Life defined by alcohol, jail, shelters
Dallas Morning News, The (TX) - Sunday, August 2, 2009
Author: Kim Horner

Adam P. Smith has been stuck in a revolving door of drug and alcohol treatment, psychiatric hospitals, jail and shelters for years.

The 45-year-old, who graduated from a Carrollton high school and majored in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, has made all of the usual stops. In the past year, he has been back and forth from Green Oaks Hospital, Terrell State Hospital, the county jail, the city drunk tank, and Homeward Bound, an Oak Cliff drug treatment center.

His treatment in the past year alone has cost more than $33,000.

Smith wants to stop drinking but said he's fighting an overwhelming compulsion. His experience after he was released from detox in March is just one example of the hold alcohol has had over his life.

Hours after he was released from a detox program at Homeward Bound, Smith hit the West End with a woman he met in the center, and he panhandled for money to buy vodka. Days later, he checked into Green Oaks Hospital in North Dallas, where he said he had never felt so depressed in his life.

After finishing another round of treatment at Homeward Bound in April, Smith remained sober for several weeks while living in a federally funded apartment. He hoped to find work and get his own place. But that fell apart in mid-June after two job interviews went poorly.

Smith has a criminal record that makes it difficult to find work. He robbed a bank, using a note, in 1997 to get drug money. He served 3 1/2 years in federal prison. He also has been arrested for drug possession and theft.

Since then, Smith has relapsed a couple of times. Hours after he got out of Green Oaks in June, Smith said, he used his food stamp card to buy cooking sherry so he could get drunk. He went to The Bridge, saying he planned to find a shaded place to escape the triple-digit heat and pass out.

"I never dreamt that alcohol would be such a defining event in my life," Smith said. "It's gotten me where I am today."

Kim Horner

Caption: PHOTO(S): 1-3. (Photos by COURTNEY PERRY/Staff Photographer) 1. A sober Adam P. Smith swam at the home of his former Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in Little Elm in May. Smith grew up in the suburbs and attended the University of Texas, but his life is far removed from there now and has included time in prison, homeless shelters and numerous treatment facilities. The public tab for the past year: $33,000. 2. Smith says he learned to eat marigolds as a Boy Scout, and he started eating flowers picked from sidewalk cracks when he was hungry. In March it was a small yellow flower that tasted "fabulous" and "lemony." 3. Right: Smith, now 45, who has struggled with alcoholism since he was a teen, finished a beer on a sidewalk downtown in February