Courage To Come Back: Addiction award recipient went from a life of crime to a life serving others

He went from smoking crack cocaine at age 17 to becoming a full-blown drug addict by his 20s. Stan Price of Surrey is the Courage To Come Back Award recipient in the Addiction category.

Price was born and raised on Vancouver Island. His mother was 16 when he was born, and he admits he didn’t have a lot of stability growing up.

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“There was a lot of substance use in the house, and a lot of drinking,” he said. “I didn’t really have a male role model in my life.”

Price was acting out in school and was in and out of foster care. But it was during a visit home that he was introduced to crack.

“I was introduced to crack cocaine at 17 years old. My first time using crack cocaine was with my parents and some of their friends. And it progressed from there.”

Price graduated from several stints in foster care to multiple terms in custody.

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“It was kind of a pattern of, you know, like going back to prison, getting released, going back to prison, getting released.”

By his 20s, Price was living in Vancouver and fully engaged in the gang lifestyle. He was drinking heavily and using crack cocaine – not just using but selling too. And then he developed an addiction to heroin. Soon, he would be stealing to feed his habit. 

Price did not like the person he was becoming. One more stint behind bars made him realize it was time to change.

“It came to a point where I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was like, ‘Do you really want to do this for the rest of your life?’ I had to make a decision, and that’s not the life that I wanted,” he said. “I said, That’s it. I’m done. I’m out.”

For Price, quitting the criminal lifestyle really was a matter of life and death.

“If I didn’t make the choice I made to leave that, I would definitely, definitely be dead, for sure, 100 per cent I would not be alive.”

Now, he advises others to seek help and support, as he did, to turn their lives around.

“They’re the ones doing the work, [I just] get to be a part of it,” he said.

Through his work at the Phoenix Drug & Alcohol Recovery and Education Society in Surrey, he helps people struggling with mental health and substance abuse, using his personal experience to relate directly with clients.

“Seeing somebody’s success of beating addiction and coming through our programs at Phoenix is worth more than a paycheck to me,” he said. “I cherish every day that I’m here now because I get to live this beautiful life now, and I don’t have to engage in a lifestyle of pain and torment anymore.”

Price’s message is that it’s never too late to change, and if you feel stuck, there is always a way out.

“Anybody who thinks that they’re stuck in that lifestyle, you’re not stuck.  It might be what you know in the moment, but it’s never too late to turn that around and make a difference, to make change.”

1130 NewsRadio is a proud sponsor of the 2025 Coast Mental Health Courage To Come Back Awards, which are being handed out Wednesday May 7th at the Vancouver Convention Centre.