The Sunday Story: The 13th Step
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In late twenty twenty, active and an email to journalists, law and children at new hampshire radio. The note contained a shocking allegation that the founder of the largest network of addiction treatment signers in the state, a man named eric buffer, had been sexually harassing or sexually assaulting women at his facilities. Some of the women were employees.

Some were clients. Area buffet denies these allegations. Am I sharing to? And this is a sundays story. Children began investigating, and her reporting revealed troubling issues not just at the treatment signers in new hampshire, but throughout the addiction treatment industry.

As one sce, total addiction treatment needs a me too movement law n children now has a podcast based on her investigation is called the thirteen step. We're going to bring you the first episode of the series. But first more joins me to talk about her experience reporting the story, which at times he says felt really dangerous. Hi, lorn.

hi. I am .

curious on how you got involved ved, with this story because I understand IT began when you were reporting on A A covet outbreak at one of these addiction treatment signers. right?

Yeah, exactly. I mean, the intent was not to go on this wild journey, or even to find the allegations of sexual misconduct. Basically, I had just done a story about an outbreak at the largest addiction treatment network that we have, a new hampshire.

And then I got a tip that effectively said, you think a copy outbreak to bed. And this tip came from a former employee of one of these facilities. And SHE made huge allegation.

SHE said that the CEO and founder of this network, his name is eric, offered. SHE said he was facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including a sexual assault allegation by a woman who worked for him who used to be a patient at one of these facilities. So that's obviously a wild allegation, and IT would be in any industry. But of course, this is one of the facilities that offers the most treatment beds in new hampshire, a region that has really been hard hit by the opposite epidemics. So I really need to get the bottom of what .

was going on. And so, so you've got this huge and disturbing allegation against this man. And this is a very powerful person in new hampshire with a lot of resources and a lot of money.

So yeah, he's a very powerful individual. I mean, at this point, he has sent sold grand recovery centers is still exists with owner. But when he sold that, he said online that he's made one hundred and fifty million dollars off that sale.

This is a guy who presents his wealth on on social media. He has a yard that he rents out. And being an entrepreneur is a big part of his brand. And so for women who are trying to make allegations, that's a really powerful person to come up against.

So when you got this allegation, walk me through what you did next. Like, where where did you do?

Yeah, IT was quite overwhelming. I mean, basically, uh, this tip came in from a clinic who had quit, and he said that other people had quit when they heard these allegations as well. So that's really where I started. But you know, not everybody wants to go on the record. Initially, I had to work for a year, for example, to get the former hr director who heard that allegation directly from this woman. SHE had to think about IT for a year because what we just discussed to mean this is a person who has a lot of money and the means to fight someone in court to make sure these allegations get buried.

So you interview lots of women. Many of home did not want to be identified. What went into the decision to allow on some of your sources to remain anonymous?

Yeah, I mean, this is a big one, right? As journalists, you know what we want. Ideal situation is for a person to use their name beyond the record. Um in this case, I was gonna take a lot of convincing to get there.

And I tried, of course I tried, but a lot of the people I spoke with, we're really afraid of retaliation, legal retaliation, you know, the laws who they couldn't afford. And they also, some of them have a history of substance to use disorder. And for some people, that's a fine thing to share.

And for other people, it's something they want to keep private. And so there were a lot of conversations with sources about what they were comfortable with as they made these allegations. And in the end, many of them decided that a student, them just felt Better and safer, that people wouldn't know their actual name. And you know, in the end, what was really remarkable was a lot of their fears actually born out.

So the episode we are airing doesn't get into this, but a later episode goes into debt about the harassment that you and your family and some of your colleagues and sources experience while you were working on the podcast. You know, talk to me a little bit about that, and what I was IT like for you to be threatened and to experiences backlash because of your reporting.

Yeah, I mean, of course it's been uncomfortable, I think, to say the least. But you know, when I initially started fine in these allegations of sexual conduct against the guy who was the CEO of this treatment center, we realized we were sitting on a lot of news here. So we decided to put out what I had last march, march of twenty twenty two, in a news story.

And a month after that story came out, my parents home, home. I used to live in a new hampshire, and the house of my boss, our news director, were all the analyzed bricks, rocks thrown at windows, the seaward was rapping in red on my parents crash door and the other two homes, front doors. And then a month after that, actually my parents and house was vandalized again.

And my house sex this time was vandal ized and a breakfast throw through my window and the words just the beginning, where spray painted under the window. After the details have happened, eric released a statement saying that not only was he completely uninvolved with the vandalism, he also does not support or condone them, though he did also offer a theory, which was that, quote, many people in recovery have credited me with saving their lives. Perhaps one of them felt compelled to do these acts in a misguided attempt to defend me.

I would never condoned IT, but I have no control over what other people do. So that was a statement. But in the meantime, and we also were facing a lot of legal pressure from spotter red and his team.

The day after the story came out, his lawyers sent really intimidating letters to some of the sources my story who actually were anonymous as we just discussed um and so there were two tracks um happening which is he eventually spoil er eventually suit us for defamation over the original reporting. He also suit three of my sources in two of my colleagues. But then i'm also dealing with this personal attack on my house and and that attack really scared my sources. And so IT was a really in husband, a really uncomfortable spot to be in to navigate. My role is a journalist, and my role is, you know, a human being.

How are you holding up right now?

Thanks for asking. I'm doing okay. I'm proud of the work we did. And i'm, you know in all of the people who, despite all of these obstacles, still felt IT was important to come forward.

A quick update to this story. Since we recorded this interview with Lauren, three men have been charged by federal prosecutors in connection with the vandalism. The three men are alleged to have conspired with a close personal associate of area buffered in retaliation a izz of reporting by new hampshire radio. And now we bring you episode one of the thirteen step. Please note, this episode contains explicit language as well as descriptions of sexual harassment in a mission of suicide.

So so you get there. Would you remember Green .

mountain is a completely different vive that i'm used to. I didn't feel like treatment, but remember I had my first like a real god moment there because of the view is incredible. Actually really call one time um somebody was having a really tough time.

And so like we all had the idea like america, we go down to a the helicopter landed bad and watch the sunset and SHE brought us and we all screamed from the mountain, and IT felt so good. I was like a movie, we just SAT there and screamed, that was really cool. That was really cool.

And I remember that moment. I was like, IT there. If if I didn't believe in god before watching the sun setness view, I do know he was like that, like, I hit me.

You don't mean because it's like, I I didn't make that. I didn't make the sun. I don't, you know, water the trees every day. Like, again, that favorite reality is just like finding anything is bigger than me. And he was very easy to see something larger than me in front of me there, you know.

Did you like like thinking about all this stuff again?

Yeah, no. IT is as good as I for the last few years that you have great mountain. It's very difficult to not think of eric .

talking about that allows .

me to like, almost see IT without him. It's always like a shadow. It's like his shadow isn't there. Like while i'm thinking about IT right now, what is signs.

That's Elizabeth. Well, that's what I am going to call her. SHE was scared to reveal her identity for reasons that will become clear to you later.

So SHE and I settled on calling her by her middle, me, Elizabeth, and he allowed me to record her voice. In order to get Elizabeth on the phone, I had to call her late at night. He leads a very for life.

She's a twelve step sponsor, an active member of our church. SHE has Young kids. The first time we got on the phone, a lisbeth was really nervous.

I'm sorry, but i'm one exhausted from having a talk, and two and gonna a little flustered. This isn't something i've ever john I .

was about, was about to tell me a story, a painful one, about something that happened to her a few years ago. And for me, her story was just the beginning of a wild reporting journey. My name is laun children.

I'm a public radio reporter in new hampshire, and this journey began more than two years ago. I published a few stories about an addiction treatment company is actually the largest one in new hampshire. They had had a cove IT outbreak at one of their residential rehab centers.

And then in december of twenty twenty, I got an email IT essentially said, you think that's bad. The email was from a clinic at the company's flagship treatment facility called Green mountain treatment center. And this, clinton made a huge allegation. SHE said that the guy who founded and ran the treatment center, he was sexually abusing female clients and employees. So I started calling around, and one of the first women who agreed to talk to me was Elizabeth.

Elizabeth has no problem sharing her experience of addiction. That's easy. Like most people in recovery, she's done in a million times. SHE calls IT her fast forward story.

You, I drank when I was well, ve, that one drink ended up years later of me homeless in boston on heroin um I saw a treatment seriously like actually trying to get sober when I was twenty one in society for about four years.

And then at age twenty five, SHE relapsed. SHE knew he had to get out. I didn't .

really want to be doing what I was doing. I wanted to get back to like not lying to everyone I loved and like not being a complete slave to a bag of powder. It's like so pathetic when you say loud right like it's just a pathetic way of life, you know um that unfortunately is so easy to fall victim to.

Eliza b needed treatment. Asp, unlikely for her. Elisabeth best friend had a lot of connections in the recovery community in new england.

Let just call him john. Okay, so john goes, I have a bed for you. You know, like Green mountain, eric is holding IT are, are you ready to go now?

Eric was a offered. He was the founder in CEO of a big addiction treatment network in new hampshire. Turns out, not only did erik's say he had room, he promised to give Elizabeth a scholarship.

SHE get a month of impatient treatment, a Green mountain treatment center for free, Elizabeth z. Says erik even called her a few times to tell her about Green mountain. And can I just say, this is such a rare opportunity, hardly anyone is lucky enough to have a bed open and waiting for them when they need IT.

Never mind a free one. This was twenty seventeen. There weren't a lot of beds available in new hampshire.

The state was constantly in the national news on two lists you don't want to, beyond highest overdose deaths per capital and smallest demand of money spent on treatment. So eliza's had basically hit the treatment jackpot. SHE remembers the day the company van came to picker up. Well.

kind of, I just gotten a van incredibly high, and they almost didn't drive me, and then died. I was a new hampshire thing.

I knew the first few days are hazy. The band drops her off. SHE goes through detox for a few days, nurses help her get through withdrawal times.

But as her mind starts to clear, SHE starts going to group therapy, another programing. And SHE realizes Green mountain is a totally different. five. Then the treatment center she's spent there .

before know I used like a very much of an institution. Where is gretton downing was like, really nice sightly. I felt like I was at summer camp.

Most Green mountain treatment center is in a gorgeous part of new hampshire. I've never been inside, but i've driven up to the front gates and I totally get what he means by summer camp. It's a big campus with apple trees in the front, clients even sleep in cabinet, and it's up on this big hill. You can see the White mountains in the distance, and lisa says the summer can have continued inside two SHE felt really welcomed.

IT didn't feel like treatment in the way I like, I put your bags, we've to search you IT was like, yeah, we have to do these things but like where your friends and IT was like he was nice I don't know. He was just like a nice feeling um to feel like not looked down upon but rather like they were actually reaching their hand out to help me.

Eliza really, really loved the staff. They made the biggest impact on her. Many of them were in recovery too. And every once in a while, airport fer the C E, O would visit.

He wasn't day all the time, obviously. I mean he he doesn't work you know to see you know he said there all the time um apart from what had flying in on a helicopter, which I never understood I whenever not my business, right?

By twenty seventeen, eric had made a name for himself. He owned the company called granted recovery centers. IT was the network of addiction treatment facilities and sober homes all over new hampshire.

Green mountain was their biggest treatment center. Like his clients, eric had struggled with addiction, and he made his personal story the backbone of the company. I can imagine him coming off the helicopter. He could be mistaken for an M, M, A fighter, thick arms covered in tattoos, a buza, not a suit and tie kind of guy.

IT almost seems as if like he just owns the recovery community in new hampshire in like he's there's like big head hat show that everyone knows, everyone respects, everyone looks up to.

Elizabeth says eric would occasionally check in with her when he was at Green mountain one time, he asked to red to have lunch with them in the treatment in our cafeteria. If IT seemed weird as a client to eat lunched with the CEO, all is about didn't make much of IT. SHE figured IT was because they had that friend in common.

John and some other staff members came along to lunch. two. So whatever, besides, he had other things to focus on.

IT was her last day in treatment. He would be leaving this place soon, back on her own. And SHE felt Better than he had in a while. Humbled, grounded, a lizbeth was all set to go to a soberness important man in the next day, the next step in her transition back to reality. But this is where the shadow creeps in.

See, I will not support land. And I want to say I was, within day two, one IT might have been to date, one actually, I was receiving text america.

This is where I need to tell you this podcast may be upsetting to listen to. Substance use disorder is already a hard topic. You'll also be hearing about trauma and sexual misconduct, and there will be some swearing. It's kind of unavoidable. Okay, back to Elizabeth.

my first day in this new server house. I just got to my phone backside because in treatment I don't have my phone um and I was I I mean, I don't remember any Normal conversation to IT there might have been a hey, how are you house the house but I have no idea but I know that he was already planning to come to see me um wanted to take me out I wanted to do explicit things um with enemy pictures take pictures yeah I mean I don't know the language with that of a you fifty shades of grey.

The C. E. O of the treatment center SHE just left was sending her pictures of his penis and soliciting her for sex.

Just thirty days ago, Elizabeth arrived at eric treatment center high on opium. He paid for her to go there. And now this Elizabeth fell into a complicated mental spiral.

I knew in my core wasn't right, because I know that A C. E O of a treatment center I left twenty four hours ago should not be sending any pictures of his dick that he shouted, be sending pictures of his dick even a year later. But just integrity one I want, right.

But at the same time, what could you really do about IT? SHE says sh'd respond with neutral messages, like, don't you have a girlfriend? Or uneasy SHE worried about how connected erik was in the recovery community. If he told him to knock at all or something, maybe he would retaliate in some way.

like he was either gonna get me kicked out of the house, or he was going to set up a rumor about me to, like, ruin my time there, or whatever, or just like, make me out to be like a crazy bitches, if you will. I just, I didn't. I don't want any bit.

I wanted to look over my head and food, my tummy. Like, I want to feel safe. So I knew not to share IT. I knew I was a you know, I knew IT was wrong, but like shooting heroines is not ready, right? Like so IT IT felt good in that really, really low vulnerable state.

I'm a month, so, but i'm still not well, i'm still really delusional and i'm really, really, really vulnerable. A girl whose months sober, does not love herself yet, does not even know who he is, does not feel any validation from anything within herself, right? So I felt special if you I felt like this man that has presented himself with all this power and prestige and money, which has been shocked in my face for thirty days, wants me so I must be good enough. That's kind of like if i'm being honest, it's really embarrassing to admit, but that's kind where my head naturally went to.

Until this moment, I didn't understand the vulnerability of new sobriety. I remember listening to Elizabeth so hard through the phone, not just about the messages, but the particular complexities around early recovery. We hear about sexual conduct in so many places, so many industries, but there is a unique danger here.

Like, I was the lowest i've ever been because I had no to like, right, like heroin, heroin that I described. IT is like the worst solution. But my only one when i'm using, right, like IT blocks, whatever void i'm trying to fill, IT blocks, all that shit. So the most vulnerable and added can be is in new, new society because all those emotions and vulnerabilities and weaknesses they have and they're trotted been nummi with drugs and alcohol l for years, is now stripped away. And there are just it's like a you know, in in the army, somebody went with no protection.

a soldier with no protection, the feelings eliza's describing. There is a lot of science out there that backs them up just with different language. Words like profound dopamine deficit state addiction can cause problems with important brain functions like focus, impulse control, decision making and judgment.

And when someone stops using the brain is out of wac. Even for weeks afterwards, one psychiatrist I talked to described early recovery as a brain attack. IT was, but says he never agreed to meet up with eric, even as his messages continued.

SHE told me, erik use snaps chat to send the pictures and explicit messages. And the thing about Snapchat is that the messages disappear once the recipient views them. Eliza's didn't take screen shots of any of these messages, but the way snape chat works is if a Elizabeth had taken screen shots, the APP would have notified erik so he'd know if he made copies.

All this to say, I have not seen these messages, and it's really important as a journalist that I only report allegations like these if they can be caborn. But there were other ways I could caborn Elizabeth story because Elizabeth told two friends what was happening with eric, and SHE says he told them while I was happening. The first was a guy .

named just in downy. And I was like, so this guy just want to discuss that with this guy.

Justin downy is from boston. He's also in recovery from years of her own news. That's how he in Elizabeth, mt.

I was in a sober house and mine SHE was in a sober house and man a female by house. And I just matter out about the recovery community like A A E to something like that. We just got to talking if you opened up to me and we just became very, very close, fast friends Justin says .

he in Elizabeth were hanging out in poland just chatting and Green mountain treatment center came up and that so when Elizabeth mentioned the Snapchat SHE was getting from eric.

I thought, disguise a fucked and mag. What makes this guy, I think that this type of behavior is OK with a girl this vulnerable? right? And let me tell some, here I am at this moment, my life, right? I just got out of fuck in prison and and took a needle out of my ARM, right?

I have never at this point who are telling me this. I have never done any type of recovery work or spiritual work upon myself. And even then I still know that that this wasn't fucked in OK do right if you're a fucking we have older, why are you in contact with with the clients out after they leave there? You supposed to have boundaries.

Just in downing, I should add, is his real name. He didn't hesitate for even a second to speak .

to me about this and and endorse. My hope is that IT actually restores other people's integrity in this fucking and field because it's sadly losing a lot of integrity.

The second friend, elisabeth told, was another woman in recovery in portland. IT was a similar conversation to the one Elizabeth had with Justin. Elizabeth th remembers SHE was sitting in the living room of her sober house, and the notification popped up on her phone.

He was a snapp chat for eric, and this friend was sitting right next door. Elizabeth says her friend wanted to do something about IT. They talked about telling someone that works with erik.

But a few months later, her friend died of an overdose. And Elizabeth says IT was too much to keep pursuing on her own. Later, I was able to talk to this friend's twelve steps sponsor.

Her name is marine doyle. SHE wrote me an email about what he remembered years ago. Morine wrote her sponsor had told her about Elizabeth experience.

Morine then reported arx behavior to management of the treatment center. But for what he could tell, nobody did anything about IT. Here's another bit of marine email quote. Although we are all responsible for our own recovery, I think IT is important to recognize the impact leaders in the recovery community have on those they claim to be helping.

After I heard Elizabeth story, so this was twenty twenty two, I tried to interview ax powered, but he declined through his lawyer, so I emailed many questions, and his lawyer sent back a statement that didn't answer any of my specific questions. The statement said that eric veramente denies any alleged misconduct. His lawyer also wrote that sometimes people in recovery, quote, relax and revert to the lives that go hand in hand with addiction. IT is sad. His lawyer added that a reporter chose to aid and a bet that deceptive behavior.

For every ten people who could benefit from addiction treatment, only one will get IT one out of ten people. Elizabeth was that one. It's not news to anyone in the recovery industry that there is not enough treatment to go around. And yet IT was the CEO of a treatment center. The person who gave Elizabeth this rare and free opportunity, who allegedly harassed her.

is definitely definite. Like one hundred percent set me back in my recover. It's almost like he brought me right back to the real world.

A few weeks after eric started messaging her, Elizabeth says SHE relaxed releases are common for people with substance use disorder. It's part of the disease. But Elizabeth says, who would know Better about the unique fragile ity of early recovery than erik? Eric is in recovery from obo addiction. Eric started a treatment company.

I mean, not only as the anat key worked with that, right, like that is job like he sees .

that on a .

daily basis, I don't don't my mind for second, he didn't know what kind of emotional and vulnerable status .

Elizabeth says. Erik's messages continued every so often for about two years. Then finally, in two thousand and nine, they stopped.

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You're listening to the sunday's story. We're back with flooring and children as he tells us about another woman that came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against the founder of new hampshire largest addiction recovery .

network about year ago, another woman reached out to me. I'm going to call her Andrea. That's not her real name.

SHE really wanted to tell me her story about arx offord, but is SHE put IT using her real name, would open up the door to the past that she's worked really hard to seal up. So Andrea SHE also let me record our interview. India wasn't a client of one of our treatment centers. In fact, when he met him, he didn't own any treatment facilities. IT was two thousand and nine, eight years before Elizabeth.

So I was going to a alcohol anonymous meetings. And then I had A A relationship that I was in. And that relationship ended really badly, and I really spiral down you know IT was drinking again， had incredibly low self team um and I wanted to avoid seeing this person and seeing any relevant people to that past relationship so I actually ended up going to cocaine anonymous meetings which even though I never have taken cocaine, is open to anyone that struggling with addiction problem.

So Andrea starts going to this new meeting, getting to know other people there. And one of the guys SHE meets is eric buffered.

And I remember, you know, he spoke at a meeting. And just to give you a little bit of insight into him, when he spoke, he was incredibly powerful. He, he really good.

And you listen to every word and you're like, wow, what an amazing story. What a journey he had. How incredible. How can I get that?

I hear this a lot from people in recovery, that in the early recovery days, people with more years of the priority under their belt, they're on inspiring. You desperately want what they have and has an especially compelling way of talking about substance use, disorder and recovery. Some people can go to college and get education in, you know, the treatment of drug election and alcoholism.

But until you sit in alway and large and shoot back heron with poddle water, you don't know where i'm coming from. As eric tells IT, he started using haroon at fifteen, dropped at a high school, sold drugs, overdose five times. He's been to jail several times.

And then in two thousand six, at twenty one years old, he stopped using for good. And now here I was, two years later, sober and giving back. He was an A A sponsor.

In that year, eric was opening his first sober house for man. He was just starting to build what would later become his empire. Recovery was his everything.

At that point, he was becoming powerful in the sense that all the new teenagers are Young. Twenty years that came in really looked up to him. He took all those those boys and Young men under his wing. And it's kind of like looking back now, you can almost think of like an evAngel list or something like that, that you can, you know get people enraptured with what they are they're saying. When I was .

Andreas turn to speak in these meetings, he did not feel like an avangard st. Or powerful at all. Andrea was falling apart.

even though I was saying, and this is really hard, because this is a lot of honesty, but at the time, even though I was saying i'm sober, i'm sober, I was still drinking quietly at home. And I was, I, I had lost. I felt like I had no real friend. I just IT was the public, you know, I had tried to commit suicide in the fall of two thousand and eight, and he was probably the scarious, you know, time. And my parents were worried about me and think they're just really bad.

Just briefly, there is a new number you can call for the national suicide prevention lifeline if you need IT. It's three digits, nine, eight, eight. Back to Andrea.

But so what happened was, any time any attention was given to me by, like a male, I I just fell right into IT.

One day, Andrea was at home. He had this old computer, and he was online checking facebook.

And what happened was, he friended me. I thought.

all let's so cool, but he SHE means, erik.

because let me tell you what. What he ended up being like was like the supreme commander of recovery, like god of recovery. And to have god send me a friendly quest of, like, all the to go.

So Andrea accepts an exchange request.

He started to an instance message me, so he was smart. He didn't let me like messages that you could have a copy that was like those instant check.

I totally forgot about this. But back into thousand and eight, facebook can just introduced facebook chat, where you could instant message anyone you are friends with. And the way IT worked then was your chat history didn't save. So Andrew says he gets an instant message from eric, and IT says.

hey, how are are you doing? I am my school talking to me. I mean, I, you know. And then what happened with he started to ask me for um uh pictures of my private areas is the say, you know can you want to tell me some of something some picture of your blog and on at first remember being shocked as like but you know where and like this thing is i'll say this is like right now in two thousand and twenty two, I am a completely different person, like my whole life has completely turned around and I mean a wonderful, loving, respectful relationship and I have respect for myself and have anybody ever even tried to do anything like that? To me again, IT would be a whole different story.

But at that moment, I, you know, I tim and and I think I was probably drinking at the time. And you know, the thing was always said was like a that's nice or something like that and then that that was IT. But here's the thing like the very next day I go this meeting and he's there and he didn't even look at me, he didn't even acknowledge my presence and I was shocked.

I just aftermarket and um I felt like awful. I just felt awful. I felt like here IT is he's like supposed to be someone that is so important in recovery and this has dedicated his life to help help people struggling with this this things that he he went through. And you know I was at that point in time and my whole whole do I try.

So many of us have this impulse now that we've heard so many stories of sexual misconduct to rent that from questionable to terrible as if there's a scale. And maybe you're doing that now, Andrea acknowledged by sending the pictures SHE technically consented. But what does consent really mean for someone in early .

recovery that so tRicky the consent? I talked about .

consent and early separately with jazmin Grace marino, she's laughing because this is like the thing SHE constantly runs into with her advocacy work. John is in recovery. She's also a survivor of sex trafficking. SHE now tries to help women in similar situations in new hampshire and associates, and SHE often finds herself strongly suggesting that maybe let's not get into a relationship so early in the priest, especially with a partner who is also newly sober.

Like, how can I say like two dead batteries don't start a car. Like he's he's sick. He's not well, right? She's sick. She's not well and then you put them together. And this is like it's like a just a breeding ground for this function and none healthy relationships and manipulation.

It's not impossible for people in early recovery to form healthy relationships. In fact, I have multiple family members who met that way and are still married. But Jason has seen IT go wrong so many times in those early weeks, in months of surprise. Ty, you hardly even know who you are.

you even what your favorite color is. You don't even know what how you like your coffee like because you haven't been making decisions for you, either your traffic or has or the person who has been exploited, you has or your drives like. And so you even an early recovery, like they have to teach you, like this is how you make an executive decision.

Like this is how you make decisions. You are the executive over your own life. So consent is tRicky. How do you consent when you can even fully process with what's happening?

That's what happened with rea, Andrea says SHE definitely was not fully processing what was happening. SHE did tell someone who he was close with. I spoken with that person and they said, I remember IT very clearly because andry was very upset.

I emailed eric, offered about Andrew story, then asked if he was willing to comment. There was some back and forth which we will get into later in the series, but eric never answered the specific question. Andrea believes eric took advantage of her obvious lack of self.

A steam I fell right into IT, right into IT. You know, it's like it's it's just you're so vulnerable, you you're so unwell and and the things that drive people to addiction or are because you you have such chips on your shoulder, you're so insecure. You feel like you're just now adjust this life and all you want to do is just be a Normal person and feel escaping hole that you feel like it's inside of you.

And if it's not through the drugs or the alcohol, sometimes it's through the attention of the of of the opposite sex. And that's why they they have a lot of these on unwritten here, but rules where they say no dating within the first year of your recovery and they say and they they have the girls with girls and boys with boys like they tell you don't don't be hanging out with the opposing. It's because it's so notorious, it's so bad and what they you know it's like to sing called the twelve step yeah well, what they do, they made a joke about being a thirteen step.

And now I spent a while, but I think the thirteen step is like. When you take advantage of a newcomer, something like that like they they joke I don't be a certain step or something. So it's like it's is very prevalent. But he really had IT down to a .

science thirteen stepper. I'd never heard that before by the time I hung up with the Andrea and walk back to my desk sheet, ari mailed me an article you ve found online about thirteen stepping being a colloquial term in A A circles. I started asking everyone I interviewed if you've heard of the thirteen step.

Thirteen step was a bad word like men did not want to be called that.

I mean, i've been clean fifteen years. You know that something you learn right away when you go to A A yet just wicked coomin.

you'll be told if you're in a coed meeting, you know, be careful of bob. He always looks for the newcomer's .

thirteen stepping that spent around since I think of the beginning of time. I can't believe the thirteen step you heard about that in the seventies yeah, the fact that we have a name for IT is just disgusting, right?

Once I heard about the thirteen step, all the tips and allegations i've been gathering, it's like they fit into a bigger picture. This podcast will tell you a story about the addiction treatment industry, but it's just as much a story about the unfinished business of the me too movement.

IT certainly didn't know .

that .

he was going to turn out to be like harby wine steam.

Did you want that to happen?

no.

But I also didn't know how to tell him. No, there is so much more to tell you about airpower. D because the experience I had reporting on him, IT, says a lot about the state of the treatment industry.

There's not a lot of a fences around them. I mean, that's the boat of mind. They're just earn a lot of fences around them.

There's only somebody times you can get beat over the head and you just stop complaining so somebody know somebody needs to be their I got sued for this reporting. We'll get to that. We will also get to the other terrifying things that have happened since this project began.

Where does that say that? Can you can you say that to me one more time? IT is just the beginning under the window that is so fucked up. That's all coming up on the thirteen step.

The thirteen step is reported and produced by me law in children. Jason moon contributed reporting. He also wrote the music you in the show and mixed all the episodes alison make.

Adam is our editor. We also had lots of editing help from senior editor kit colony and our news director, dan beric. Denier sula on is our fact checker sea port created our artwork in our website.

Thirteen step podcast dot work. That's the number thirteen. Our lawyer is sigma suits N H P R. Director podcast is rebeca boy and special thanks for this episode. Go to casey micro t Taylor qube r on like max Green, Ellie its on alami and johanna I and also two Monica Richardson, who made a whole documentation on the topic of the thirteen step. The thirteen step is a production of the document team at new hampshire public radio.

I'm a shara go and you've been listening to the sunday story. This episode was produced by Andrew mambo and edited by jh t. Our team also includes henri and my silver.

And just in our supervising producer is leana symptoms and our executive producers are no gucci. We love to hear from you. Send us an email at the sunday story at M P R. Dog first will be back tomorrow with all the news you need to starch a week. Until then, have a great rest of your day.

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