Dylan began drinking alcohol and smoking ‘yarndi’ (cannabis) with his friends in his early teens and continued to do so into his early twenties. After losing custody of his youngest child a year before the interview, he became isolated from his friends and family, and...
Dee Jay started smoking cannabis daily in his early twenties while at university, and taking MDMA and cocaine with friends on the weekends. After about a year, he started to think he was taking these drugs too often, and when he was caught with MDMA...
Callum began smoking cannabis in his mid-teens, and has continued to do so regularly since then. After breaking his back in his early thirties, he was prescribed opioid medication to manage the pain associated with his injury....
Andrew started smoking cannabis daily in his late teens and in his twenties he started drinking alcohol heavily. He now describes his alcohol and cannabis consumption as ‘addictions’....
Anika has smoked cannabis throughout her teens, both alone and with friends. She has also occasionally taken MDMA and psychedelic drugs on the weekends with friends. At times during high school when she was smoking cannabis every day, she began to think she might...
Lucy began smoking cannabis in her mid-teens with her boyfriend. She’s continued to smoke it regularly, except while pregnant with each of her two children. She describes herself as having a ‘cannabis habit’ and a ‘mental dependency’ to cannabis. She smokes it in the evenings...
Pauline started smoking cannabis daily in her mid-teens and continued during her twenties while at university. In her early thirties she began practising yoga regularly and reduced her consumption to a few times a year. Several years later she came out as a lesbian and...
When he was in his teens Artemis considered himself to be ‘anti-drugs’. In his early twenties he began smoking cannabis with his partner at the time. A few years later, after he moved to Australia, he started partying regularly with friends and taking 'party drugs'....
Lala began smoking cannabis in her mid-teens and has continued to do so since then. She smokes in the evenings after work and on days off. She says that smoking cannabis helps her ‘live a good life’, but over time she’s come to see her...