Prescription arrestee tries to undo addiction damage
By Jesse Phelps

When Mary Jane Franck was arrested two weeks ago for picking up prescription medication without her doctor's consent, she knows she made a mistake. The problem, she says, is that she tried to take the law into her own hands.

"Unfortunately I took things into my own hands and didn't go to the medical board," she said about her concerns that a local doctor was allegedly overprescribing medication.

The rest is old news. The office of the doctor who Franck claims issued the prescription for 100 pills of Soma, denied doing so to pharmacy workers and, later, the police. Franck was then arrested for calling in and picking up her own illegal prescription and charged with a felony, which was later reduced to a misdemeanor.

No matter the reason for her mishap, the fact remains that Franck went to get the pills. What was she going to do with them? Of course, she's adamant that she never meant to sell them, something that Ojai Police Detective Joe Evans said he knew to be the case when he made the arrest. They might have been flushed sown the toilet, or, as Franck's recovery sponsor said, they might not.

Julie, Franck's sponsor, preferred to go by her first name only, in the tradition of recovery groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. She said, "A lot of times when we're recovering we have old behavior that sneaks in and, you know, it's progress and not perfection. It's good to have people. That's why there's sponsorship and programming and people you call and say, 'Hey, am I doing this right?'"

It's that recovery community, says Franck, that saved her life. And as she's become more healthy, her mission has become to protect others in the community, particularly children, from the pain of addiction.
In the last year and a half, the actions Franck has taken to improve the health of Ojai are many. With counselor Shareen Torrez, she was part of a guest lecture at Chaparral High School on the dangers of drug abuse, organized by Dr. Bruce Gladstone. She works with the homeless - she was homeless herself for quite some time thanks to drug abuse - by staying with them at shelters, praying and discussing alternatives.

In addition, "I've worked real hard with the junior and senior high kids at my church and tried to educate them as far as drug abuse," she said.
She helped get a 12-step program going at the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation and was instrumental in the fight to get Alateen, a group for young people who are affected by a problem drinker, onto the campus at Nordhoff.

"I was meeting with the Alateen kids at a church," she said. "And we fought to get it over to Nordhoff, which we did get. Hopefully next year, that will continue and we can keep working with the kids over there."
She says she's hopeful that everything will work out for the best with the current charge so she can help implement some other plans in the works. "We want to do some more talks about the OxyContin problem and some of the stuff that is going on in the community," she said.

Franck's own story of recovery has taken her through, perhaps, more troubling times than the one she faces now. In 1996, she suffered a motorcycle accident that injured her so badly that doctors thought she might not make it and recommended amputation of her leg. In the end, she lost her foot and has since been through 27 surgeries.
"I was supposed to die," she said.

After being released, she said, she stopped taking the medications prescribed for mental illness. "After not taking any of his stuff for four months I became well, I became very productive in the community." said Franck. "That's when I started my crusade."

Franck says that through it all, her friends from her recovery groups and the one local doctor who stood up to help her have made all the difference. Together, they created a regimen that weaned her from psychotropic medications, making possible her fight to keep others from experiencing some of the pain she's had to endure.

The doctor, who volunteered through their church to "keep a tight leash" on Franck and help her through the process, has been there for her for the past 10 years. "He actually became my guardian angel," she says.

Since her arrest, letters of support have poured in, including character references from the youth group adviser at her church, Dr. Gladstone and the pastor of her church, who wrote, that "she has a real compassion for those who are struggling to keep life together ... Our ministry to the homeless can only take place because people like Mary Jane are involved."

Now, Franck wants only to be able to continue the good work she's begun. She said she believes that if she's still alive after all she's been through, she must have a part yet to play in life. "If I can help one person, I'll consider it a success," she said.

"I want to let the community know that I'm not one of the bad guys," said Franck. "I'm one of the good guys here. I have been working very hard for the last 18 months in trying to get these things off the streets and to work with the professionals in the community and go to the schools and talk to the kids."

© 2003 The Ojai Valley News

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