Robert Speaks to Edges; he is currently in our residential drug rehabilitation programme. I had my first spliff when I was 9 or ten years old. I was taken into hospital at 10 for a stomach pump through drinking alcohol and basically it just progressed from there to sniffing gas, aerosols and air fresheners. When I got to school and with more people I was introduced to drugs, amphetamines and ecstasy at weekends. I started missing school because of the drugs and smoking weed. I first tried heroin when I was 15. then I got off heroin and went on mad benders with drink, ‘E’ and uppers. I then got into the party scene and tried crack.  But all along I still had a good job. I have City &
Guilds in sheet metal fabrication. I always had money and I just didn’t
know what to spend it on. I went on binges and l lost my driving licence; my
job and my girl friend. It felt like all my world had just come crashing in on
me. I ended up getting back into heroin and everything that comes with it. I
got done for burglary and going to jail. I told myself I wasn’t going to do it again but I ended up doing it again and being sent back to jail. I came straight from prison to T.H.O.M.A.S. I’m discovering me. I’m learning about myself; I’m learning that there’s more to life than drugs. You don’t have to take drugs just to be sociable; you don’t have to be ‘one of the boys’ or to take drugs to be ’one of the boys’. For the future I’d like to start living a normal life. Work for my money, get back my driving licence; perhaps see a bit of the world. But for now I just want to sort myself out. |
