REFORMED heroin addict Richard Morriss had not worked for more than 20 years until he attended a drug rehabilitation course which transformed his life.

Now after beating a 22-year addiction to the class A substance the 52-year-old is clean, in full-time work and planning his second foreign holiday in as many months.

Mr Morriss is one of 18 former drug addicts in Oxfordshire who have been hailed for turning their lives around by completing a countywide rehab programme which set them up for future employment and education.

He now works as a case worker for drugs users arrested by the police and is helping turn around the lives of young addicts who would otherwise face a bleak future.

It’s an abyss Mr Morriss stared into himself after he lost his job as a hospital operating theatre technician and became addicted to heroin.

His drug-use began when he recreationally took amphetamines while going to Northern Soul nights.

He hit a low point when he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after taking crack cocaine.

Four years ago Mr Morriss said he was wasting away at his home in Woodhouse Way, Iffley, until he bumped into a fellow addict who convinced him to visit the SMART (Substance Misuse Alcohol Referral Team) centre in Cowley Road.

He said: “At 48 years old I was just getting old and fat at home doing nothing.

“It was pointless taking anything else because nothing helped as I’d been given so many drugs to stop me taking drugs.

“At that time I bumped into an old friend who claimed they’d found this programme and given up. I was a little bit curious because I didn’t quite believe he’d done it.

“But by asking for help and receiving support my behaviour started to change and my thinking changed. I started to enjoy life a bit.”

Mr Morriss was chosen as a mentor to help wean criminals off drugs after he completed SMART’s portal programme.

The programme has helped 300 people earn literacy and numeracy qualifications while preventing relapses over the last five years.

He said: “It isn’t coming off the drugs that’s hard, it’s staying off the drugs.

“You con yourself that everyone’s giving you a rough deal and that enables you to carry on with what you’re doing.

“Now I’m completely off benefits and paying my own way.

“The world’s my oyster now. Things are possible for me and I have choices.”

After holidaying in Florence Mr Morriss’s will enjoy his new-found love for travelling when he visits Bremen later in the year.

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk DICKON Lush started drinking seriously when he was 13 and was sent away to private school from his home in Warborough, near Abingdon.

The Summertown resident said he started experimenting with LSD and smoking cannabis to expand his mind but ended up using opiates like morphine and heroin for nearly 20 years.

Dr Lush even secured a 2:1 in maths at Wadham College despite taking morphine every day.

He only told his wife of his habit when they were engaged but she said she overcame her shock and stuck by him.

She said: “I didn’t factor Dickon was a recovering heroin addict but he was a perfectly nice and very supportive boyfriend and that completely defied my expectation of what an addict would be like.”

Now the 40-year-old has been clean for 18 months and is the proud father of two sons, Henry, three, and Alexander.

Dr Lush said he thought it would be easy to give up drugs after the birth of his first son and was shocked that the addiction was so strong it did not happen at first.

He said he finally conquered his addiction by gradually reducing his dose of methadone to nothing.

He ripped up his prescription in front of his GP to show he was serious.

Dr Lush said the secret to beating his addiction was discipline: “I was fed up with the drugs.

“They make it very hard to know your own mind.

“Discipline is not a popular word but it’s about making sure when you feel bad you don’t reach for the drugs.

He added: “I’m happy today for the most part and life is fantastic.”