The young and the reckless

£ £ X was * when I was first exposed to I drugs - I was a passive smoker Aand used to inhale like no body’s business. I was at my sister’s place over seas. They were all university students all university students smoke dope, don’t they? I had the most bizarre childhood.

John is a 22-year-old Fiji citizen who attended primary, intermediate and tertiary schools abroad but spent the most rebel lious years of his life - high school - in the islands.

“I had my first joint when I was about 12. It was at a party my sister took me to.

I didn’t know anybody but someone gave me a joint and I got caught smoking. It was good fun. I never saw anything wrong with it”.

When John returned to Fiji, he kept a

relatively low profile in high school.

“In school, I wasn’t telling the world I had tried marijuana. Only an idiot adver tises they do illegal things.” But after he made friends in high school, John was sur prised at how easy it was to get drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. “There were a lot of rich kids so they didn’t care about pass ing exams. We used to go to parties with alcohol and drugs. They knew who to buy it from.” John said marijuana was readily available for those who had the money and, through friends, he got to know sup

pliers.

“You’re smoking a joint and say: ‘This is good stuff, where do you get it from?’

And they say, ‘You want to get some? Go here’. It’s quite a community.”

However, only a few kids experiment ed with hard drugs despite their easy access, John said.

“The emphasis in school was on alco hol and only a small percentage of people did drugs and an even smaller percentage did hard drugs. Everyone talked about drugs, but that was just through the movies.”

John was rarely exposed to expensive

hard drugs like cocaine and heroin but stu

dents experimented with marijuana, speed

and prescription drugs.

“Everyone smokes marijuana. It’s no big deal anymore. You can do five-dollar deals anywhere.”

John started taking harder drugs when he was 16 “at parties that our parents never knew about”.

At times, he said, students mixed cock tails with various pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol and fizzy soft drinks.

“I know kids who tried pills prescribed to increase the brain activity of their men tally ill siblings - it was pharmaceutical speed. I know kids who took speed to stay awake while studying for exams.”

He said that in most cases, teenagers tried over-the-counter drugs after hearing or reading about the side-effects.

“Anti-histamines are popular - you take about three which will knock you out, then have a gin and tonic and you’re spaced out for the rest of the day. “That’s why they say, ‘Do not operate heavy machinery after taking this medication or do not mix with alcohol because of the side-effects.’

“The first time it happened I took headache tablets then had a drink, and sat there for an hour trying to cut my pizza. So I said, T must try this again some time.’”

As for acid trips, John said he knew some people sent it through the mail like a nor mal letter. “You get ecstasy through the mail in a letter from somebody called George and you don’t know anyone called George. Who is this guy? The letter says: ‘Thanks for showing me around Suva. I really enjoyed my time there. Here’s something for you. I don’t know if you’re into it but try it. Best regards, George,’

And there’s no return address. That’s the safe way of bringing acid trips into the country.” John said it was scary that prison was the only option for teenagers charged with possession of marijuana or other sub stances in Fiji.

“All teenagers experiment - whether it’s with sex, alcohol, or drugs. You break every rule in the book because, if not, you won’t know for yourself how it feels. But if you get caught, you get kicked out of school.

“When you’re growing up, you’re inse cure and want to fit in. At parties if some one said, ‘Try this’, I did - even though I could have died because I didn’t know what it was. I was young and didn’t care and when you’re drunk no one cares.

“You could be a straight-A student, head of your class, go to church every Sunday, and one day you go for a ride with your friends and pass a joint that they’re smoking and you get busted when it’s in

your hand. I’ve had some near-misses with the cops and they scared the hell out of me”.

But John said despite the fact that mar ijuana was considered an illegal sub stance, demand for it was great.

“Adults say to kids: ‘Don’t do drugs because you’ll go on a trip’, and the kids say, ‘Wow, really?’

“We are criminal elements in big inverted commas, but the fact is that some of the most wealthy and influential people in the country smoke marijuana. I know lawyers, doctors and businesspeople who

smoke dope.

“Mention marijuana users and the image immediately conjured up in a read er’s mind is a pot-head that just sits around stoned all day with massive bongs. That is one extreme. Those people have no lives.

I’m against abuse of any substance.”

“I’ve seen really talented people throw their lives away on marijuana. That’s why I always look out for myself.

“In my case. I’m a bit psychotic and very hyperactive so marijuana calms me down.

“In the evening, when I’ve finished everything I’ve got to do, I can chill out.

Some people go home, others go to a bar or have a basin of grog. I light up a joint.

“My great-grandparents worked all day on the cane farm then they- and the vil lagers reminisced about India with a joint or a bong. If my great-grandparents smoked pot without hassle, I consider it my birthright to smoke.

“It’s an organic substance. My philoso phy is if God grew it, what’s wrong with it?”

PIM: Could you quit cold turkey?

John: Yeah. Yeah yeah.

PIM: Have you quit before?

John: Yeah.

PIM: How long for?

John: Until my next stash. I’ve had days where I’ll have a massive headache if I don’t have a joint, Marijuana’s my

painkiller. It’s like people taking valium

which is legal if prescribed by a doctor.

I’m my own doctor, so one or two tokes and I’m set. If I met a woman who could take me off drugs she’d be the most amaz ing woman in the world - she’d be a saint.

I’d put her up on a pedestal and worship her every day.

“Any teenager with a social life will

eventually try drugs.

“The next generation of power-mon gers and leaders of this country will be well-versed in substance abuse.

“I mean look at Bill Clinton, the world’s first self-confessed drug-smoking president, but then he didn’t inhale.” ■

Profile of a drug user