After reading the article about dealers and drug addicts and seeing what was said I just had to write in.
I am a recovering drug addict, I started using drugs at the age of 12 and stopped using at age 28, I have been clean for eight years and I do a lot of work with drug addicts, I work as a drug counsellor and I help at rehabs and with NA, CA and AA, and I believe that there is so much that people are not told, not just about the effects of drugs but how alcohol and over the counter prescription medication also play a huge part in all of this.
How the family become just as sick as the addict and so much more, it’s a pity that what really needs to be said is never said. I wish that the papers could help to get dealers locked up, helping the addicts to stop using will put also put the dealers out of business.
Then there is a topic very close to my heart; the fact that there are institutions out there that do more harm than they do good. I have worked in the majority of them and I have seen the devastating effect it can leave on the drug addicts and alcoholics, and how it will take them from using street drugs and put them onto a road of using over the counter prescription medication.
I live a life free of all chemical medication, and for the last eight years I have not touched any street drugs or alcohol, and I have been free from chemical dependence for over two years, I have no chemicals in my system.
I have also stopped smoking and it was harder than quitting the drugs. A whole topic all on its own.
In closing, I really hope that one day there might be a real campaign to inform everyone, starting with the parents and then informing the users.
Alberton resident
