Sen. Darryl Rouson . (Screenshot/Florida Channel)
When Gov. Ron DeSantis gave an update on the latest recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene Wednesday in Madeira Beach, he was joined by a coterie of Tampa Bay area state legislators from Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties.
The lone Democrat in the group — St. Petersburg’s Sen. Darryl Rouson — left before the conclusion of the event, however. That’s because he had an appointment to speak to 50 women in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse at WestCare Gulf Coast, a nonprofit in Pinellas County.
The night before, Rouson had spoken to 125 men at the same facility on the same subject. He plans on speaking at another treatment center in Hillsborough County on Friday.
With so many lives in Florida upended since Helene made landfall a week ago, Rouson, a recovering drug addict who for years has spoken to those going through their own recovery efforts, says it’s more important than ever to give encouragement, hope, and strength to those doing their best not to relapse under such stressful circumstances.
“I’m trying to spread the message of recovery and the importance of maintaining their clean time in sobriety during difficult times such as these times,” he said by telephone on Thursday afternoon. “I don’t want folks to forget this population of people that are vulnerable, and it’s important to acknowledge why they’re in treatment and the reasons why they should stay in treatment.”
Rouson, 70, says he began to make a point of visiting with those in recovery after Hurricane Michael tore through Florida’s Panhandle in the fall of 2018, causing some treatment facilities there to lose power and ultimately shut down.
“You have to remember this population of vulnerable people who could use a storm as an excuse to get high. Who could be subsumed and consumed by fixing their roof and interrupt the repair of their lives,” he said, recounting how he spent one night immediately after that storm in the men’s residential unit of a Pensacola treatment facility as a way of showing camaraderie and encouragement.
Relapse danger
Natural disasters such as hurricanes are a “relapse danger for drug users,” as a 2018 story in the Huffington Post was titled.
Studies done after previous hurricanes have found that people who used drugs shared needles during a storm and that some individuals undergoing addiction treatment relapsed to street drugs.
Rouson says his message to those in recovery over the past week has been succinct: You’re in a good place at a good time.
“Stick and stay,” he said.
“Remember the importance of why you’re here. What got you here, and what you need to do for when you do get out, in order to stay clean. Encouraging them to join the NMW Club — the No Matter What Club. They’ll be facing future storms, and they’ll need to know what to do in the midst of a storm. Not pick up, not use, organize priorities, and realize that nothing is so bad that a drink or drug won’t make worse.”
The Florida Democrat, a practicing personal injury attorney who enjoyed the distinction of being Pinellas County’s first Black assistant state attorney, says he battled drug and alcohol addiction for 20 years before beginning his path to recovery in 1998.
Peer specialists
His legislative accomplishments over the years include the 2022 passage of a bill making it easier for those who struggled with addiction — known as “certified peer specialists”— to help those attempting to turn around their lives. Peer specialists are people who have recovered from a substance use disorder or mental illness who support someone else with the same problem.
During the 2023 legislative session, Rouson sponsored a bill providing inmates in Florida prisons with a path to becoming certified peer specialists.
Rouson says giving such speeches to those in recovery “liberates” him.
“And it reminds me of from whence I’ve come, where I never want to go back,” he said. “I see their faces. I hear their pains, the joys. And I’m there to tell them and show them that when you do come out on the other side of treatment, there is life, there is hope. And sometimes storms will come, the storms of life, and you need to be able to weather them by keeping priorities.”