e r o t S g Dru Cowboy
Addictions don’t just happen to derelelicts living on the street. They can happen in your very own home.
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o everyone on the outside, *Seth seemed like a typical, normal teenager. He attended the local primary school, played soccer on Saturday mornings and was the star swimmer at his school swim carnivals. But by the time he was 16, things began to change. Much more than the normal teenage angst, this was something different. The usually vibrant and healthy adolescent slowly began mixing with the wrong crowd, a mistake, unfortunately that any teen of such an influential age can fall prey to. But these kids he was in with were the ones of parents’ nightmares – devoid of values, authority and, most of all, self-respect. Seven months after his 17th birthday, Seth had gone from everyday teenager to a fullblown drug addict. First it was ‘harmlessly dabbling in dope’ but as his addictions grew, along with his hate for himself, the harder drugs followed. His loving family, younger sister, older brother and fear-struck parents watched as he deteriorated into a subliminal mess. Seth became addicted to Ice – also known as methamphetamine. His family watched by helplessly as he began to destroy himself and their solid family unit, with reckless and complete disregard for those who love him, he morphed from a bright and bubbly boy to a sullen, disheveled and evil teen with a sunken face and long lopping hair covering his usually sparkling eyes. Unlike some horrific tales of unrepentant drug use, which invariably end in sordidly irreversible addictions – or worse – death, this story follows the life of a young drug addict as he faces his demons and attempts to put his life back on track with the help of his family and a solid rehabilitation scheme. It’s been four years since Seth’s father stood over his hospital bed, head bowed in silent prayer, asking for a divine intervention to help his 17-year-old son through withdrawal from his drug addiction. He’s a good dad, loves his kids but, for the life of him, he just couldn’t understand how a confident and smart young person – his own flesh and blood – could get sucked into such deep turmoil. “Drug addicts aren’t high school students,” he pleads. “They’re people who live on the streets and beg for change. They don’t have an expected OP score range of 1-5 and get offered scholarships into the top universities in the country. Well-adjusted teenagers don’t atApril 2011
tack their father with a golf club and scream profanities at him. How did it get to this stage... how did he get so messed up?” Seth had been using for almost two years. Not always regularly. It began with a few puffs of cannabis and a couple of beers with some mates after school. He thought nothing of it, mainly because he viewed it as harmless. His older brother did it a couple of times and he was fine, so why not? But Seth had an entirely different relationship with the drug. He enjoyed the feeling of getting high, much more than his brother – it was a sense of relief and relaxation, a kind of euphoria. And, unlike his brother, he wanted to repeat that experience over and again. “I can still remember the feeling of that first joint. I didn’t green out like some of my other friends. It felt good. I was relaxed, there was no stress, it was as if the whole world took in one deep breath and just cruised along with the exhale,” says Seth.
but Vicodin and OxyContin were preferred, and because they are prescribed so often, getting a supply wasn’t that difficult. Seth grew more cunning as each time he visited the house of a new ‘friend’, he’d secretly scope out their medicine cabinets, squandering anything he thought would give him a “buzz”. No one saw what was coming next. His appetite grew and his body was becoming immune to the effects. Seth soon turned to the streets in search of his next big fix and found it in the form of methamphetamine. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “The drug has limited medical uses for the treatment of narcolepsy, attention deficit disorders, and obesity.” The NIDA, however, warns that the drug is highly addictive. The illicit production of the street drug is produced in both big and small labs, often found in private homes, commercial buildings and even hotel rooms. They’re lightweight, portable and
I was just reaching for a bigger and better high. As sad as it is to admit, it was the only time I felt good... As time went on Seth’s appetite for a stronger hit and a greater high increased. “I found some pain medication in my parent’s bathroom cabinet. Mum had a surgery a few months before and was prescribed OxyContin for the pain. She’d only taken a couple of tablets so there was virtually a whole container still full.” Today’s teens are far more techno-savvy than their parents’ generation and coupled with the added aid of the Internet, it didn’t take Seth long to discover by grinding the pills and snorting them, the high was intensified. “I was just reaching for bigger and better high. As sad as it is to admit, it was the only time I felt good.” But as soon as that supply had diminished the young emerging addict had to find his hit elsewhere. He’d raid the family liquor cabinet and solicit his friends to steal drugs from their parents, bribing them with money and promising favours. Any kind of painkiller would do
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present a problem for law enforcement. On the street it goes by many guises – speed, meth, ice, crystal meth, chalk, crank, tweak, black beauties, glass, and yellow bam, according to the NIDA. For Seth, it was just something that gave him a moment of bliss – time to escape reality and let go. He had no awareness this highly-toxic chemical can raise havoc with your brain function. Seth’s school grades began slipping and he grew more paranoid. He lost interest in football and forfeited his sports scholarship, telling his parents football was a distraction from his studies. They bought it. “I look back now and ask myself, ‘why didn’t we see it?’ Maybe we were naive, or simply too oblivious. Whatever the reason, I wish we were just more aware,” Seth’s father says. The young teen started ditching school, and wouldn’t come home for weeks on end. www.getitmagazine.com.au