He was one of the legislature's brightest young political staffers during Premier Gordon Campbell's first term in office: Smart, popular, good-looking, a sharp dresser and a sharper talker, Marshall Smith seemed to have it all.

Cruising the corridors of power with an easy confidence that belied his 28 years, he'd whisper advice to cabinet ministers one minute, spin a scrum of reporters the next, then crack up his fellow Liberal insiders with an always-ready joke.

"The Minister of Social Planning," they nicknamed him, because Smith was the guy who organized all the after-work parties. In any number of bars near Government Street, you'd find the ministerial aide whooping it up long after the legislature had shut for the night.

"I was on top of the world and having a blast," he recalls now, even travelling to Prague with Campbell for the announcement of Vancouver's winning Olympic bid. He was introduced to Henry Kissinger and hob-nobbed with Olympic glitterati.

An old acquaintance of mine -- I'll call her Shelly -- phoned after the column appeared to tell me I was wrong to be critical of Vancouver Island Health Authority staff for prohibiting smoking at the detox.

She'd arrived for a stay at the new unit last month prepared to hate the prohibition, too, but instead quit smoking -- for the first time in more than 40 years.

She was proudly 28 days nicotine-free when I met up with her last week at the Pembroke Street stabilization unit, which is where people fresh from detox ideally get to stay for a month while they work out the details of a life without drugs. Shelly had gone to detox primarily to get off heroin, valium, alcohol and cocaine, but was delighted to have gotten out from under her cigarette habit at the same time.

Kevin Craig sits in the living room of his new home at 512 Cecelia Rd., a room with fresh buttery yellow paint, newly restored woodwork and hardwood floors. He's far from one of the lowest points of his life just over a year ago, when his home was on the streets of Victoria, a prisoner of his alcohol addiction.

Craig, who once held a job in the furniture-making industry, looks at his work with pride. He refurbished the badly worn-out wainscotting while other recovering addicts took on the paint job and much-needed cleanup for the house, which for the next several months will provide what their counsellors call the "de-institutionalized setting" for their long road to recovery.

"Here the guys feel they are part of something. They feel part of a community, part of a brotherhood," said David Mitchell, facilitator and counsellor for the Vancouver Island Addiction Recovery Society.

Panicked, Jeff decides to pull the car over, but not before he gets rid of the evidence. Fifteen candy coloured pills could put the 18-year-old in jail for a long time. As he steers the car to the shoulder of the road, he fishes the ecstasy pills from the bottle and swallows them one by one.

"I don't know what I was thinking at that moment; I wasn't thinking," says Jeff, almost three years after the arrest he says changed his life. "I figured I had taken five ecstasy pills at once before, a few more won't be that much different."

But the high was different. Jeff was taken to the Aberdeen Hospital and treated for an overdose of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine ( MDMA ). After three years of being heavily addicted to the street drug ecstasy, Jeff had hit his rock bottom.

She was in her early 20s, working, living on her own and going to school part-time when a friend suggested she try something to keep her awake. She had no idea what she was taking was the highly addictive and highly toxic drug crystal meth.

It might be fair to say that we were very close and freequently together since the begining of both our meth addictions. There is no question that I was lucky to have survived where she passed on. In my addiction I used to consider how close I was to being in the car that crashed with her. I had been in similar situations with her several times before.

It really hit me at the time, as you can imagine, however the needed power to stop was not there. I needed to use. Nothing was going to stop me. That was some years ago now...nearly 4. I'm currently 1 and a half years sober from all mind altering substances.

I still slip once in awhile and I need help,I know I'm not alone.Ihurt those that I loved the most those who meant the world to me including myself.

I first tried it when i was 16, i had previously been using many other drugs, but not meth. This is where i started the month long binge, that landed me in a woman's shelter, that landed me in the hospital on an involentary extended stay. i was alone at the shelter, i was the youngest there that's for sure.

A recovering alcohol and crystal meth addict, Charbonneau was a key member of a local Crystal Meth Task Force that visited students in schools from late elementary up to college and university.

XXXXX was a bright child, full of promise for a future of success in any endeavour of his choosing. He graduated from high school with honours, having been in the PACE program, completing international baccalaureate studies and accepted to UVIC. XXXXX was also well liked amongst his peers, having no lack of friends or social activities. In addition, he was a musician who formed a band, that become well known in the city as they performed professionally.