I’m John, and my story is not unique.

Rewind the clock a decade ago, and I was lying on my back in a jail cell in a county prison after being arrested for opioid possession for the second time. I can remember those lonely nights when I wanted my life to end. I thought it would bring peace to myself and my loved ones. I was lost. One night, while looking at a picture of my beautiful wife, who was pregnant with our daughter and our two-year-old son, I realized something switched. I made a commitment to myself and my family to get better. I was released from jail, but I wasn't free yet. Addiction cost me my career, my dignity, and almost my marriage, my children, and everything I love. I had an incredible support system and took recovery one day at a time.

I realized how cruel our justice system is to lock non-violent offenders in a cage for having an addiction that needed medical attention, and I decided to do something about it. In 2014 I was heavily involved in the battle to legalize medical marijuana for patients like my father, who suffered decades of chronic pain. I began to meet with police officers, lawmakers, and activists to make a real difference. This is where my political activism got its foundation.

From then on, I continued this activism to bring awareness to addiction and how the United States operates on a draconian system that doesn't have our best interests in mind. One thing led to the next, and in 2019 I decided to run for state representative in Pennsylvania as I realized that in order to change the system - activism wasn't going to be enough. We have to reshape it from the inside. I was unsuccessful as we ran in one of Pennsylvania's most conservative districts. But I raised a significant amount of cash and obtained the highest vote count ever for a candidate in that district. We worked hard during COVID to drive votes for President Biden, and arguably, Pennsylvania decided the outcome of that once-in-a-lifetime election.

When I was five, my father was diagnosed with a progressive neurological disease - Multiple sclerosis. We went from living the American dream to a nightmare. My father lost his ability to provide for his family and was denied social security disability benefits two times. We had no income for over two years. Our family survived depending on government programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Liheap, and more. This is why it's so important for us to have a strong social safety net to care for working families when a loved one becomes ill.

The trauma we endure as children has long-lasting effects well into adulthood, and I'm a prime example. When I was nineteen years old, I was involved in a bad car accident - I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and my head hit the window. I suffered from chronic pain in the immediate aftermath and was prescribed opioids for pain management. My prolonged opioid use quickly devolved into a physical dependency that trapped me in a vicious cycle of addiction that took me down some challenging paths.

Shortly afterward, my family and I relocated to Severance. It was so easy for us to come to Colorado. I've been coming to stay in the summers and winters with my aunt and uncle in Boulder/Estes Park - since I was five years old. As a child, I loved this state's natural beauty. We have always been deeply connected to this state.

I never stopped fighting for a better country. I continue to maintain my status as an addiction recovery advocate helping people obtain the treatment they need and working to push our public policy in a more compassionate direction. I worked as field director for Lisa Chollet's campaign for state Rep in Northern Colorado during the 2022 election. We obtained one of the highest vote counts of ANY Democratic candidate in NoCo but still came up short.