CASE STUDY
'ROCKY' IS a substance abuse client at a drug rehabilitation treatment facility in Jamaica. His counsellor gave him an assignment to prepare an essay, which tells the full tale of his life's journey.
Rocky: As a teenager at one of Kingston's most prestigious high schools, in 1980, a friend of mine introduced me to crack cocaine.
HIDING FROM CLASS
We were having physical education (PE) classes, and it was cricket season. I was not participating in the PE session because football was the sport that I liked. So, I was hiding from the PE teacher at the back of the school, when a friend of mine saw me at the back of the school.
He came to me saying, "Rocky, uh know seh anuh weed a do it again." I became curious and asked him what he meant by this. As pupils, weed was what we smoked. He took from behind him a white ball. At first, I thought it was fab soap, but I felt it, and it was a bit too solid to be that.
INSTANT LOVE
My friend sliced and crushed the substance into powder. I snorted the powder and immediately, the feeling I had was like falling in love with a
beautiful girl. As time passed my desire for this substance intensified.
My life took a sharper turn for the worst in 1990 when I visited my three brothers in Brooklyn, New York for the Christmas holidays.
They were operating a drug ring, that I only found out about when I got there. I saw their lavish lifestyles and simply asked, how they could afford it. I was now in an environment that I only dreamt of.
Through my association with my brothers I became intimate with this unbelievable beautiful Puerto Rican woman. I got her pregnant, and when the time came for me to return to Jamaica, I refused to leave my baby mother and kid behind.
THE DRUG RING
Since I was living with them and was in the country illegally and without a job, 'my next best' was to join their drug ring.
And so they hired me as the distribution man. They did this very unaware that I was a crack addict, and of course this gave me unlimited access to free crack. I became a 24-hour crack smoker.
When the state caught me, I was jailed, after which I was deported.
Back in Jamaica I never stopped smoking crack. I roamed the streets of New Kingston tirelessly.
I am now 40 years old, and after 22 years of drug addiction, a good Samaritan introduced me to drug rehabilitation. I am currently at drug rehab centre, on the way to recovery. I have recognised that I was only destroying myself.
