Marijuana.
I remember when I was young, noticing how Mum and Dad would take themselves away after dinner time. They’d go down to the wash house and close the hallway door; we weren’t allowed to go down there.
“I remember being in 3rd form, and wagging school one day to go and get stoned with my friends”.
I realised that my Mum and Dad were using too, ‘cause I recognized the same behaviour and bloodshot eyes. I decided to use this knowledge to my advantage - you know, if it’s alright for them then it’s alright for me.
Dad would leave me a little on the windowsill, without Mum knowing. My younger brother joined in too, and we’d do it with Dad - 1 or 2 spots each.
“Dad would buy it for us while we were still in school. But when we started earning our own money, he told us to chip in and start buying our own.”
I smoked marijuana from when I was 14 to 19 - after that, I was addicted to Meth and Synthetics.
Addiction.
I was 18 when I gave birth to my first baby. I had stopped drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes while I was pregnant, but I just couldn’t stop smoking dope. I always wanted to stop but I just couldn’t.
By the age of 19, I had my second child. My partner was on Meth, so I started taking it too;
“Whatever was going, y’know. I was after the high, however I could get it.”
My partner and I separated for a time and I ended up getting pregnant to another man. When I was 3 months pregnant, I experienced these abnormal back cramps and pain. My neighbour rung the ambulance and I was taken to hospital. I found out I was actually pregnant with twins, but one baby was ectopic (growing in my fallopian tube) and needed to be removed through surgery.