Documentary on my time in rehab: Drink, Drugs and Democracy


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I recently took the Centre for Social Justice Inner City Challenge, spending three days in drug and alcohol rehabilitation with ex-offenders at Acorn Treatment.

My article on the experience is here:

My placement with Acorn was emotionally exhausting. To share a few days full-time with people who have experienced life’s very worst aspects would be a challenge. To layer on top the drama of active rehabilitation was searing. There must be justice but, after that, mercy, forgiveness and transformation. That is what Acorn Treatment and Housing delivers: a full package to remake lives, offered with the humility and authority of recovering addicts.

Drink, Drugs and Democracy, a film by Bad Kamra, a spin off from Acorn, covers the stories of several men in the programme and my visit. If you don’t have time for the full hour, at least watch the last ten minutes, which includes this poem:

You’ve never walked in that man’s shoes or saw things through his eyes
Or stood and watched with helpless hands while the heart inside you dies
Some lose faith in love and life when sorrow shoots her darts
And with hope all gone, they walk alone
These men with broken hearts

You have no right to be the judge, to criticize and condemn
Just think but for the grace of God it would be you instead of him
One careless step or thoughtless deed and then the misery starts
And to those who weep death comes cheap
These men with broken hearts

You’ve never walked in that man’s shoes or saw things through his eyes
Or stood and watched with helpless hands while the heart inside you dies
Some were paupers and some were kings, some were masters of the arts
But in their shame they’re all the same
These men with broken hearts

It’s adapted from Hank Williams’ song Men with Broken Hearts. I thought it was particularly well-chosen.

I’ll never forget my time with Acorn or the people that I met. For their sakes as well as everyone else’s, I wish them complete success in their new lives of abstinence.

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