Rehab fails for 19th time
Community members of Benoni believed in 19 chances, by trying to help a drug addict living on the streets of Western Extension, but their attempts were in vain.
Matthew*, a 32-year-old, was placed in a rehabilitation centre in Pretoria for the 19th time on Thursday (April 7), since his drug addiction started at the age of 13.
However, he walked out three days later.
“What do the community and parents do now?” asked Tania Opperman, a community member who was involved in having Matthew admitted to rehab.
“There is no legal way to get help for these people, as they are over 18,” she explained.
Opperman spoke to Matthew, who said he left because he was required to work, but wanted to sleep.
The City Times interviewed Matthew on April 6, before he went to rehab.
“Devil’s Revenge Upon God’s Soldiers,” is what he called drugs.
But it seems that this revenge is something he has not yet been able to shake off.
Matthew told the City Times he wanted to be a father on whom his son could rely.
He lived with his parents and son until November, when his mother found him lying unconscious, after intoxicating himself with heroin.
“She kicked me out of the house,” he said.
“But I don’t blame her; she needs to protect my son, who lives with her.”
He was in Grade Seven, in Boksburg, when he became a user.
“I started working part-time for a liquor store,” he said.
“I had to deliver alcohol to clubs.
“I was exposed to a variety of drugs in the clubs and became a user because it seemed like fun.”
Although he left school in Springs in Grade Nine, to work full-time at the liquor store, he then became a dealer in clubs and a worker in a strip club in Boksburg.
His addiction reached its peak when he started taking heroin.
“I met my son’s mother at the age of 21, in rehab,” he said.
“We got involved after we both left rehab, and she introduced me to heroin.”
He has been a heroin user since.
Matthew explained his daily routine.
When he wakes up, he consumes a packet of heroin, cleans himself up and goes to robots or shopping centres to manipulate people.
“I lie by asking for food, which I later sell at a cheaper price,” he said.
After making enough money for the day, he goes to his dealer to buy more heroin.
Without any assurance of having a packet of heroin when he wakes up in the morning, he will not sleep.
Matthew* is not his real name.
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