The addict
Roger – 42, restaurateur
‘I started smoking cannabis when I was around
14 years old'.
'There was a gradual increase until I was 16, when all my
mates smoked too, and I was at it pretty much every day until I was 20
or so. Got into speed when I was 17, when I found out that it was no
more harmful than pot, although I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I first
took acid around the same age, and that was quite an experience. I took
it once a week in my early twenties. Then I got bored after a couple of
years and took ecstasy when that first turned up. By my mid-twenties,
I’d pretty much tried every drug. I hadn’t tried heroin, but I’d taken
opium, which was seen as more socially acceptable. I started doing
heroin in my late twenties because it was a drug that I’d never really
explored.
Feature continues
‘By my early thirties, I was smoking heroin regularly. Heroin’s like
cannabis or a glass of wine that you can take at home to wind down. But
before you know it, you’ve got a habit. It’s that old cliché that you
think you can manage it. There wasn’t an exact moment when I realised
that I couldn’t. You don’t want to admit to yourself that you’re a
heroin addict. Looking back, it took about three years from starting to
use it maybe once every three months for the time to decrease, until it
was once a fortnight, once a week, twice a week. Not long after
realising that I had a proper habit, I was about 33, and I went cold
turkey at home and got off it.
‘I started taking it again because I thought I was stronger than it,
that I had beaten it. I began taking it to maintain a normal existence.
I wasn’t ever getting stoned, just taking it like a diabetic takes
insulin. I’ve tried to get off it several times since and failed.
People think a smackhead is the beggar they step over in the street,
but you don’t hear about the addicts like me because we don’t steal to
maintain our habits, we’re not really a problem to society. I was
arrested on New Year’s Eve, caught smoking heroin in my car because I
had guests staying in my flat. I wasn’t charged, but my girlfriend left
me a couple of weeks later.’
The dealer
Henry – 29, studio engineer
‘For me, dealing is a way of making sure
I’ve got enough without having to pay for it'.
When you’re consuming
loads, you want it on tap. Later you may end up having really good
contacts and it could become more, but not for me. I don’t take drugs
any more; I haven’t since January, although never say never. Now I’m
thinking: What can I make from this? It’s more of an earner. I don’t
have a moral issue with it, but that’s our generation. I never push, I
only deal with people who have made an active choice to seek that
experience. It’s a mythical thing, dealers wreaking destruction on the
youth of today. People consume drugs because that’s how they choose to
have a good time.
I think that you have your twenties peak, then you’re more inclined to
slow down. You still get caners who are in their late thirties, but
they always look haggard, showing signs of wear and abuse. London’s got
its own hellbent attitude. It’s a very uncaring, selfish place. Things
are expensive, people haven’t got time, and it’s that self-focused
attitude that you can feel in the drug culture.
London’s more varied in
the type of drugs you can consume compared to up north, and that should
never be forgotten. It’s a supermarket sweep, I suppose. If there’s a
new drug, you’re going to find it in London.
Ketamine’s fascinating. It
started as a crusty, squatters’ drug; it was seen as dirty. But in the
last two years, that’s really turned around. Everything eventually
becomes trendy, and the thing about ket is that it really kicks your
arse. It’s cheap and it works. Suddenly it’s Hoxton-esque but, to be
honest, those kids are only doing tiny bumps (a small amount on the
edge of a card or key); the people on the crusty scene ended up
injecting it. They’d snort metre-long lines; don’t laugh, I’ve seen it!
‘The thing about London that’s unique is that there are lots of pockets
consuming in their own ways. Just because you’re part of one drug
culture doesn’t mean you’re part of all the others. Each is governed by
its own social regulations. You go to a dinner party – for example –
smoke a joint then, after dinner, chop out some lines; it’s fairly
accepted. Get out your needles and start up with heroin, they’d kick
you out. What’s next? I really don’t know. 2CB (liquid mescalin) turned
up for a while, and drug combinations are around, sniffing different
things on the same night. London’s hellbent on getting out of it.’
All names have been changed.
3 comments
it's a similar situation in any major city, how much you see various drugs pop up in your social circle just depends on who your friends are.
drugs can be interesting and give you a different view of the human experience, and that can be valuable and interesting - as well as fun - at least for some people. that's why they're in demand. unfortunately some people use them as an escape or a psychological crutch, which is bad news.
legalisation would fix a lot of problems like harm that can grow out of quality variations in the supply, drug A being passed off as drug B, and need-that-fix criminal escapades prompted by overpriced substances. on the other hand, education is needed to ensure people without enough respect for the dangers around certain drugs don't go around knocking themselves and their friends out.
i suppose the status quo isn't too bad.
hmmm....this interests me.
personally ive had my fair share of drug abuse and problems and ive just turned 17.
i started doing drugs at about 14 and for me like most people it started off with weed. id smoke a joint or 5 at the weekends but then it slowly moved on to a joint everyday and a couple of pills. by the age of 15 i was doing phet and crack and then one night i was at a party and my dealer came up 2 me and asked me if i wanted to try some heroin. he gave me a tenner bag and i smoked it. but after i couple of months the kick of smoking heroin had gone and i progressed to injecting.
i found myself doing whatever was possible to get two tenner bags of heroin everyday. I've just recently got clean after i overdosed on a speedball and was clinically pronounced dead for 1 min.
i'm very thankful to be alive to tell my story and live my life.
i do agree with what everyone else has said. compared to most places in the UK london is drug central. (it was the place where i first tried heroin) But i live in the north east and trust me everywhere u go there is a drug dealer close by to supply you with your needs.
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