Projo Politics Blog

Last year, former state Sen. Thomas R. Coderre was at the State House pressing for changes to state laws that affect recovering drug and alcohol addicts. This year, he will take the same message to a wider audience. On Dec. 15, Coderre began working as national field director for the Washington-based group Faces and Voices of Recovery.

The issue has personal significance for Coderre, who became addicted to crack cocaine during his time in the state Senate, but will celebrate in May his four-year anniversary of getting clean.

“I feel really blessed to have been given this opportunity,” he said Friday. “Long-term recovery has changed my life. How can I not be passionate about something that has not only changed my life but probably saved my life?”

Coderre said his new job will include some advocacy work, for instance supporting federal legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy to prohibit insurers from applying different policies to substance-abuse treatment than they do to other types of medical treatment. Kennedy conducted a field hearing on the bill at the State House last week, in the first of a series of such hearings taking place nationwide.

Coderre’s job will also include some promotional work, he said. One of the first projects will be promoting an HBO special titled Addiction that airs March 15.
Coderre’s advocacy role in Rhode Island was as a board member of RI CARES — Rhode Island Communities for Addiction Recovery Efforts. RI CARES is a member of Faces and Voices of Recovery, which has affiliates in every state and most large cities, Coderre said.

Coderre, 37, is the son of state Rep. Elaine A. Coderre. He grew up in Pawtucket and will continue to live there, he said. He will work from home in the new job, but it will involve frequent travel. Coderre said he had been to seven cities in the previous 10 days.

Coderre said he is most excited about the idea of helping to dispel the stigma that surrounds addiction and recovery. Just a few years ago, “People didn’t talk about their personal recovery,” Coderre said. “It was unheard of.”

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