Darren is currently in our residential programme I first started taking drugs when I was 14 - smoking a weed at break time and dinnertime with the lad’s I grew up with. I enjoyed the buzz I got off it for a while until it didn’t seem to get me as wrecked as it did at first.  Then one dinner me and a mate
went to the local chippy for dinner and we went down the canal for a spliff and
bumped into some older kids picking magic mushrooms and we ended up joining in
eating them as we picked them. I can’t remember how many we ate before we
set off back to school I can remember thinking to my self what a load of
bullshit they are because nothing had happened. Then I started to get traces
off them and laughing at nothing. The teacher thought we were taking the mick
and sent us both out of the lesson then things really started to get messy! We
both ended up getting suspended from school. I stopped smoking weed after that for a couple of months and started to get drunk again. Then one weekend there was a rave at Pontins called (scream) and we all ended up going and doing some speed. I thought I had found the buzz I was looking for. When it finished and was on the way home we were all talking about finding out what was on that night. We ended up going to Wigan pier and dropping some more speed. The next day I felt like death I remember thinking never again. But surely enough it didn’t end there. We went to Manchester, a club called (life) and I got offered a (e). I ended up doing two. I ended wasted all night which I thought was laughing. This carried on for about five years - out every weekend, various naff jobs in between. I thought things were ok doing the odd pill here and there, selling them so we had more money for a weekend. Nothing bad happened. I thought any drug was laughing. Then I moved to Blackburn five years ago into the high rise at Larkhill, and started working with a lad from Blackburn and one day caught him having a toot in his car and ending up having a toot with him. From there it didn’t take me long to get a habit and before I knew it I had lost my job, sold most of my processions and ended up getting nicked for shoplifting. Looking back its no wonder I kept getting nicked. I looked a mess. I ended up at Preston for threats to kill and affray. That’s were I first heard of THOMAS and Father Jim. After finishing my sentence I got in touch with THOMAS through the Drop-in they run. They kept asking me to think about going into the rehab they run but I wasn’t ready then. It took 18 months for me to finally come in to the THOMAS Project. Thankfully, I did my rattle and not giving up I have now been in 12 weeks and things are starting to look up for me. Hopefully, I will be taking lessons for my HGC Licence next year as it’s a job I’ve always wanted to do, and with thanks to Father Jim and the staff in here who have given me so much help. Its unbelievable. This time next year I will be working and living a fairly normal life again. Thanks once again to all the staff at THOMAS. |
