Transcript for the Piece Audio version of A physicist battles drug addiction

Soundbite: “People have all sorts of problems in life. Some they ask for and some they don’t. But, how we deal with them I really think that defines who we are.”

VO: On April 17, 1997, Nathan Scott of Spearsville, Louisiana, took control of a problem that nearly cost him his life: Drug addiction. He has been sober for more than seven years now, and counting. But his story doesn’t end at kicking an addiction that most people can’t do. The real story of Nathan Scott, as he tells it, is an emergence of a dramatically different life. This is one man’s story of living two lives: the first, an aimless drug addict, the second, an emerging biophysics scholar.

Soundbite: “I spent a lot of years aimless with no direction whatsoever. If you had told me seven or eight years ago that I would be going to an Ivy League graduate school in the summer of 2004, I would have thought you were crazy.”

VO: He weighed a little over 100 pounds when he checked himself into Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in 1997. He thought he was going to die soon. He had developed abscesses in his arms from using non-sterile needles. His addiction had escalated to IV drugs: cocaine, dilaudid, heroine, morphine.

Soundbite: “It was every parent’s worst nightmare. The only thing that I think could have been worse would have been had he been dead—and he nearly was. weighed 114 pounds. just no telling when he had a bath. but my husband and I both—we were going to do anything—any money it took, whatever—to get him out of it. we were going to be there for him.”

VO: Nathan’s mother, Beth Scott, calls her son a miracle and a lot of answered prayers. She’s thankful that he got his life back at an early age. But, the former life started with a choice.

Soundbite: “addiction is one of those problems no one asks for. I mean it starts with choices you make. Obviously, I made the choice to start using drugs but with an addict you quickly lose control. It goes from something you want to do—something fun, like people go out and have a beer after a long day at work—to something you need every day all the time.”

VO: for nathan, drug addiction soon became a way of life. He called it living on the underbelly of society. One way of coping was to crisscross the country and follow touring bands like Phish and the Grateful Dead.

SOUNDBITE: “Living in addiction you’re in a constant state of running from something. Driving to a new city every day is a pretty good way of running. You stay on the move. Nothing catches up with you. It’s an attractive lifestyle to someone who doesn’t want to be a part of society or who can’t.”

VO: Today, Nathan is not uncomfortable when talking about his former life. But he is very cognizant of the misperceptions that people have about drug addicts.

SOUNDBITE: “Some people believe that addicts are criminals. Addicts certainly do engage in criminal behavior. But, addiction itself isn’t a crime. It’s really a disease. There’s a physiological basis for it. It affects the body and mind and spirit. It’s something that’s treatable. People can recover.”

VO: in nathan’s situation, it was a combination of outpatient treatment centers first in Camden, Arkansas, then in Monroe coupled with the steady support of his parents.

SOUNDBITE: “It took awhile for him to realize he wanted help. We were persistent. we weren’t going to make him go. But when he finally made up his mind to go he had good advice and good people behind him.”

VO: Nathan’s treatment was complicated by a history of addiction in the family that went undiagnosed and untreated. Beth talked about it.

SOUNDBITE: “Unfortunately, he did grow up in an addicted family. My father was an alcoholic. My husband’s father was an alcoholic. In those days, they did not know and we do not know what is known now. I tried to warn him of that but it didn’t work!”

VO: Nathan feels sorry for people who don’t recognize addiction when it strikes a family member or even oneself, just because someone doesn’t fit the stereotype of an addict.

Soundbite: “You say the word addict. Or you say the word junkie. Or You say the words dope fiend. any of these slang terms—crack head, whatever. You can’t help it. You conger up an image in your mind. We’re talking about society’s outcasts here. We’re talking about people who you see at the liquor store or you see standing on the corner. The crazy thing is, the addict can be grandma taking her pills in a way she shouldn’t—in a destructive way. Or, dad getting drunk every day after work.”

VO: In 1994, Nathan failed out of Louisiana State University. Drugs took the central focus of his life. He couldn’t keep a steady job. He lived in an abandoned apartment near the north gates of the Baton Rouge campus.

SOUNDBITE: “I wish I had given my seat in those classes to someone else who wanted to be there because I just wasted people’s time. I wasted my time. Then I paid for that in the sense that you had to wait five years for academic bankruptcy. i think it’s three now.”

VO: In 1999, he made a fresh academic start and a new life opened up for him. Nathan enrolled at Louisiana Tech with a goal of majoring in physics.

SOUNDBITE: “I think the first time you see Nathan, you kind of don’t know what to make of him. I know this is for radio and you don’t have an image of this guy. This is a burly guy. Got the big beard. got the long hair. Got the big Grateful Dead tattoo on his arm. You don’t think this is a physicist! This is a biker, right?”

VO: associate professor of physics at Tech, Dr. Lee Sawyer was Nathan’s advisor.

SOUNDBITE: It only took one or two homework sets or a couple class meetings to realize he was for real. Really one of the best problem solvers, one of the best physicists we’ve had come through out program in the last few years.”

SOUNDBITE: “Before I came back to Tech I had never had trigonometry. I had never had any sort of advanced math. I had a conceptual physics class in high school that I barely passed. But whenever I came back I was really serious about school and wasn’t sure but I thought I could do whatever I seriously put my mind to. I kind of impressed myself.”

VO: And he wasn’t the only one impressed. Nathan graduated last spring with a 4.0 and a physics major. Sawyer again:

Soundbite: “Nathan is unusual. To say that we’ve seen a student like Nathan the answer is clearly no. Physics is small. We don’t get a lot of majors because It’s kind of scary. Not a lot of people want to major in physics. But the people who do tend to be some of the very best students.”

VO: In Nathan’s first year at tech, a friendship kindled between the two that centered around a shared passion for live music and of course physics. Nathan brought Sawyer Bob Dylan posters from concerts he went to. Sawyer has them prominently displayed in his office. And, Beth Scott kept the physics department sugared up with her baking—Christmas divinity and fudge. Sawyer’s weakness was always the divinity.

Soundbite: “it wasn’t until I’d known him for a long time that I knew that he had this background because it’s not something he talks about that much. He’s not ashamed to talk about it but it’s not something that he puts on his card and passes out to people the first time you meet him.”

VO: Nathan’s college career number TWO was progressing toward a storybook ending until his father died.

Soundbite: “year before last was of course was a rough when his father died but they’ve just showed such a personal interest in him. I’ve really appreciated the Tech professors.”

Soundbite: “it was very sad. You know this is your dad passing away. There were a few weeks where he started thinking: am I really going to go to graduate school? But, he got through it and found that inner strength and got back in the groove and started working on going to graduate school.”

VO: Nathan is currently packing for a cross-country move to Philadelphia. Next month he starts his Ph.D. program at University of Pennsylvania in the biochemistry and molecular biophysics program on a distinguished scholar fellowship.

SOUNDBITE: “whenever it’s your own life it stops being so amazing because you’re faced with either doing it or not.”

VO: Next, we take a closer look at the challenges of overcoming addiction through the eyes of a counselor at Monroe Regional Addictive Disorders Clinic. In Ruston, Louisiana, I’m Kate Archer.

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