-Opioid epidemic is pretty bad in the city of Dearborn --
also, all over the state of Michigan.
-Opioid-related deaths here in Michigan are soaring.
-The counties with the highest reported number of deaths
are Wayne County...
-I was shocked to realize that the opioid epidemic
had reached the Muslim community.
This is a new crisis.
-In the Muslim community,
people were trying to treat addiction at home.
-My parents were denying that I had a drug problem.
It was obvious that I was doing something wrong.
-Unfortunately within our community
the failure of the child
is automatically taken as failure of the family.
-Drug addiction has destroyed my family.
Here, every parent's in denial --
like, the amount of ODs that's been going on since 2016.
-We just got a spike in calls for narcotic overdoses,
mainly in the Muslim community.
We might have families tell us it might be a diabetic issue
when it 100 percent it's a drug overdose.
-These are the last two I will ever allow
to put on my body ever again.
-The biggest anger with the issue
was people pretending it wasn't an issue at all.
-There are many Muslims that never seek help,
and then ultimately end up dying because of the shame and guilt.
♪♪
[ Radio chatter ]
[ Faint siren ]
-Here. Let's get you up, let's -- let's get you going.
Come on.
[ Man groaning ]
Now, you lift, okay? We'll take it with us.
♪♪
-What's goin' on, guys?
My name is Rabih Darwish.
I'm a grateful recovering addict.
I also am a part of the SAFE Substance Abuse Coalition.
I receive about two to 10 phone calls a day.
It was very surprising to me to find out that I wasn't alone
in the Muslim community struggling with drug addiction,
because the Muslim community
did a really good job of hiding.
The opioid epidemic affected Dearborn greatly.
Crime rate went up, the death rate went up.
The guilt and the stigma
has delayed a lot of people
coming out, seek help.
And that's very dangerous.
♪♪
-My name is Arash, I'm 27 years old.
I'm currently recovering from heroin and crystal meth.
I started using when I was 15 years old.
When I was using, I didn't have anxiety.
I finally realized that I was doing something wrong
when I saw myself in the mirror with track marks on my arms.
My parents were denying that I had a drug problem
because it was embarrassing to the family and it was a, uh,
you know, bad look.
My family viewed addiction as the devil --
and it is the devil, but it's a sickness at the same time.
You know? I was sick.
[ Man chanting ]
-My parents sent me to Iran
because they felt like they had no more options.
I was in a rehab facility there
where they don't give you very much food,
they beat people a lot, they don't give you medications.
It was like a jail.
I was very traumatized by that experience
and I did not stay clean afterwards.
It happens a lot in the community that they send
their children to the home country.
And it usually doesn't work.
♪♪
-Last year was a terrible year.
We lost about eight or nine from this community alone.
Islam prohibits any intoxication.
What led me to realize that we have a crisis
was, suddenly, these families coming in
and bringing a son or a daughter in a totally disoriented state,
and expecting me to recite the prayer and fix things.
With Middle Eastern culture,
the Imam is the one that they expect to deal
with all the crises.
The church or the synagogue
has a number of peripheral institutions that work with it.
This shame is something that comes from
the culture that religion plays a role in,
where daughters want to get married,
nobody would come forward.
They want to get a job --
probably, it has ramifications as far as their job.
In some cases families have to literally move the city
and go somewhere else and start fresh
because of one child becoming an addict.
For many years we were somehow excluded from it.
If the Caucasian society took them 20 years
to get to this, we are starting little bit late.
♪♪
-The safe house is a three-quarter house,
it's sober living.
The only way to get into the house
is by coming from a treatment center.
Right now we have about seven living in the house.
Five of the seven are Muslim.
Usually the Muslims that are entering treatment
are basically at the end of the road.
When our Arash came to us he was going through withdrawal.
-You know, got to wake up.
-You really couldn't say much to him.
He would have one word responses.
We had our work cut out for us.
And I remember speaking to Arash and I said,
look, man, you're gonna die if you don't really get this help.
This young man really surrendered
and he did exactly what we asked of him.
He's truly a walking miracle.
[ Telephone ringing ]
Christie, it's Rabih Darwish. How are you? I need some help.
-How soon is he gonna wanna come in?
I do have a little bit of a wait.
We're kind of full.
-Okay, but as soon as possible please.
-Okay, what's he usin'?
-It's opiates.
-Call me in the morning and we'll see what we got for, um,
Hassan, okay? -All right, thank you.
Basically I was just trying to help Hassan
get into treatment as quickly as possible.
The longer we wait,
the less likely he might go to treatment.
They said you're going to have to wait
at least 24 to 48 hours.
You think you can hold off till then?
-I've been ready for a while.
So many things held me back
when I should have never let it held me back.
But there's no excuses anymore.
-Is your family being supportive in this decision.
-Not one bit.
-Really?! -Yeah. Not one bit.
-Okay. You're gonna have my support, that's for sure.
There's meetings here five days a week, so we have your back.
Yeah, it's gonna be all right.
♪♪
-All right guys, notebooks.
-Good morning everyone. -Morning, Rabih.
-Okay, thank you, everyone, for coming today.
And thank you for having the willingness and courage
to do this meeting.
I am grateful that today we can get together as Muslims,
because about 10 years ago when I attempted
to come into recovery, it felt very lonely.
-I was addicted for so long and my family
didn't even want to reach out to help.
And around the whole Arabic community everybody shamed me.
How do you get out of that?
Addiction overall is tough on any human being.
I really believe, in our culture,
it's so much harder -- they need to stop being ashamed
and just come out and say [foreign].
"My son needs, my daughter needs help."
So, hopefully we'll get there.
-I'm very blessed to go to Hajj this year.
Okay, this is my third time going to Hajj,
and Arash is going to be coming. Congratulations, man.
In our program, if you have a year more,
we have a very generous community of people
that go to Hajj and that sponsor others that go to Hajj.
Hajj is a pilgrimage, it's one of the pillars of Islam.
We visit the city of Mecca which is the holiest site
in all of Islam.
For someone in recovery to go to Hajj,
it's very powerful because it symbolizes a sense of hope.
It kind of, I feel, solidifies one's recovery.
So about six months of clean time for Arash,
I told him that we'll go to Hajj.
And when I said that to him, his eyes lit up.
Arash's faith is very, very important to him.
You know what? You earned it, man.
You earned it, you know? I'm very proud of you, man.
You understand, you come along long way.
-See, I think it's on the full grace of God
that I'm sober right now
and I'm, you know, getting my life back together
because I was probably going to die.
-Three years ago Ali and I did an intervention
for Hass's brother,
and that was our first intervention.
And so now we're helping out Hass.
I think he's ready to go.
-I'm on the way to recovery.
And today we'll be starting my day one.
It's a 21 day program.
Before I left my house today,
I actually said goodbye to my sister.
She cried and hugged me. I love her to death.
I said goodbye to my mom and dad
and I told 'em how much I love them.
And I told them how much I appreciate everything
they've ever done for me.
I'm going to get through it.
It happened to me.
I'm not proud of it.
There could be an end -- this could stop.
Our community is afraid to say something.
♪♪
-How are you? What are you doing?
-I'm at the skate park.
-You're leaving in two days, right?
-Yeah.
-Wow. I'm very excited for you.
-Thank you.
-Are you ready?
-Yeah, I'm ready.
-You take care of yourself, okay?
-Okay. -I pray for you.
-All right. -Be safe, listen...
Listen to [indistinct], what he says, you know?
-Yeah.
-[Foreign]
I love you so much. -Yeah, I love you too, bye-bye.
-I love you, bye-bye.
♪♪
-When I found out that that was a possibility
to go to Hajj, I was really committed to staying clean.
♪♪
We're going to Detroit Metropolitan Airport
for my flight to Lebanon, then to Mecca.
-We're going to miss you, Arash.
You're... You're like our mascot at the house.
-Thank you.
♪♪
-All right... -All right.
-Be safe out there. -I will.
-Bring me back something cool. -All right, I got you.
I never imagined I would be free from addiction.
This trip is important to me because it's part
of a new beginning, a new life, new chapter.
♪♪
I've chosen to share my story and be seen
because I want people to get help...
And not be afraid and not be embarrassed.
♪♪
-We can't eat this back home because it's not halal.
Thank you so much. -Boom!
You're welcome, brother.
-Oh, ooh-ooh!
This is halal, man. [ Laughter ]
♪♪
-We can't eat this back home because it's not halal.
So we get the opportunity to eat it here.
We got you a Big Mac and a six-piece Chicken McNuggets.
-Thank you so much. -Boom!
You're welcome, brother.
Oh, ooh-ooh!
-This is halal, man. [ Laughter ]