BACKSTORY

by Jane Clark

In April 2007, my brother-in-law, Dickie, passed away. The obituary said it was Leukemia. What it didn’t mention was the impact that his meth addiction had on his health and ability to fight the disease. But his passing forced me to take a look at my own complicit behavior (and ignorance) in his addiction. I always thought he was just “partying,” and having had my own “party” experiences, I didn’t think I was in a position to judge. Until he landed in the hospital, for three months the first time, with blood poisoning from a wound he had picked at repeatedly until it was an inch deep. It was such a vicious wound and so infected that the doctors at first thought it was the flesh-eating virus and quarantined him, until they realized what they were dealing with. It was really the result of “meth bug” – the feeling that some methamphetamine users get that there are bugs crawling under their skin and they have to get them out.

When I brought Dickie home from the hospital he admitted to me that he remembered the day he was smoking up, looked around the room and realized he wasn’t using to party, he was using to get high. That was the closest Dickie ever came to admitting his addiction. That was when I began to really understand there was something more sinister going on. But by the time the gravity sunk in, he was back in the hospital with a peptic ulcer, necrotic small bowel and a rare form of leukemia, which has been proven to be triggered by Benzene – an ingredient in Methamphetamine. And then it was just too late.

Coincidentally, at about the same time, an old friend reappeared in my life. John had disappeared as he slipped into a serious meth addiction, five years prior. He deliberately disconnected from friends and family who might be disappointed or might judge him. He went through a terrible journey, but in the end found the strength to come out the other side. When he was ready, he got back in touch and told me his story.

In 2009 I was searching for inspiration for a new script and like a bolt of lighting, John’s story and the impact of Dickie’s death merged in my mind. I called John and told him I had a proposition. He tells me his whole story – all the sordid details, the emotional scars, the ugly behavior – and I would write a script based on that story. And we would make the film together and maybe have a chance to make a difference by sharing our experiences.

John’s story became the basis for the treatment and for our lead character’s journey through meth addiction. Dickie’s story was represented in the character of Dusty. Princess (a friend of John’s back in the day) shared her long history of addiction with me and became the basis for the character of Maia. And a script was born. It has shifted and changed through the development process, buoyed by all the experiences that others shared along the way. The final version, a beautiful amalgam of stories, both those of addicts and those of loved ones of addicts, is the most truthful, honest and fearless story we could tell.