"I had stolen CDs from this certain store over and over again, both under the influence and clean, and I'd never been caught. . . .

"And I walked in with a bag of marijuana in my pocket to go steal a couple of CDs. I guess they were targeting us from the moment we walked in the door, me and a friend of mine. And as we were walking out, they pulled us to the side . . . and of course they searched our pockets and everything and they found the marijuana, they found the CDs, and that was basically it."

But that wasn't the low point for 21-year-old Chad Peelle.

"The worst part about that whole day was not necessarily being caught. . . . It was more the look of anger, sadness and disappointment on my mom's face when she came to pick me up," he said.

Chad's parents decided to send him to Pathway Family Center on the Northside, which provides substance abuse prevention, early intervention and treatment.

Chad was treated at Pathway for two years and recently graduated from the program. He now helps lead group sessions there.

Serina Small, 18, attended Pathway for a year. Like Chad, she was placed there by her family after being arrested. She now participates in group sessions.

Enrollment at Pathway is usually not voluntary.

"When my parents, against my will, threw me in treatment, I still wasn't ready for it yet," Chad said. "Deep down inside I felt like I had a problem, but I still on the surface level had all this denial and all these excuses why it was OK for me to continue getting high."

Even though she was forced into Pathway, Serina was ready.

"I was tired of lying," she said. "I was tired of feeling hopeless, feeling sad, feeling depressed, feeling like there was no point in life. I think when I hit my very bottom, when I was just through with everything, then I realized that there is something better."

The time spent in the program varies, because there is no sure way to determine how long it will take for a person to get a grip on his or her addiction. The average stay is 12 to 14 months.

"It took me two years because I had a lot of problems and I was very defiant and broke a lot of rules and just treated people with utter disrespect," Chad said. "I had a very up-and-down, rocky, rocky treatment."

As with alcoholism, there is no cure.

"It's a lifelong disease for me. . . . That addiction is just so strong I just want to go out and use and I want to go party and I want to back to the lifestyle because I forget all of the bad things that happened," said Serina.

Drugs are attractive for many reasons. Some people use them to forget their problems, or to fit in socially. "I think for me a lot of it was for acceptance. I had this girlfriend who persuaded me to use, and I didn't want her to think that I was uncool," Serina said.

Pathway, which also has a facility in Michigan, has many programs and support groups to help youth overcome these urges. The Intensive Day Treatment Program in which Chad and Serina were enrolled is for those who have tried everything else. Patients live in a residential setting, away from family and friends. During the day they attend an in-house school and receive therapy and counseling.

The hardest part of the treatment for Chad was realizing he needed help. "I used to be so egotistical and I'd think I had to do everything on my own and couldn't ask for anybody's help. The most important thing I learned was that I have to surrender sometimes and just say, 'Somebody, handle it for me.' "

Though some people respect addicts for getting help, many still discriminate against them.

"Whenever I thought of an addict, I always thought of the guy, the bum on the street with the torn clothes, all dirty, unshaven, bottle in a brown paper bag, needles hanging out of his arms, you know," Serina said.

Former addicts should be admired, not loathed. "People look at an addiction as such a negative thing, and when it's active, yes it is," Chad said. "But when somebody's in recovery it's a beautiful, amazing thing. It's a miracle."

Another misconception about addicts is that they all come from broken homes.

"I grew up in a really loving home," Serina said. "My parents provided me with everything that I needed. They provided me with love, care, support."

"My parents loved me, cared for me," said Chad.

Mainstreaming addicts after rehab has many obstacles. They must learn new ways to cope and socialize while fighting the allure of drugs and their former friends.

"When I was in treatment, there was almost always support around," Chad said. "There was always somebody to talk to."

After graduating from the program, "I felt a lot of loneliness," Chad said. "I had a hard time going out and finding friends and feeling comfortable with people. I'd feel like I had to kind of put on some kind of front."

"I totally freaked out when I first got out of here," Serina said. "I had panic attacks for like 10 minutes when I would go out into social situations. I think I had a lot of fear, a lot of worry, a lot of anxiety because I didn't know how to handle it."

It's easy for addicts to return to old habits. Assessing the effectiveness of drug treatment is hard, because such studies usually must rely on what the recovering addicts say about their current drug use. But a recent report from the National Institute of Justice studied 2,000 graduates from 100 U.S. drug courts and found that 16.4 percent had been rearrested within a year after graduation and 27.5 percent had been rearrested at the two-year mark.

For individuals imprisoned for drug offenses, 43.5 were rearrested during the first year after release and 58.6 percent after two years.

While the temptation of drugs is strong, Chad's and Serina's disgust at their previous use keeps them clean.

"People have offered me pills," Serina said. "I've had people offer me marijuana. I've had people offer me alcohol. It's just sticking to my boundaries and saying I'm not really into it."

Though recovery was painful, the outcome has been worth it.

"My grades are better," Chad said. "My behavior's better. Everything is better. And I find when I do have problems in my life, I know how to deal with them."

REPORTERS: Emily Kasnak, 13; Mary Hannon, 13.

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