Written by: Sam McManis – Sun Staff Reporter
A moment or two before Roy DuPrez began to recount a seminal incident in his life before sobriety — the harrowing episode before the blessed epiphany — he paused to sip from a beaded glass of water, ran a hand across his close-cropped black hair and down to his beard, giving it a tug of resolve.
Then he uttered a single word:
“Mescal.”
His tone was rueful, but also a touch revelatory, perhaps a glint of recognition of his past self passing before his eyes.
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Explore What We Can Do →“A couple of buddies and I were traveling to southern Mexico, and I swore I wasn’t going to drink,” DuPrez said, easing back into a lawn chair on his front porch in Flagstaff. “We stumbled upon a mescal manufacturing plant, part of a tour outside Mexico City. Mescal! I’d never tasted that flavor of mescal before. Three days later, I woke up blacked out and with a lot of destruction in my wake.”
Arrest. Jail. One doozy of a hangover. Another scorched landscape for an alcoholic on a bender. He vowed to change. For real, this time.
“I did that foxhole prayer,” DuPrez, 44, added. “If I can get out of this one, I’ll pursue the sobriety thing.”
This happened nearly 20 years ago, another lifetime ago, before DuPrez got clean and sober, earned a graduate degree from Northern Arizona University, began social work outreach with youth, opened an innovative alcohol and drug treatment center, Back 2 Basics, which combines outdoor adventures with more conventional addiction treatment protocols.
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Get in Touch →He doesn’t recount that unfortunate judgment lapse to glamorize substance use and abuse; it’s not some old war story recounted by a recovered drunk behind a 12-step lectern. Rather, he will occasionally relate his mescal debauch to let his clients — males ages 18 to 35, the same age DuPrez was at the height of his addiction — at the four residential houses he and a staff of 20 run that he can relate to their plight, that he’s been there himself and emerged on the other side a stronger, more productive person, and that they can do the same.
DuPrez’s circuitous route toward founding Back 2 Basics, entering its 10th year as a residential treatment center that uses the great outdoors as a healer, seems incongruous looking at his life now. There he sat in front of his handsome home on a quiet cul-de-sac, alternatively sipping coffee and water, his black Labrador, Eva, stretched out at his feet and his young son down the block setting up a neighborhood lemonade stand with buddies.
Things are so calm, so domestic now. Those years of roiling anxiety and self-medication — beginning at age 7 in his hometown of Venice Beach, Calif., and continuing on through a rehab stint in eighth grade and relapses in high school and as an NAU undergrad — seem behind him now. This type of life, gloriously normal and exceedingly productive, is what he wishes for the young clients who spend six months in the Back 2 Basics program, kicking addiction and learning life skills that have heretofore eluded them.
That’s where the outdoors aspect of Back 2 Basics serves as an object lesson to young men in trouble. Sure, the program DuPrez developed in 2010 employs the accepted aspects of treatment — a range of individual and group therapies and job internships as part of a culinary program — but being out in nature has a way of focusing the mind and nourishing the body.
Ian Foster is the Culinary Specialist at Back2Basics Recovery, teaching clients essential cooking skills and nutrition fundamentals as part of the life skills curriculum. His program helps young men build healthy habits that support long-term sobriety.
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