Gasparilla Film Fest Doc Highlights Tampa Bay Teen Addict Recovery

Lindsey Glass didn't have a clue what Lil' Wayne was in the hospital for this past week, but she wishes that everyone does now.

Glass, a filmmaker, former Sarasota resident, battled addiction as a teen and was horrified learning that the rapper had his stomach pumped and convulsed into seizures thanks to an overdose of an underground drink called sizzurp. The drink combines codeine, carbonated soda, and garnished with a Jolly Rancher, and is a popular cocktail to reference in rap songs of late.

"There are a lot of mixed messages out there—a lot of mixed messages in the media," Glass tells Patch in a phone call from New York. "They're promoting these things that this guy almost died of. That's what teenagers need to understand…there needs to be some education of what can happen."

Glass is trying her best to fill that education void, featuring the lessons of teen addicts at their lowest, the consequences that follow, but most of all that there's a way out if they mess up.

Her documentary The Silent Majority tells the story of lawbreaking teens going through some special programs to find a better life in Sarasota, Tampa Bay and New York.

The movie will have its world premiere Sunday at the Gasparilla Film Festival. It will show at 4:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Muvico Centro Ybor. A special panel discussion will follow the film featuring Sheriff Tom Knight, 2010 Miss Florida Allison Kreiger and prominent Tampa leaders.

The film is directed by her mother, Leslie Glass, who also made The Secret World of Recovery. That film premiered to a sold-out audience at the Van Wezel for the 2009 Sarasota Film Festival. Leslie Glass is a USA Today/New York Times bestselling author and journalist.

Silent Majority is a continuation of the first film, Lindsey Glass explains, where instead of focusing on the prescription pill problem Florida teens face, the spotlight is on the teens who are doing their best to turn their young lives around.

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Among the programs are Teen Court of Sarasota County and Camp X-RAYD—both operated by Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight and the Sheriff's Office.

"We love Teen Court because it's very effective. Some of the kids who were the worst offenders got better, and are now in law school," Glass shares. "We found those kids up in Hofstra, who started to do those programs there."

In Teen Court, a group of teens decide what another teens sentence should be, and then the offender becomes a juror for later cases, all while trying to be drug- and crime-free. The first step of the program is admitting the teen has a problem, and says they are guilty. 

"You're dealing with a subset with teenagers who already have problems with authority," Glass says. "At one hand, you don't want to come in and shake your finger at them, but you do want to show them what happens if they continue on that road."

The key part of the program is mentorship. and that's where Sheriff Tom Knight comes in. 

Knight helps oversee the related Camp X-Rayd, which stands for Examine Reality About Your Decisions. It features an obstacle course in Laurel with the teens dressed in orange jump suits trying to huff their way to keep up with men twice their age, Knight explains. They tour the morgue, the jail, have lunch with prisoners and are scared straight a bit, but then after 12 hours as a "prisoner" they're given an opportunity.

"The same deputy who just ribbed them for six hours starts talking to them about decisions, consequences to the decisions that they might have," Knight says.

Glass adds that sometimes it's Knight who is the one who comes in and gives the teens a pep talk, describing him as a cheerleader of sorts. Knight isn't too sure of that cheerleader talk.

"I'm a very emotional person when it comes to children," he says. "Some of them, it breaks me heart when I see them dropped off [at court]. We mentor them. When you see me mentoring them, and you see them smile, and you almost see them not want to go home."

"I call it being compassionate. It bothers me, it really bothers me. It bothers me as a parent," Knight says, adding that he will see the film with his 18-year-old daughter and wife.

The kids in Camp X-Rayd typically are charged for petty shop lifting, marijuana use, alcohol, and other misdimeanor crimes, Knight said. Prescription drug use by kids still remain the biggest challenge.

More than 75 percent of people in Sarasota County Jail are there because of a substance abuse related problem, Knight said. To help combat that, the jail has an addiction recovery pod to help get inmates clean and to not use once they return to the community.

"When I first met Leslie two years ago, she came into my offices and said, 'I traveled all over the United States for addiction recovery, and you're the only sheriff if the Southeast that has addiction recover for inmates," Knight says.

Additional laws are on the books now, too, to help fight doctor shopping to prevent people getting their hands on pills on the first place, too. 

"We're starting to see the effects of positive ordinances," Knight says. "The price of the pill went from $7 to $37 per pill now. We're now seeing black tar heroin come back in, and it's much easier to deal with because it's a clear violation of our law."

Heroin shouts back to the days of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, when Glass was a teen thinking the world of the lead singers of Nirvana and Hole. In retrospect, not everything about those stars should have been idolized. 

"My goal is to educate the parents that this isn't just a phase," Glass says. "If you catch your kids with a drug stash at home, that's not experimenting in the parking lot—that's using."

And once a parent finds that their kid is using, it's time to really talk about the issue and find solutions.

"One in nine have an addiction problem. If you're sitting in a movie theater, there are dozens of people in there dealing with the same issue," Glass says. "It's not to make a teenager feel isolated and alone, but to embrace them and say, 'Hey, one in nine have this problem. We have lots of solutions; it doesn't mean you're a bad person. It's a disease like diabetes and depression. There's a way to deal with it."

Other programs featured in the film are Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordinating Office’s Watch Your BAC at the University of Tampa and University of South Florida, and Road Recovery, a music program in New York City mentored by rock stars.

The Glasses will also release a special edition of The Secret World of Recovery later this spring with a study guide to help professionals and parents for addiction recovery produced by Faces and Voice of Recovery. Leslie and Lindsey Glass also have a website reachoutrecovery.com, which is a non-profit that in part raises money for the films but also provides solutions for addiction recovery.

As for Silent Majority, Sarasota audiences will either have to travel to Tampa or wait for a distribution deal for the film to be seen elsewhere. The filmmakers didn't apply to the Sarasota Film Festival because they had a strong connection with the Gaspaiaila festival operators, Glass said.

The sheriff also hopes that his programs will help inspire other places to start their own programs, and that someone will see it to invest in the Sarasota teens, too. If that doesn't happen, Knight will press on with his staff to cheer on these teens.

"I don't have all the answers, but you certainly try," he says.

The Silent Majority

4:45 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 24 at Muvico Centro Ybor, 1600 E 8th Ave. Tampa

Resources:

• Reachoutrecovery.com
• Secretworldofrecovery.com

Sarasota County Programs Featured In Silent Majority

• Teen Court of Sarasota County
• Camp X-Rayd
• North Port Drug-Free Youth