At the age of six (6) I (Michael Prichard) lost my father in a tragic alcohol related incident. Later, several of my mothers friends died from addiction and suicide related to addiction. Addiction and its consequences have been part of my life from the beginning. As a result of my own substantial personal trauma, I also developed addictions early in life that led to a real-life nightmare lasting nearly twenty (20) years. I almost lost my life to drugs and alcohol addiction but I found recovery. I was lucky, many of my friends and acquaintances did not. Shortly after I entered recovery in 2006, my life path led me to work with people that were substance addicted and were experiencing significant mental health problems and other functional impairments related to their addictions.

As I began to work as a substance use disorder (SUD) counselor in settings such as Child Protective Services, domestic violence services, and government-run human service organizations, I discovered that substance misuse and addiction was pervasive public health issue. I also discovered that the general public, employers, and even helping professionals who interface with people who are misusing substances were often uninformed or misinformed about substance misuse and addiction and did not understand the pathways to recovery. As a result, I developed a passion for community education and training on substance use, misuse, addiction, treatment, and recovery. This passion led to widespread community teaching and training opportunities. For the last nine (9) years I have had the opportunity to educate addiction counselors, child welfare social workers, therapists, educators, law enforcement officers, lawyers, physicians, and human resource staff in many counties in CA. I have also served as an addiction prevention and treatment advocate to governing bodies at the local, state, and federal levels.

Since substance misuse impacts individuals, families, workplaces, the healthcare system, and criminal justice systems, the burden falls on all of us to be informed and help people when possible. If we are to lessen the impact on society we must begin by removing the stigma that surrounds substance misuse and addiction through widespread community education on prevention, and treatment recovery.