Life Stories

At the age of 13 I smoked my first cigarette and got drunk. I was 14 years old when I first smoked dagga. In my second year of high school I started going to nightclubs. I attended nightclubs regularly and when my friend began to deal drugs I assisted him; I was 15 at the time.

When I arrived at the University of Johannesburg things went quite well at first, but made a turn for the worse. I started drinking alcohol excessively, I began smoking dagga and soon I progressed to using other drugs as well.

?My name is Tom* and I first smoked dagga when I was 13 years old. By the time I reached matric, at the age of 17, I was fully addicted to dagga and I continued to smoke until the age of 31.

Dagga helped me to ignore the responsibilities of daily life and took hold of me quickly. As my addiction grew, I began to experience the dark side of a drug which many claim is ‘soft’ and the use of which is often described as harmless fun.

Previously I had been a top sportsman, taking part in rugby, cricket, gymnastics, tennis, swimming, golf, athletics, cycling and wrestling and now I couldn’t even run 100m without wanting to vomit because of my dagga habit. Before dagga I used to be a top performer at school, always at the top of my grade.

Despite going to Bible Class every Saturday and church every Sunday, by the time I was 14 I had started smoking cigarettes and was having the occasional beer, which I would steal from my father’s secret stash in the garage.

?My life of sin started when I was five years old on the day that my mother died in a car accident. On that day I rejected God and the plan that he had for me.

?I woke up one morning in a dog’s kennel, my feet had been hanging out all night in the cold and the dog was lying on top of me. This helped me to realise that I had really hit rock bottom.