COMMUNITY PROFILE pressure made everything in Johnston’s life black and white, win or lose. Everything was a competition. Johnston had made most of his decisions to win his father’s affection. In 1999, determined to please his father, Johnston upended his life to start medical school. He was 30 years old and one of the oldest in his class. It took him years to acknowledge that his behavior was a problem. “It was about two years or three years ago that I realized,” Johnston said. “The depression was out of control because nothing I did was enough. That pressure builds until you find a release. For me, sadly, my release was tramadol first, and later, morphine.” When Johnston first took the tramadol, he thought it was a risk-free high. It was marketed as a synthetic opioid that worked differently on the brain than traditional prescription pain medications. This led researchers and the Food and Drug Administration to deem it a safe alternative to stronger painkillers like Percocet or Oxycontin. With time, it became clear that tramadol came with its own baggage, and it proved to be addictive and destructive, too. In 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration labeled tramadol a Schedule IV controlled substance. “I can’t believe I didn’t know more about opiates,” Johnston said. “We had no training in medical school at all. I thought [tramadol] was safe, or at least safer.” Johnston abused tramadol throughout his residency in 2003. He would prescribe too many pills for patients and pocket the extra. In a pinch, he ordered them online. When Johnston began his fellowship in hospice care, he moved from tramadol to liquid morphine. It was easy to steal the bottles from patients’ rooms, often after they died. “I really enjoyed helping people at the end of their life, but it got me all sideways, all those drugs around,” Johnston said. “I was so selfish then. That’s what the drugs do. They make you so fucking selfish. It’s a selfishness that you can’t even describe.” In 2010, Johnston decided he needed to get sober. “That’s when my wife at the time came to me and said, ‘You know, we’re in a small town. Here’s the newspaper. Look at the front page. You’re going to be right there, and it’s going to say you’re a drug addict,’” Johnston said. Johnston checked himself into a Florida rehab facility the following week. He doesn’t remember the exact cost of the facility but thought he spent in the neighborhood of $50,000$80,000. Johnston said he knows he was lucky to be able to pay such high costs when so many others can’t. “[My wife] knew I was that vain and that shallow,” Johnston said. “She knew what card to play to motivate me, and I applaud her for it. It was such a wonderful move because it saved my life, even if she did leave me later. Rightly so, probably.” CREATING A PATIENT-FIRST MODEL In rehab, Johnston began taking Suboxone to prevent drug cravings and avoid withdrawal symptoms. Suboxone was one of the first new MATs for opiate and opioid addiction. It is a daily treatment that can be prescribed by a doctor and taken at home. It differs from methadone, another MAT, because of its ease of use. One must generally go to a methadone treatment center daily to receive their dose. This inconvenience with methadone treatment can lead to failure and relapse, while Suboxone can be taken safely outside of medical supervision. For Johnston, Suboxone was a game changer. It helped him become and stay sober. But addiction had torn his life apart. He didn’t work for a year, and then, he tried returning to hospice care. It didn’t work for him. Then, the clinic treating his addiction offered him a job. He changed the focus of his life to serving individuals who battled addiction like him. DR. CHAD JOHNSTON WANTS EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT THE TREATMENT IS AVAILABLE TO ALMOST ANYONE SEEKING RECOVERY. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN January 2024 DENVER VOICE 7 URBAN PEAKS PATIENTS POST PERSONAL NOTES OF THINGS THEY ARE GRATEFUL FOR. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN Lured by Colorado’s beauty, Johnston moved to Denver. He founded Urban Peaks Rehab in 2018, with a vision to create a new patient-first model for addiction treatment. Johnston appreciated what rehab had done for him, but after working in an addiction treatment clinic, he also saw how rehab was big business. According to Johnston, higher revenues in the industry were too heavily motivated by dollars rather than care. Johnston realized that for many individuals, it was difficult to receive life-saving MAT treatment because of the costs and stigma. He heard stories about doctors putting up burdens to receive treatment. Many told Johnston that when they sought help, several medical professionals shamed them. Johnston even heard stories about patients being refused treatment because some doctors believed that if an individual got themselves into drug addiction, they had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to get out of addiction. “It makes no sense to me that providers would shame anyone who ever came into their office, but it happens all the time,” Johnston said. “We have these amazing treatments that make recovery easier and less painful than in the past and individuals struggle to find someone to prescribe [MATs] because of [the common conceptions] of who and addict is and what they deserve — which is nothing.” Continued on page 8
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