Illustrated Daily; 2162; Five Years Later

You How did the paint make you weird? Why? I don't know, I guess taking the stuff in my body.

What do you think your body is like? Well, it's not like they're used to me. Because to be able to live more weeks than I can. Why? Well, I guess the paint got me weaker. Were you using a lot of paint? Yeah. How much? Two or three cans a day? I was taking a lot of fights. Do a lot of commercial burgers? Do you have any idea why all that was happening? Paint. How much have you been sniffing? How much have you been sniffing? Then? About three, three of them a day?

How much have you been sniffing? The illustrated daily. Managing editor Hal Rhodes. Hello, this is a picture most of us like to carry in our heads when we think about urban life in New Mexico. Last night we took an on -core look at a documentary called Five Stars. Five Stars was produced by our talented senior videographer, Dale Sonnenberg. It was produced nearly five years ago and it was a labor of love. Five Stars is the story of a deadly practice, paint

sniffing and inhalant abuse. Those who engage in paint sniffing often come to a sad end. On this edition of The Illustrated Daily, we follow up on Five Stars by going and searching the principles in that documentary, Bobby and Tony. What has happened to them in the past five years? To answer that question, we must leave the world of middle -class New Mexico, head south down the Rio Grande Valley to Los Lones. And the state's medium security facility. When I started sniffing, I was going to ask 13 and started with my brother and two other friends. They asked me if I wanted to. They were since then. Okay, I got to send up to Santa

Fe. Old habits are hard to break and it's very difficult for somebody who's grown up in one community in a very tight social setting. With a small group of friends, it's very hard for them to change and move out somewhere else. That's going to create problems for them in making the adjustment to a new environment. But at the same time, if he goes back into a neighborhood that has a lot of sniffers in it, it's going to be very difficult to turn away from it. When I used to do that, I used to get real macho. I wasn't scared to fight anybody. Anybody got on my way? Either they not shoot at me, I do not shoot at them. A lot of sniffers, I feel like personally. I feel like they don't like themselves. And a guy who maybe has that in his background. He knows that

maybe that reflects upon him in an institutional setting. He knows it's caused him problems. And every time he sees somebody who is still sniffing, it reminds him of where he was and what he did. Most of my life is just going down the drain. Just messed up. And I'm just hoping for the best to get out. Start all over again. It's an escape, I think. It's an escape drug. And Bobby talked about it. It does tend to give him courage and a little bit of a macho image, I think. It's an out of control drug that was hard to say that it gives you a macho image because it's... Sniff is, to me, one of the most dangerous type of drug abuse is because it entails a level of potential violence, like you don't see in many other drugs other than alcohol, possibly alcohol, or in feta means. Sniffing. That started everything. It's getting a

lot of fights, it's coming back stabbed, too. What did you say? Sniffing fighting. Step right here. By the heart. Don't bother me anymore. Drug use in general can increase in an area where there's a loss of culture or a culture is threatened. And I think that's what has happened here. It's a predominantly Hispanic culture in the state of New Mexico that although there have been influences since, you know, the 1800s, surely, you know, in non -Hispanics in the state, it primarily has occurred in the last, let's say, 20 to 50 years or so, and really in the last 20 years, it's accelerated the number of non -Hispanics coming into the state. And their position, they are coming in, they are taking the better jobs, they have more money, and they are pushing out the nicer homes, the nicer neighborhoods, you know, are not being... or not in the South Valley of Albuquerque,

and it's a predominantly Hispanic area. And they can see their loss, they can see the loss of their culture. I feel like there and all over the state to a large degree, they can see themselves being displaced, and there's a certain amount of pain and anguish involved there. And one of the ways of easing that pain and anguish is drug use, be it softness or alcohol or heroin or whatever. It's a way of coping with the day -to -day fact that you were being pushed out of what may be rightfully yours. They had the future. They were trying to forget the past. When I see my mother, I look in her eyes, it makes me feel sad, and her too. She didn't want to see me back in this place again. She started crying. It's always been my theory that that's the reason drugs have increased, you know, that use has increased so much today, is the sense of loss. In this case out here, it's a loss of the culture,

a loss of place. And in other parts, well, all over the country, all over the world, it's a breakdown, you know, the family structure and whatever. It hasn't hardly been anything good in my life. I shouldn't go to school. I shouldn't go to work any day right now. The tattoos you see in prison, like all of Jesus with the crown of thorns, a lot of blood, and you see these a lot on sniffers. It unveils a lot of suffering, a lot of self -punishment. In my opinion, they're punishing themselves to it a great by the use of these solvents. They know what it's doing to them. Most of them early on begin to see the type of damage it is doing to them. They can't think. Well, Antonio, we always hang around together. We go very, very close together. It's real hard to

go through somebody's jacket if they have a history of drug abuse in general to find some period in their life when they weren't in abusing solvents. You see people out here, I can think of one case, the man was 32 years old, and he had been sniffing since he was in his early teens, and he was still sniffing. The cases I did see were generally in adolescents who put it away after they moved on the more sophisticated drugs, maybe. But out here, it's something that tends to carry on into the adult years. And that, I found highly unusual. But I think different areas of the country have different drug problems. How old, why did Bobby end up here? And why is Tony? Tony is a smart one. How so? You know, it's hard to keep out of trouble. Every time I ask him a girl, he said no. I just go by myself. Go with some other friends. That's what we all started. To steal things from

him. Yeah. Who? Well, if he can kick his problems, not just with solvent abuse, but with alcohol and other types of drugs, I think he can turn his life around. Because I think his criminal behavior has to a large degree been motivated by that. And if he can turn that around, I think he's going to be able to get out there and make it on the streets. But to turn that around, he's going to need the help. He's going to need a job skill that he doesn't have right now. And he's going to need to have some insight into why he does it. Well, our next stop in our search to find out what happened at the principles in five stars, takes us back up to Rio Grande to Albuquerque, South Valley, where Bobby's brother, Tony, struggles for recovery against considerable odds at an adult daycare center. It is called the Cornucopia Adult Daycare Center, and like many such programs today, it faces an

uncertain future in the aftermath of federal budget cuts. Actually, it took our illustrated daily producer videographer, Dale Sonnenberg, quite some time to locate Tony. And reportedly, he is in poor physical condition as he struggles not always successfully to put his paint sniffing days behind him. And this is Tony Pereira. Tony, good to see you. You're looking forward to meeting you for a long time. Lucinda? This is Lucinda, Tony. She's our program coordinator. Hi, Lucinda. Nice to meet you. It's nice of you all to have me down here. It's nice of you to come down and visit us. I'm looking forward to meeting you. Well, why don't we do that? You got some time to talk, Tony? Yeah. Good. Can we talk about Tony and what has happened to him and when it all began? Do you remember the first time you came in contact with paint? The first time you used paint? When I was nine. When you were nine years old?

Tell me about it. Oh, no. I saw my big brother and sister doing it, so I decided to try. How did a nine -year -old boy get the stuff? I used to steal my big brother and sister. Is that right? Was it difficult to get? No. Was it difficult for them to get? Oh, no. How did they do it? Well, I used to sniff out my cousin and sometimes he used to buy it on my big brother. Oh, my big sister used to buy it. I don't know where he got the money, but he used to buy it. Tell me something. Is it difficult to stay away from this stuff? No, not from

what some other people here. What is the attraction to it? What is it about it that people want to use it? I guess it's just to get high. It's an unpleasant high, I'm told. Here. Lucinda, you're very close. Tony, there's a counsellor. Lucinda, Chavis, no, because I should explain. We've been talking for Christ I'm playing here with. The audience is just catching up with this, of course. You play an important part in Tony's life. How did Tony become a part of your life? Well, I guess it all started when I came to work here and I met Tony. And we just became very close. When I became program coordinator, he was a great help to me. And we built up a trust that was, that needed no explaining. And he just took it very well. And he took responsibility when I asked him to. He came through for

me when I needed him in my hard times. You like to help Lucinda? Yes. What is there about Lucinda that makes you want to help her? No, well. We get along, we're all good. And when I don't help her, I help everybody else. Tell me something Lucinda, how's Tony doing? He's doing better than what he did when he came in. He does tend to slip once in a while. But he's progressed quite a lot. I heard that you did have a problem of slipping not too long ago. Do you remember why that happened? When I first started, I didn't like coming on size to a ditch. You ditched?

Why didn't you like coming? At first I didn't get that long -term thing. But then I started getting along with Terry. Is that what you got done? This is an interesting place you have here. Tell me how it works. We were open about four years ago. Initially they said it wasn't going to work because of the diverse type of population. What do you mean by the diverse type of population? We serve handicapped adults emotionally, mentally, physically. We've got people with Down syndrome and people with mental retardation. And people with problems like Tony. When Tony came, he had a physical problem. He couldn't feed himself when he first came here. He's now doing that. He had emotional problems. He had a lot of problems dealing with

his home life. We also have the elderly. And they're handicapped with the usual handicaps that come along with age. But they really thought that it wasn't going to work. And it has. How does it work so that it's useful to Tony? He is probably the person that deals with everybody here. He helps the persons that are mentally retarded. He works with them when they need to learn some, maybe their numbers, maybe how to color, how to put up puzzles. That gives him a sense of accomplishment. He's actually helping somebody. I wanted to ask you about that, Tony. What have you learned about yourself and the business here working with other people? I like it. Before I came in here, I used to work with a

lot of people before I started. You used to work with other people? What are you doing before you came in here? How did you find this place? There was a lady in Sister Angelina. She brought me for you. How did you find Sister Angelina? I mirrored now. Career meeting. And she brought you over here. And when you got over here initially you were not certain that this is what you wanted. Is that right? How long does it take you to figure out that this is something that might be good for you? It's about four months. After about four months you thought this may be some place that could be helpful to you. What have you discovered about yourself since you started coming here and working with this program that you didn't know before then? Well, it said how many

stopped sniffing and stopped getting trouble and stopped fighting on my grandmother and my dad. When is it you feel you want to use the paint? Yes. When I see my friends I get tempted so I take off home. When you see your friends you get tempted. Why is that you suppose? Stop me. I sort of want to be worth in my imagination. Do what they're doing. Are a lot of people still doing it? Well, my friends I eat to sniff with. When I quit, they quit too. They don't do it anymore. Is that right? I understand you grew up into the schools and that you talk to young people. Yeah, I grew up to all kinds of schools and talk to them. What do you tell them?

It's not too sniffing and that's no go for you. You might get him sick like you got me sick. How sick were you? I couldn't do anything. I used to shake a lot. I couldn't even work. Tell me can we go back in time to the times when you and Bobby were little boys. You first started nine years old using paint. When you first started had you any idea that it was going to cause you so much physical damage? No. When did you start beginning to be aware of the damage it was doing to you? I know. 21. How did you become aware of the damage it was doing to you? Well, I was losing weight at good weight.

I was losing a lot of friends. You lost a lot of friends. Why did you lose your friends? I didn't want to hang around with our sniffers. Our sniffers hard to hang around with. Are they difficult people to be around? Well, some of them sound when they sniff paint. They give vitals to New York. Five stars was made five years ago. The movie was made five years ago. Now, five years later we're all talking to one another. Imagine five years still down the road, five years from now. Where would you like to be? Where would you want to be so that we might catch up with you and once again to see how you're doing? Five years

from now. Why would someone have started these bakers in your five years ago? You wish you had started it five years ago. All right, now you've started it five years from now where you want to be. I knew my mom would give. That was your mom? You have something you want to do with your life now. Now that you're beginning to come to grips with the problem of paint. What kind of work would you like to do? You'd like to be a janitor? You think that's going to happen, you think you're going to be able to make it? Well, for now I was sniffing. I used to work as a janitor in a center and then I guess I didn't want to go to work. I got fired. Why?

For now going? Not going to work. Besinda, five years from now where are we going to find Tony? It's all up to Tony where he wants to be. He's able to accomplish anything he wants till I have the confidence in him. Well, it's been five years later, Bobby and Tony. We tried to follow their life history in that period of time. It's not been easy. It's not been easy for them or it's not been easy for us. But this is a matter of it. It's not just their life history. It's ours as well. The physical ravages of paint sniffing have left Tony weak. And he has taken to weightlifting in an attempt to gain strength. How long have you been lifting weights? I've seen someone. What are we doing to help in you? Yeah. Tell me how. Getting me strong. I'm

going to. Yeah, I'm having muscle. I'm lifting weight. Be careful. How did the paint make you weak? Mom? I don't know. I guess I'm going to stop my body. What do you think your body is like? It's not like any used to me. Because it's able to lift more weights than I can. Why? Hmm. I guess the paint got me weak.

Were you using a lot of paint? Yeah. How much? Two or three cans a day. So what about the paint now? Are you using paint now? No, I could. How long will Bobbin and you go paint? Bob. Are you going to have for good? What stopped you? Yeah, he was getting me sick. And I was getting too much trouble. I smoked paint for 15 years. Oh,

now that I started sniffing my feet on a lot better. I don't get any trouble with anything. Before I couldn't do anything, I couldn't eat or doing quarter of Christ to shake too much. So now that I haven't seen my brother, Bobbin, for a long time, I miss him a lot. Because it's me and Bobbys to hang around with him and I'm going all over the place. Well, I used to get along with Bobbys better than anybody else in my family. While I thought he'd seen my brother, Bobbys, I would tell him not to be sniffed and not to

get in trouble because I don't want to see him locked up anymore. And so, Bobbys and Tony five years later. Clearly, this is not the end of their story. The question is, is it the beginning of another? And is there a happy ending somewhere down the road? The temptation to moralize here is great. But I wouldn't even hazard a guess. I'm Hal Rhodes. Good night. Come out. Rock your head. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go

ahead. Bobbys, he stole. Go ahead. He stole. He stole. Go ahead. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.