Israel Cason, I Can’t We Can, Baltimore, Maryland, July 12, 2004: Cason is the founder and director of one of Baltimore’s largest treatment programs.

I was a heroin addict for 30 years. There was really no treatment in this city- you had to be put on a waiting list or put on methadone. So I went to Philadelphia for treatment. I had been on a methadone program, and I didn’t want methadone, it didn’t work for me... Philadelphia had other programs.

After treatment in Philadelphia in 1996, he came back to Baltimore to start a construction business.

Being a heroin addict for 30 years I only knew junkies. All my employees were friends so they were using dope. I rented a house and had some move in for treatment and they brought in others.

Since that first house, Israel Cason has converted 72 houses and apartments into residential treatment facilities in Baltimore, part of a large therapeutic community called I Can’t We Can. It is now one of the largest treatment networks in the city having served over 8,000 clients since its inception.

“Most people’s lives are changed.”

His model:

Some of it came from were I was at, some from visiting other places. The biggest part is the spiritual part that we create the policies and procedures around. We deal with the whole person- the biological, psychological, the sociological and the spiritual. We look at it as the parts can’t be well unless the whole is well.

His clients:

Q: How many were involved with the criminal justice system either before or now?

IC: Most of them! I guess two-thirds. About half, maybe less, but a lot, are court stipulated- they go to court and the judge will send them here in lieu of the sentence. And if they do the full year here the sentence is dropped. They bring them to us in shackle and chains everyday. But they don’t send no money with them. It costs $30,000 a year to house a prisoner but they don’t give us nothing. We are saving them $30,000 a year.

Q: What is your success rate like?

IC: Everybody doesn’t stay for the full year; sometimes because of job or child-related reasons. Once you start recovering all these possibilities start coming back. Some go out-patient after six months. Most people’s lives are changed. We don’t see them all, but most of their lives are changed. About 75% are drug free when they leave after a full year. We have one of the highest success rates.

Some relapse and come back and start all over. Relapse is part of the process. Some folks go back [to their drug-using ways] though- and then they recommend other people. Folks come in and say “I was up in the crack house smoking crack and so and so recommended you.” Eventually though, most of them come back.

Our alumni are all over the nation now, some starting treatment programs of their own. Jobs are not a problem. We have a strong alumni support group in the therapeutic community

His thoughts on drugs:

Q: What would you change about the War on Drugs?

IC: War on Drugs? There’s no War on Drugs. Drugs don’t do nothing. It’s the lifestyle that has to change. That’s why we create an alt lifestyle and let people choose. A man that only have one option don’t have no options. We create a therapeutic community and people are just as productive as they are in the destructive lifestyle. We let them choose. The sky’s the limit- you don’t have to go to jail. You can have meaning and purpose in your life. This is what we created as the alternative lifestyle. There don’t have to be no war. You take away the man, the supplier automatically leaves. But in this society, traditional treatment is to treat the symptoms not the disease. You can’t get funding for treatment for addiction, for the primary problem, the lifestyle. Until we start treating the primary problem it isn’t a war, it’s a cycle.

Q: Why are so many people growing up with lifestyles that are so destructive?

IC: Personally, it’s a business, its about money. If you take people out of that cycle of destruction, then that money’s going somewhere. If you take the people out of there then it will break the continuity of where that money is going. You’ve got pharmaceuticals, the jail industry, the court industry, the judges, the lawyers. All of those people would be out of business if you take the drugs away. Nobody really wants to change it or stop it because everybody is getting paid. The only way to be free is to become spiritually free, that you have a purpose within yourself that you have to find instead of being dictated to by the circumstances that you are surrounded by- some people are just stuck in their environment.

Q: So do you think the folks working on drug policy are trying to change things?

IC: I think they want a paycheck. Or they might work themselves out of a job.

Q: Does the city recognize what you are doing here?

IC: Yeah, the city, the state. We get plenty of recognition. I have a wall at the office with plenty of citations and certificates of appreciation- but no checks with them!

His thoughts on addiction and treatment:

IC: Addiction is a self defeating, self destructive way of thinking. The polar opposite of that is spirituality. That’s why we focus on spirituality. Spirituality is an ongoing, active relationship with a source that gives your life meaning and purpose. Religion is a doctrine.

IC: Treatment needs to be as readily available as the lifestyle is. The only way to do that is to stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From my own experience I went for years and years without trying to get treatment again. Either they can learn from the information we give or pain be their teacher.

IC: You can never change anything if you don’t have alternatives.

Q: Setting up these houses, working with current abusers on a regular basis… how has that changed your own experience with heroin and recovery?

IC: Life is more enjoyable. I have a reason to live. A reason to wake up. You know- that’s what life is all about. Meaning and purpose. It really is not about intelligence. It took the same intelligence I used for using drugs for 30 years. I just changed my intelligence process for productivity. Instead of instant gratification from the drugs, I get long-term pleasure from the help that I give.