Virtual evangelist of recovery
Today, McGill tackles his job as recovery coordinator with the Arkansas Drug Director’s Office with the same gusto he used to put into finding drugs. He’s a virtual evangelist of recovery and has put the state’s fight against substance use disorders in the spotlight. And he’s a key ally to Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield in the battle against substance abuse. Arkansas Blue Cross and its affiliates are helping to:- Train and supply first responders to handle opioid overdoses with potentially lifesaving tools.
- Support affected members by covering medication-assisted treatment.
- Connect healthcare providers to UAMS (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) experts, via the AR-IMPACT program’s video network, to discuss opioid concerns. (The Drug Director’s Office also supports this program).
- Equip the state’s employers to deal with substance use disorders in the workplace (the Together Arkansas initiative). Programs McGill has created are part of the toolkit available to employers.
A family tradition
In his addiction days, McGill was following a path set by his grandfather (a moonshiner who died an alcoholic) and father (a violent drug user who spent much of McGill’s childhood in prison). Physical and sexual abuse drove McGill to seek relief in alcohol and drugs around age 11. What followed was “a self-imposed prison called addiction,” a life of personal turmoil, gang activity, failed relationships and even several prison stretches of his own. “I never saw a good home – a happy home – until I broke into someone else’s,” McGill said. “I tell people I only got high once ... it just lasted 23 years.”A fateful transition
The turning point came in two parts:- His addiction came into sharp focus in 2014. In the Lonoke County jail, he “got clean.” Weeks without drugs let his natural charisma come out. Good behavior earned him coveted “trusty” status and all its perks. Life was good. Then his cellmate scored some drugs. “I resisted,” McGill recalled. “But I finally gave in. For the first time, I hated myself for not being able to turn it down.” “Trusty” status revoked, life got worse.
- He recognized himself – and the possibility of a drug-free life –in a fellow addict’s recovery story.
Life-changing recovery
A life-changing “first” came in 2015. He was paroled to a recovery residence. In a support group, another addict said: “Addiction is hard to see when you’re in it. When I sold my food stamps for drugs, I thought I had a hunger problem. When I sold my TV to get drugs, I thought I had an entertainment problem. When I sold my car to get drugs, I thought I had a transportation problem. It never dawned on me that what I had was a drug problem.” “That just hit me like a brick in the face,” McGill said. “I was 38 years old, and I was just learning that recovery was even an option. Lots of very smart, caring folks had tried to help me: counselors, teachers, pastors, doctors. But they all lacked the one thing I needed, and that was credibility. I couldn’t relate to them, and I was too ashamed to tell them all the horrible things I had done. “But when I met people who were in recovery, I saw everything clearly. I had a path forward, and I saw that someone just like me had made the journey successfully. And they were accepting me and hugging me. An addict in recovery did in two minutes what people had been trying to do for 20 years.”
Jimmy McGill with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (left) and state drug czar Kirk Lane (2nd from right).