back to back months of record illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C., a former user who escaped Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside alive after battling homelessness and addiction for decades is working to educate and inspire others with his recovery.Today, Guy Felicella has a home, a wife, and three young children – including a new baby boy – but life has been a wild ride.“Every time I got knocked down, I continued to keep getting back up,” he told Global News.Felicella started using cannabis at age 12 before moving on to harder drugs.
He spent nearly 20 years living in a two-block radius of the notorious neighbourhood, hooked on heroin and trapped in the vicious cycle of addiction.“I was either going to die in my addiction or I was going to die.