News

Survivor shares drug addict experience

July 2, 2018 7:05 pm

The consequences of drug use are regrettable and for some it’s a life they will not want to go back to.

Survivor and Project Assistance for the Psychiatric Survivors Association, Sydney Lord says the use of drugs impacted his life for years and left him empty-handed.

Lord who was a former peacekeeper says when he returned after serving in Lebanon, he was pressured into smoking by friends and they eventually ended up doing drugs particularly Marijuana.

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He says it’s important that Fijians understand the psychological impacts of these harmful substances.

“It drove me to a momentum of what smokers call Kacabote or trip. So I was like running through something like a moving train that’s so fast and two, three years later, I was just staring and I had lost all my money because it’s much related to alcohol and it goes together, so within the process I lost everything. My wife and I had a lot of arguments, things didn’t work out and she left the house with our children and I was just left staring at empty spaces.”

Meanwhile, the National Council for Persons with Disability says whether it’s marijuana, methamphetamine, ecstasy or any other form of illicit substance – it definitely challenges ones psychological makeup and is a burden to the society.

Fijians are also urged to share their hardships with someone they trust.