Falling into drug addiction, but getting back up
DICK was just 16 years old when he had his first exposure to drugs – an experience he said he will eternally regret.
He recalls it was right after Summer and he had just returned to his home in Brooklyn, New York, after spending the holidays with his aunt in Queens.
Right out of having completed his first Summer job, he claims, he was walking down the road, thinking of how good it is to be earning your own money and contemplating his next move after finishing school.

It was then that he ran into an ‘associate’ from his school. They had a brief exchange and the other guy told him that he was not returning to school.
Dick shared with him his thoughts about looking for a job. Just at that point, they were approached by a grown man. They stopped and the two made eye contact, whereupon, the lad reached into his crotch. “He pulled out a bag and handed two tiny packets over to the older guy, but he had a whole lot more. The man paid him $10 and walked away,” Dick recalled.

Dick said that from his associate’s body language, he could tell that the two were up to something illegal.Then Dick’s friend pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a wad of money, ensuring that Dick saw it.
“Immediately, I said this was not right, but then again, it was like all these thoughts coming to my head – that I could make so much money; I could buy a house and do all these things before age catch up with me, but I never thought about the consequences,” the man admitted. What he did not know was that this guy (his friend) used to smoke the ‘stuff’ as well.

“A couple days later, I hooked up with the ‘big guy’ and I began selling narcotics,” Dick admitted.
Then one day Dick saw his friend rolling his ‘stuff’ up in the marijuana joint. “Shocked, I said to myself: ‘You mean you putting that stuff in the joint? I don’t smoke that stuff’’.” However, he did not say anything to him, for fear his friend would feel that Dick was snobbish.
Then he said he thought that if it was something harmful (to his health) his friend would not have been doing it.

INSTANTLY HOOKED
“But nevertheless, I tried it. And after I tried this stuff, it was like a ‘peace’ came over me … a joyful feeling and from that moment, it was difficult for me to turn back. My life changed and I just kept going back for more,” he related with a somber look as he re-examined the stark vicissitudes of his life.

“By using this stuff, it really destroyed my life. School wasn’t important anymore. I used to be a well- dressed decent guy. That started changing. I start getting deeper into the stuff and eventually it overpowered me. I couldn’t keep a job.“When I became of age and had a relationship, I made a mess of it. Eventually, I stopped going home. As a result of that, I got children who were born in the United States, but because of my addiction, we can’t be together and now I can’t even see them. By then, I had this compulsion for drugs. My life was hooked on drugs,” Dick said.

ABANDONMENT
Later, Dick’s son was born and, with drugs being his priority, he felt that this development pressured him. “I left him and his mother and went away and looked for drugs, hoping it would bring me comfort.That was when it seemed like I was heading over the abyss and that there appeared to be no turning back. I was even deported,” he said.
“But what was even more devastating was that because I was not the father I should have been, and was not around to instill moral values in my son, …I was not there to tell him ‘Don’t do drugs!’. Instead, he followed the wrong path.

“And so, I must painfully admit that today, he’s 24 and in jail for doing drugs. Then I ask myself, ‘Why did I walk away from such a good family?’ You see, my son’s mother, she is a very nice person and I couldn’t appreciate that because of the state I was in. Now I want desperately to see my son, but that is not possible,” Dick said.

RETURN, REHABILITATION
Since being in Guyana, he had attempted breaking off the habit but fell back into it. Then he heard about the Salvation Army’s Drug Rehabilitation Programme and how it has changed people’s lives, bringing them new hope and helping them lead positive and productive lives.
“At that moment, I knew that I wanted to be a part of that programme more than anything else. Now here I am, starting all over again. I am awake because when I look back, I ask myself what the heck I really was thinking. I should have been there for my son. Now he is in prison,” Dick said.

Dick has purposed in his heart to put his best foot forward. To do all that is expected of him – co-operate, obey the system and be a shining example to younger clients on the programme. He has purposed in his heart that he will not relapse again and that he will continue the programme to the end and come out with flying colours.
“So here am I, trying to start all over again. I am grateful to the Salvation Army, the Major because he thought me different. When I first came here, I was praying that things go well with me. But instead of relying on my own strength, I learned that I can pray. There is a God. He loves me and I pray every morning when I get up, something I never used to do. When someone reaches out to me, I am thankful,” Dick said gratefully.
He said he entered training in March 2017 and has completed the six months ‘In-House Treatment’ and is now in the ‘Half Way House’ – the second phase of the programme and has never had any problems with clients nor the administration and its sweeter and sweeter every day.

“When I came here, I was meagre looking. I couldn’t look at you in your face. Now I feel different…When a new client comes in, we really wonder: ‘How did he get started?’ And we really reach out to them. I really thought in the past that getting high and taking these short cuts and so forth in life was cool. What I’ve come to realise, is that when I cut short from doing something constructive and positive in society, someone else got to pay for that. I would have shortened something from somebody else and that is not right. So I am grateful for what I have learned here and I feel stronger.” Dick said he is also disposed to sharing with others, what he has learned.