It was a long road from being a Hell’s Angel addicted to amphetamines to finally becoming a productive drug-free individual spending his life helping others get off drugs.
The road started in New Jersey where George Veliskakis grew up. It then led through the Hell’s Angels and amphetamines and then through a heroin addiction George battled while running a boxing gym. Fortunately, the road finally arrived at a drug-free life in which he could help others overcome the addiction problems he had suffered from.
George’s first encounter with drugs came after he lost an eye while being abused by other kids. “They were teasing me about being Greek and one of them accidentally stabbed me in the eye with a knife,” George explained. While in the hospital, one of the nurses convinced George that he needed a painkiller for the eye injury. “I only realized years later what happened,” he went on. “The nurses wanted to get some morphine for their own use so they got me to ask for a painkiller when I wasn’t even in pain. They gave me a little, laughed when I got high then they got high themselves. Many years later when I got injured and actually needed painkillers, these memories came back to me and I figured out what had been going on.”
In his 20s, George joined the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club. He began to use and sell amphetamines and other drugs and spent two terms in jail. After the second jail term, he decided to get clean and return to the athletic world that had helped him succeed when he was a young man. He opened a boxing gym and retired from the motorcycle club. But his drug habit eventually followed him into his new life.
“I got addicted to heroin and then to the methadone that I was getting from treatment centers,” he said. “What I really wanted was freedom from drugs. I felt like a slave, always having to chase drugs one way or another. I couldn’t even visit Greece with my brothers because I had to have access to methadone.” After a few years of methadone treatment that never offered a drug-free life, George found the Narconon Arrowhead drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Canadian, Oklahoma. “Still, it took me a long time to decide to start their program. But when I finally did, Narconon gave me a sober life.
“One of the program steps gave me relief from all the harmful things I had done in my life,” George explained. “I didn’t even realize that the guilt from these actions was like carrying a big trunk on my back for all those years. At the end of this step, I felt free and like I had rejoined the human race. After that, I began to help others get through their programs. When I graduated, I began doing drug education lectures in the Boston area and reached more than 20,000 kids with the message that a drug-free life helps you win.”
Since moving from the Boston area, George has continued to work for Narconon Arrowhead and other Narconon centers in Southern California. “Now I teach people that they can make the decision to be drug-free and ethical and that they should strive to be around other drug-free, honest people. The Narconon program taught me that. The Narconon program took me from being a criminal all the way to helping addicts re-establish their personal values and restore their integrity. If the Narconon program can take a person like me who was hopelessly addicted to drugs and steeped in criminality and turn them into the person I am today, I’d say that’s a miracle.”
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