Desperate to kick drug habit
Stricken couple say they want treatment and a better life
At just 37, heroin addict Dillon has lost almost all of his teeth and his thin, tattooed frame is pockmarked with lumps, open sores and scores of heroin needle spike marks.
Dillon – whose surname has been withheld to protect his identity – says his greatest wish is simply to receive the methadone detoxification treatment he desperately needs to end his 22-year dependency on the drug that is rapidly sucking the life from his body and that of his long-time partner and fellow heroin addict, Sonja, who is 27.
The amicable but dispirited couple represent the face of a heroin epidemic that is rapidly emerging from within the heart of Nelson Mandela Bay.
Clutching a small electric heater he was attempting to sell on the streets of the CBD this week, Dillon and Sonja described a life of debilitating addiction, continuous scavenging and days filled with desperation.
“I started with crack when I was about 12 years old. I was living in Alberton in the south of Johannesburg and things just got worse from there,” Dillion said.
“We just want to get off this stuff, and the only way we can see this happening is if we get the methadone treatment.
“Every day, we just scrounge for money. We get money mainly from begging and then scavenging for things like copper wire and brass.
“There are dealers who come here and buy the copper or the brass from us. We then use that money to get a little food and then heroin.
“The lowest cost for heroin for us is R60 and that high just lasts for about two hours, so we constantly need to get money, or the withdrawals kick in,” Dillon explained.
“It is getting to the point where I have started to think about housebreaking and theft to get money and that is just not right,” he confessed.
Attractive despite a hard life on the streets, slim-framed Sonja told Weekend Post she had started on heroin after meeting Dillon and had been around 15 years old at the time, living in the Johannesburg area.
“My mother was an alcoholic, so my upbringing was tough. I only finished grade 7 , so that is one of my problems, I don’t have matric.
“This is a horrible life and all we want is to stop all of this and get a better life. How can anyone think we would want to be like this?”
Both Dillon and Sonja are beneficiaries of the TBHIVCare programme, through which they receive new syringes and needles, which they use to avoid catching and spreading a range of serious and life-threatening illnesses such as TB, HIVAids, and other sexually transmitted infections.
“We are not alone here. There are about 120 others that come around here.
“Heroin is a serious problem here in PE, and we have seen it grow,” Dillon said.
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