I watched this guy on DSTV channel 344 today. I was quite inspired and I felt like sharing.

A little more than two decades ago, a yearlong residential drug-addiction treatment program at Minneapolis-based Eden House helped turn John Turnipseed’s life around.

Though today he is two decades sober and vice president of the Center for Fathering at Minneapolis nonprofit Urban Ventures, Turnipseed’s earlier life was consumed by drug addiction and violence. A member of the family that founded Minneapolis’ notorious Rolling 30s Blood gang, Turnipseed was a drug dealer — and user. He eventually spent a decade in prison for his crimes. Thirty of his relatives remain in prison. Ten were convicted of first-degree murder.

Earlier this month, Turnipseed was a featured speaker at the Humphrey Policy Fellows’ second annual Big Think alumni conference, which focused on shaping policy around mental health, addiction and recovery.


Turnipseed told the group gathered at the University of Minnesota’s McNamara Alumni Center that he credits his own successful recovery from addiction to his lengthy treatment program. In recent years, shorter treatment and recovery programs have become the norm, he said, and he doesn’t believe they are as effective in promoting long-term sobriety.

I asked Turnipseed to expand on this point:

MinnPost: Why do you think long-term treatment and recovery programs work best for people battling addiction?

John Turnipseed: First off, when a person goes to treatment, especially in the urban community, it is usually because they have messed up everything in their life — financial support, housing, everything. I know from personal experience that turning yourself around is an enormous job. A person who goes into treatment for addiction to crack has probably for two years been off and on a crack run. For those two years, on a weekly basis, they have probably taken a hit of crack 2,800 times a week. If you spend $100 on crack a day, you are going to hit that pipe. That means you have taken your brain from ground zero to 1,000 miles an hour something like 700 times. That’s hard on your brain and your body.

A treatment program that lasts for 21 days or even for two months only gives you time to let your body adjust to being normal. When they are in the process of physically coming down from addiction, people can’t sleep. They are depressed. There’s a whole lot going on. After those first two months of recovery, that’s when you’re finally receptive to hearing the stuff that people are telling you. Really letting the recovery messages sink in takes another few months. Then, after your body is rested and recovered, you’ve got to figure out your next steps. About six months after going sober is when — taking into account that you’ve eaten correctly, your stress levels have gone down and you’ve seen a doctor about health issues — it’s time for you to start looking for a job, which, for the average person, is going to take three to six months to find. You shouldn’t have to leave treatment without having those pieces in place.

Ideally, to be successful in recovery from addiction, when you leave treatment you should have a job and a place to stay and a relatively good health record. I can’t see anyone doing that successfully in under a year.

To read more about his life experience, kindly visit www.naijahotwire.com

Please download the excerpt (ms-word document) i attached in my blog on bloodline curses in a family. It will blow your mind and you may start having some connections about particular destructive/negative trends in a family as experienced by this man .