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Issue date: 11/18/09 Section: Community

Media Credit: Desarae Lee Dennis Manhard reminisces about his difficult past.

Media Credit: Desarae Lee Dennis Manhard tells about his past while sitting inside of his new apartment.

Media Credit: Desarae Lee Dennis Manhard stands tall outside of his new apartment after conquering his addictions and homelessness

Dennis Manhard was smoking pot at the age of 2. By the age of 5 he could roll his own joint. And by 7 he was dealing to people much older than himself. Who would have thought that today he would be sober, hold a steady job, and go to church with his two daughters every Sunday?

A friend and I found Manhard smoking with his friends outside the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake. He led us through a chapel where a raggedy line of people stood waiting, down some stairs to a cafeteria. I told him that if any of my questions got too personal, just tell me. His reply was, "I'm an open book."

Crank Manhard's parents were hippies. They loved their beer, and loved going out. At a very young age, they looped their son into the world of drugs.

At the age of two, Manhard's father taught him how to smoke his first joint. At seven, little Dennis sold his first lid (ounce of pot). "You want some weed?" Manhard would say to his clients, "I got some weed, $10."

In school he sold to his friends. At 16, he graduated from marijuana to crack cocaine. At 18 he earned the name Crank (a nick name for meth). He went on to experiment with heroine but didn't like it.

Later he met his wife. They were together for 13 years and had two little girls. She left him for one of his friends after he lost his job. "I wasn't paying any attention to my ex," explained Manhard, "in fact I was treating her pretty bad mentally. I don't blame her."

Dealing…again After the divorce, Manhard's life just went south from there. He got back into drugs, "bout the only thing I didn't really like was alcohol," he said, "I just stopped caring."

He became a full-service dealer. He was addicted to the perks that went along with being a drug dealer, "Whatever I'd say got done, a lot of drugs a lot of money a lot of power."

He was a boxer who knew four different styles of marshal arts. Those, combined with the mentality, "You got a gun? Can you pull it faster than I can grab your throat?" This made Manhard a dangerous individual.

He had his competition, but he was the best. "They were slow," said Manhard.

In the drug world, it's first come first serve. He describes the process saying, "The user calls a number of different people, whoever gets there first gets the money."

Other dealers took maybe an hour to get to the client. But Manhard was 15 minutes away from everywhere in the valley. "You call me, I'm comin right to your house," was what he'd say.

He dealt to everyone, "From government officials to housewives, to daughters, to sisters, to kids," Manhard said with regret.

They would meet in a mall or a store, on the street or in a bar. The best money was made in a bar. "Pay off the manager and the security; you kinda got free reign," said Manhard.

But he wasn't a pusher; he only dealt to people who called him. "I did have a cut off point," Manhard assured, "you're too young, you're too young."

17 and over was his rule, "Anything past that I had a problem with it," he said, "I had my morals, twisted as they were."

There are certain drugs that people will do anything for. "I've seen and done anything your imagination station imagines," said Manhard, "it's insanity."

Money wasn't the only form of payment. "My friend's wife wanted to do me for [drugs]," he said, "but my friend's wife? No, I had my morals."

But morals don't stop the dealer from accepting sex as payment from other women, "A business transaction is a business transaction," explains Manhard.

He was a very smart criminal. He had his rules: no one in the car with him, and no one knows where he lives. "I always came to you," Manhard said.

But rules are made to broken, and the cops were on to Dennis Manhard.

Rock bottom The police were building up their case, and were just waiting for Manhard to slip up. He had a choice, "I can either keep all my stuff, and slip up and go to prison, or I can give it up, and stay a free man." For Manhard, freedom means more than anything.

So he gave up all his possessions and took to the street. His home became the streets of Salt Lake. His bed: the sidewalk, a park, under a bridge, "wherever I laid my head," said Manhard, "usually high as a kite…so stupid."

He quit selling the drugs, "but at this point I'm so addicted, the drugs are doing me."

He wanted to die. So one night he took three handfuls of pills, laid down on the concrete and went to sleep. "A working girl, a prostitute, took pity on me and called the ambulance."

Turning point "God," said Manhard, "it was god." He believes that God is the one who pushed him to turn his life around.

Three days after his attempted suicide, Manhard woke up in the hospital where they had pumped his stomach.

After this he got kicked out of the homeless shelter and was stuck "in the drunk tank." (A place where they let the drunks on the streets stay instead of freezing on the street.)

For one Christmas, Manhard got one of the best presents he could get. A business card from Chris Croswhite, the Executive Director of the homeless shelter The Rescue Mission.

The Rescue Mission is a religious homeless shelter whose mission is to "to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the homeless, addicted and/or poor through humanitarian efforts and faith and maturity in Jesus Christ," as it says on their website.

Manhard decided to look for help, "I don't wanna do drugs but their doin me." At this point he had a cist on his leg and was running a high fever. The Mission put him in the hospital and then put him in the rehabilitation program.

"I derd my program in earnest," said Manhard, "in the end it was for the best."

He decided to get baptized in the non-denominational Christian church. "I went from being a bad, bad, bad, bad person to clean and sober," explained Manhard, "it's nothing I did, it's all because of my Lord."

He graduated from the program.

Crack City Inn Manhard moved to the Salt City Inn, "I called it the Crack City Inn." This place was full of temptations for a recovering drug addict, "I have a real weakness for women and drugs."

This building was a haven for prostitutes and crack dealers. One night a prostitute knocked on his door, "She comes in, 'you want some? You want some?'" Manhard recalled, "I knew I needed out."

He turned back to The Rescue Mission. "I had a real desire to change," said Manhard, "I just didn't know how to go about it."

Happily every after As Manhard talks about his two daughters, everything about him just starts to glow. "My kids go to church with me now," Manhard beams, "it's my pride and joy to have my daughters there."

He loves his girls, "They're my babies," he says, "you see a teenager, I see a baby." Autumn, 15, is a straight A student in a special charter school for the gifted. Stephanie, 16, is the "wild child," Manhard says with a smile, "She's the one that will do anything for the dad."

Manhard now holds a steady job and moved out of The Rescue Mission just a few days after our interview. He is on good terms with his ex-wife and talks her through her problems every now and then.

He also has a strong faith of the love of Jesus Christ. "I've seen what prayer in earnest can do it's really, very powerful."

His outlook is that everyone has to go through trials in order to, "Get what we need; what we're promised." He says, "read chapter 21 [of Revelations in the Bible]; we win."

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