You might think cocaine is fun but consider this...

It’s with a heavy heart that I stand by and see what the people I love are doing to themselves. Tonight and tomorrow are very important to me and this period six years back changed my life fundamentally and in every respect.

I’ve seen you experimenting with drugs and I choose not to be judgemental because I have nothing against drugs. I have had to learn that I cannot use them in any way, I faced the fact that if I had not stopped when I did I would have either been in jail, a mental institution or dead. With the way that my life was going it would most likely have been the latter.
I feel it now pertinent to say a few things to those friends of mine who think playing with narcotics is fun to consider.

When I went into rehab on 22 May 2002 I had no idea that I was an addict. I truly believed that I was using drugs because I liked them and that they were my way of having fun and dealing with stress. There was no way to link the ideas in my head of what an addict is in relation to my own life. I lived in a nice house, drove fancy cars, had friends, my own business, a long term relationship and plain and simply I thought I was living the high life. Addicts were people in the gutter stealing money and things from everyone. I just could not be an addict. This was just a phase I was going through and if I really wanted to I would be able to stop whenever I chose to. Instead I ended up using drugs for years and spending millions on them.

The thing I am most proud of is that I have been able to stay off drugs for six years but with considerable help. I have to face the fact that if I so much as touch drugs again it WILL end in disaster. So if you persist in using drugs, I have to disassociate myself from you as my safety is of paramount importance to me. Trust me when I say that I NEVER want to return to the HELL that is addiction. You have no idea what that it is like.

If you are starting to see what this hell is and you need help, always feel free to talk to me in complete confidence. You CANNOT stop alone. I learned this the hard way and thank heavens I found the correct people to help me and I owe them my life.

If you want the whole story, I will happily tell you the entire saga at any stage.

You need to realise that NO ONE decides to become an addict. It happens over a period of time and normally totally unconsciously to the addict themselves. The worst symptom of addiction is denial which ensures that the addict has little or no idea that they are in fact an addict. This time six years ago I was spending thousands a day on alcohol and drugs and yet I was convinced that I did not have a problem.

I see you using the drug that almost killed me and hear about you taking lines in night clubs, parties and at home and I remember back to when I started. Cocaine particularly is so insidious in the way it takes a hold on you. It is one of the substances that those who are not predisposed to addiction can become addicted to. It affects the same pleasure centres in your brain as love and sex but is so much more dangerous and so much more powerful.

I know that I am not in any way stupid but for this drug I almost gave up everything without even realising it was happening. I gave up my friends that did not agree with what I was doing. I convinced myself that they were boring and that they were just over exaggerating the reality of drug usage and so I saw them less and less.

If you ever trust anything I tell you please believe this as I know it to be true. YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE PLAYING WITH! COCAINE WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE... YOU MIGHT AS WELL JUST GO AND STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF A LANE ON THE N2 AND GET HIT BY A CAR – IT’LL CAUSE YOU AND THOSE YOU LOVE AND THAT LOVE YOU LESS PAIN.....

Anti-fur Demonstration Pictures

Today we went to the Constantia Village Shopping centre to demonstrate against Fur being sold in the centre.

Here are the pictures so long. I will be writing a whole Blog entry on it shortly because it was an amazing experience.

Anti-Fur Demo constantia Jan 08

Anti-Fur Demonstration - Willies pictures

Meet your Meat

Have a look at this video.
This is the one Tom would rather I do not show before movie nights.

What's wrong with dairy?

More info on the case against the consumption of dairy.

Another site to look at is http://www.milksucks.com.

The truth about Milk

Follow the link to read up the truth about milk.

Did you think milk was good for babies?

Do you think milk helps with osteoporosis?

Did you know that milk can cause type 1 diabetes?

Go and read the article!

Earth Hour 2008

I found this website and I really like the idea that is proposed. On 29 March this year at 20:00 I along with millions of other people will be switching off all power to my home for an hour.

I will also ask permission from my boss to allow me to shut down all power to our offices at the same time.

We all think that we can do nothing to help save this plant and help it restore itself but we are wrong. We can do something and that something is to help make everyone aware of the plight we are in and to each start to make small changes that eventually on mass make up a big change.

Currently we are living with constant load shedding in South Africa so we are all quite prepared to go for an hour or two a day without electricity. What is we all did an Earth Hour a day? ..... Everyday ...... voluntarily ....

Eight years ago....

I just walked past the old big tree outside Pirates in Hout Bay and memories came flooding back, of the exact night eight years ago, when I stood under the same tree talking to my mother, who was in hospital at the time, using my cell phone .

All those years ago I was upset because neither my mother, nor my Grandmother (who was also in the same hospital) had remembered that it was my birthday that day. When I pointed it out to my mother, she was so upset that she could possibly have forgotten.

I cannot remember much else about that day except to say that I probably walked back into Shananigan's which is what Pirates was called back then, got drunk and used drugs. Back then I was a self-centred, childish, using drug addict who could only think of himself. I was hardly a son that a mother could be proud of although my mother was somehow incredibly proud of me. I had hidden my addiction away from her for years. I hid it from everyone, especially those closest to me.

As I walked past that same tree tonight, I felt happier in the fact that I have been a recovering drug addict for over 5 years and someone I feel could now make a parent proud.

Sadly my mother passed away twelve days after that phone call and has not been around for any more of my birthdays. On days like this I miss both my mother and my grandmother.

So if you still have your parent around....Go hug them now!

If you are troubled by addiction...feel free to come talk to me anytime....