When someone else does the research for you…
The lucky part for me is that I do not have to do a ton of research for people to understand some of what I went through as a teenager. Documentaries, 60 Minutes, YouTube videos and I am sure other blogs like mine that have links to all the information you would need that is factual and not my opinion. But be sure, a lot of the stuff that is my opinion has also turned out to be facts over the years. Granted, some of it took me like 30 years to sort out in my head, but still, I got there eventually.
Group of teens, stock photo
Palmer Drug Abuse Program (PDAP) has been around since 1971. There are lots of links on the internet about how it started with Bob Meehan and Father Charlie and so on and so forth. Now, most of them now are scrubbed clean and none of them are linked to the groups in STL or Chicago or Atlanta. The names of the people in power are changed but they are still out there. And they are still looking for your kids and your money. The biggest thing people didn’t realize is that the group in Saint Louis that was known as both Crossroads and North County JCA, is that they are FOR PROFIT drug abuse group. And predators when it came to finding middle class white kids with good insurance, horrible self esteem and a screaming need for a clan to take them in and love them. And love you they sure did. Love Bombing was the start of what they would do. Every single person who met you said that they loved you, man. Hugs. Invites to sit with us during group. Or at coffee after group.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Because there’s so much to unpack and I don’t want this to be a novella. Let’s save that for later. These groups, Crossroads and North County JCA, were offshoots of the original drug abuse program, PDAP. They were enthusiastic sobriety. They were the place you could send your kid and know they would be “safe”. And that was untrue but, again, we will hit that part later. There were hierarchies in the groups, the steering committee is the only one which I can remember by name. And you had to be sober and part of the clique and be willing to throw away all your other friends and things you did for fun. Your life had to dedicated to being a leader of a group of children who all were looking to replace drugs with FUN and SOBRIETY and LOVE. And to be honest, none of these things were what was going on with these teenagers. It was what was presented to the parents in order to get their children out from under their thumbs and into a group that was created to make money for Bill Meehan and everyone else who came after him. And isn’t it a good thing that your teen isn’t using drugs any more, is hanging around other sober people, is participating in sober (Things to do - can’t find the word) - wedging anyone? - and just not doing drugs. The biggest problem with everything in this? Most of these kids didn’t do drugs. Or if they did? It was smoking a little pot. But, you can’t get a family to basically sign over their child to you and allow you to send them to Texas to a random treatment center if they aren’t doing drugs or just have a bit of a weed issue. They just won’t do that. And so, your story was born. These were adults who told you to tell the very worst drug story you could so that your parents would be terrified that if they didn't do something right now, you would be lost. Or dead. And the better the story, the more adulation from your peers and the staff. I watched people that I knew for a fact were just looking for a place to fit in, stand up and admit to a crack habit, or being a sex worker in order to pay for these drugs, or what they stole to pay for these drugs - all drugs and habits and things that never happened. As in, I know for a fact never happened, but their stories just were compelling enough. And so they created these habits and stories and issues for these children so that they could make money off of them. Oh, and have sex with them. I forgot to say that part.
Sex with underage girls. Add that to any group you put together and you end up with a certain kind of person. And these group attracted a LOT of those people. The people who were supposed to be the ones leading us and loving us and making us better humans and sober… and they were engaging in statutory rape with people in the group. And I make this statement not of opinion, but as of fact as one of the members of staff was the one who was having sex with me and was the sperm donor of the child I placed for adoption. And when I turned up pregnant and he told upper management, he suddenly disappeared to Texas to “train as a counselor” which he already was, and I was kicked out of the group because “this is a group for teens with drug issues, not teen pregnancies”. It took me decades to realize what they were doing. Which was covering their own asses. Because holy shit what he did was bad on so many levels. Statutory rape by a member of their staff, I was now pregnant, and they needed that all to go away before the cops and the civil suits showed up. And I was not the only one. Not even close to being the only one. I cannot tell you how many girls told me about the counselors and “therapists” having a secret sexual relationship with them because “if anyone knows we will get in trouble because you don’t have enough time sober or other reason inserted here” and so there was a bathroom confessional that saw a lot of girls telling me about the sex they were having that in some cases, they didn’t want to have. And that’s not statutory rape. That’s. Just. Rape.
Next time - being more specific about my time in this group, how damaged I came out the other side and the people I know who had it happen to them as well.
-February 16, 2024
thumbnail library photo - Photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash
