August 31, 2011
^ìortlanò (Obamier
Mississippi
Alberta
North, Portland
M ET KO
Page 11
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
Fighting the
battles of
addiction
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
An ex-addict recalls the hellish experience
of a coming down on drugs in a jail cell:
“Pretty soon you don’t get high -you get
sick. The euphoria is gone. Without heroin
in your system, your body is limp as a dishrag.
You feel pain all over. You’re throwing up,
shaking, sweating, and your bowels are loose.
“But all you can think about is getting free,
so you can get high again, and make the pain
go away. And when you finally do, you make
sure to get so high that your wretched soul
vanishes from this godforsaken earth. Then,
the night passes, you wake up under a bridge,
again, and wonder- Damn, I’m still here.”
Louise Wedge, a Georgia-born recover
ing addict who was trapped in Portland’s
drug underworld for 35 years can safely say
she has no plans of turning back to addiction
and looks forward to her life of recovery.
Clean for the past 16 years. Wedge is no
longer the lonely, devastated woman she
used to be, “I have my mind back. I can think.
I have a few dollars in my pocket, I bought a
house, I bought a car, I ’ m raising plants,” she
said, listing the good things about recovery
on a floral sofa in her north Portland home.
With much to celebrate. Wedge and hun
dreds of people like her will gather this Labor
Day, on Monday, Sept. 5 at 10 a.m. to join in
unity for “Hands Across the Bridge,” an
O
l t Ph OHH- StPan th e 'n^ erstate BridZe for “Hands Across Me Bridge” to share the message of hope for people
annual event spanning the Interstate Bridge struggling with addictions and those in recovery. This year’s annual event is Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 5.
across the Columbia River that pays tribute
to National Recovery Month and the free
dom from addiction.
Victims of drug and alcohol abuse, eager
to give back to the community they once
clung to, will share a message of hope for
those still struggling. For the most extreme,
getting sober is the only choice next to dying
in the hands of drugs.
Patty Katz, the founder of Hands Across
the Bridge and a former drug pal of Wedge,
never stopped drinking after she was hospi
talized for alcohol poisoning at 18. “The more
addicted I was, the bigger the hole in my soul
grew,” she said.
Katz drank her way through the 1960’s
and experimented her way out of every social
group she came across. Later, she found
heroin and abused it so much that she stuck
needles in every skin pore she could find.
Sinking further from society, she spent
months in and out of jail, treatment, and the
streets.
At rock bottom and her arms poisoned by
strychnine, a nurse told her, “M a’am you’re
going to lose your arms if you don’t stop
Louise Wedge is celebrating 16 years of being clean from
using dope.” But as a junkie out of control,
by
continued
on page 18
drugs with this year’s annual "Hands Across the Bridge”
community celebration.
Hatty Katz shares a message of hope for those struggling
with addiction.