This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Culture.

It's Latino USA.

Welcome to Latino USA.

I'm Maria Inojosa.

We bring you stories that are underreported, but that matter to you.

Overlooked by the rest of the media.

And while the country is struggling to deal with these problems, we listen to the stories

of black and Latino students, a united Latino front, a cultural renaissance, organizing at the forefront

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I'm Maria Inojosa.

No se bayan.

Hello, Latino USA listener. Here's an episode of Los Archivos. Before he kicked the habit, Robert Pereira shot heroin for almost 50 years. Drugs have always been a problem for me. And when you shoot drugs, you use drugs, and you have drugs, you don't have no problems. A drug use it with drugs is a happy person.

It's when you don't have it, that the problem begins, you know?

And Robert's problem with drugs led to legal trouble.

He was in and out of jail for most of his life, starting when he was just 11 years old.

Today, Robert lives back in his hometown of Fajardo

Puerto Rico. He's a wiry 69 years old. I don't look it and I don't act it, but I am.

A little under 10 years ago, Robert was picked up by the police and convicted for possession

of stolen articles.

The court in Puerto Rico gave him an option, go to prison for three years, or spend 18 months in a place called Ogar-Crea.

Ogar means home in Spanish, and Grea could mean create or to believe, but it's also an acronym.

It stands for Comudidad for La Re-Education of Adictos, or in English, community for the re-education of addicts.

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