Drug addict determined to stay clean

The absence of his right hand and forearm will forever act as a stark reminder to Shakaskraal’s Brendon Jansen that he almost lost his life to drug abuse.

For the first time in 11 years, Jansen has been clean from drugs for three months.

Although there is still a long road ahead, the 25-year-old is determined to never return to the pit of drug abuse.

When he was 15 he started hanging out with the “wrong crowd” at school and soon he was drinking alcohol, smoking dagga and taking mandrax.

At the time he thought he was the coolest person on earth.

Four years later, “In 2008 I was introduced to CAT (Methcathinone, similar to crack cocaine) by a friend, as a cheaper option,” he said.

Six months down the line he was introduced to heroin and whoonga (a drug cocktail – which consists of heroin and a combination of chemicals that often includes rat poison).

Yet he still thought everything was fine in his life.

“I was working and had money to buy any drug I wanted so I did not realise I was in trouble,” said Jansen.

But as his drug habit grew he could no longer maintain it on his salary alone.

It was when he started stealing to supplement his income that he first realised that he needed to get out.

Jansen tried to quit in 2009 but the withdrawal symptoms were too terrible to face.

“Withdrawal is like a sickness that cannot be cured by anything besides the drug you take. Whoonga’s withdrawal symptoms are the worst, it feels like you are dying,” he said.

Jansen said that when you are suffering from withdrawal you will do anything to get the drug, even if it means stealing.

Then when he lost his job everything started to spiral out of control.

He started to steal at home, taking anything that he could get hold of.

His mother said she almost gave up on her son and she started to think he would never change.

“One day I discovered I had no clothes to wear to work because he had stolen all of them,” she said.

Then in July 2012, while working as a machine operator Jansen lost concentration and the machine he was operating chopped off his arm. He had been smoking whoonga every day before work.

“At that time I did not admit it was because of the drugs, I thought it was just an accident,” he said.

He tried four times to quit drugs and failed every time.

“My first step to real recovery was to admit that I needed help and that is when I went to Destiny Youth Development Centre.”

They took him to Living Water Empowerment Centre to be rehabilitated.

There Brendon’s life was turned around. Now the challenge before him is to stay clean, one day at a time.

Contact Destiny Youth Development Centre on 032-9472121.