prayers.
Those same prayers keep Rodney afloat today. In his late 20s, he had heard about Islam. “A seed was planted in my brain, and it took some time to grow,” he says. The drugs clouded his mind, but the seed was still there. “I learned from example. I was watching [Muslims] doing the right thing. Out of curiosity, I read the [Quran].”
Islam now acts as his guide, offering him a way of life and routine to keep him clean from drugs. He describes Islam as a lit match in a dark neighborhood, offering him direction, regardless of how many walls he might bump into.
Other hobbies keep Rodney occupied throughout his urges. “One day… [as I was dreaming], I was cleaning and I was smoking crack. And when I woke up, that’s what I was doing, trying to pull the pipe. I sat up and I felt my body like really missing it, really missing it,” Rodney says. “So what I had to do is I had to replace it with something else. Got off the bed, got in and I started doing push-ups. Started working out, listening to music, started writing.”
30 years ago, you couldn’t convince Rodney that he’d go through this struggle. He ran track from 8th grade summer to his high school graduation, being coached by Olympic track star Carl Lewis’ father, William Lewis. Carl and Rodney attended the same high school in Willingboro, New Jersey. Rodney was fast, making it into the local newspaper several times and getting a scholarship to St. Augustine college.
He felt on top of the world. Track was Rodney’s escape.
At home, his parents were dealing with a divorce. He felt special at college, attended every party, and eventually got into party drugs. “I [didn’t] want to go home because [my parents were] arguing, they fussing and fighting, but I’m the man over here [in college]. I look like a god over here, but here’s the party and everything that’s going on, here’s the drugs and everything that’s going on, it’s like a false world,” he says. It started with alcohol, then marijuana, then powder cocaine, then crack cocaine, “then you’re around all the other bullsh*t.”
The drugs and parties quickly took their effect on Rodney, and he dropped out after his freshman year.
He’s been on the streets ever since.
“I’m in control. If I’m hungry, I can go anywhere.”
Rodney
Rodney is one of many who struggle from the college gateway into drugs. 37% of college students regularly use an illegal drug or abuse alcohol. The problem is only worsening, with a 343% increase of opiod usage in colleges between 1993 and 2005.
Now, Rodney is enjoying his life clean off of drugs. He works at Tastycake, inspecting the products going down the conveyor line. He likes what he does, but he hopes to pick up a job coaching track this summer. “I’m in control. If I’m hungry, I can go anywhere,” Rodney says. “Before, all my money went to the drugs.”
