From Deception to Recovery: Why Healthcare Needs a Culture of Self-ReportingFrom Deception to Recovery: Why Healthcare Needs a Culture of Self-Reporting
Drug Diversion Insights with Terri Vidals
Terri Vidals talks with pharmacist Dr Steve Leuck about his years of hidden cocaine and opioid use while practising, his decision to self-report, and his journey through a pharmacist recovery programme. The conversation also looks at how healthcare workplaces might shift towards a culture where staff feel safer asking for help with addiction.
53:03•22 Apr 2026
From Hidden Addiction to Honest Practice: Steve Leuck on Self-Reporting in Healthcare
Episode Overview
- High performance and a "perfect" life can hide severe addiction, especially in trusted healthcare roles.
- There is rarely a simple checklist of warning signs; the constant factor is someone living two separate lives.
- Professional recovery programmes offer a structured path back to safe practice, even after serious diversion.
- Clear policies, aligned with state recovery programmes, can give staff a realistic and confidential route to seek help.
- Talking openly about addiction in healthcare, like any other health condition, is key to building a culture of self-reporting.
“We are living two completely different lives… one that looks fine, and one where we are planning, worried, ashamed and chasing the next drug use.”
How do people find hope in the darkest times? This conversation between pharmacist and host Terri Vidals and guest Dr Steve Leuck brings that question right into the heart of healthcare. A respected pharmacist, husband and father, Steve spent years living a double life: high-performing professional on the outside, daily user of cocaine and opioids on the inside.
He traces the roots of his addiction back to shy school days, when "a couple of beers" suddenly turned him into the confident, outgoing person he thought he had to be. That learned pattern of "change how I feel, as long as I still perform" quietly followed him into college, pharmacy school and eventually the hospital pharmacy.
Steve explains how easy it was in the 80s and 90s to hide behind good performance and loose controls: dosing himself with opioid cough syrup for a cold, then later compounding and using cocaine at work, all while earning praise for arriving early, staying late and "managing it so well." As he puts it, "we are living two completely different lives" – one that looks fine and one driven by fear, shame and planning the next use.
The turning point comes with what he calls a spiritual intervention and his decision to self-report, enter treatment and work with the California Pharmacist Recovery Program. He describes the terror of facing the State Board, the relief of structured support, and the long haul of five years of meetings, testing and therapy that made real recovery possible.
The episode also tackles what healthcare needs to change: clear policies for confidential self-reporting, alignment with professional recovery programmes, honest discussion about consequences, and a culture where addiction is talked about "like cholesterol or blood pressure" rather than hidden in shame. If you work in healthcare, how could your workplace make it safer for someone like Steve to ask for help earlier?
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