Rachel began taking heroin, and other drugs, including cannabis and cocaine with friends in her late teens, after moving interstate to go to university. After her consumption ‘escalated’ in her early twenties, she attended Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings and stopped taking heroin. ...
During her teens and twenties, Zadie says she took heroin ‘here and there’, as well as cannabis, LSD, speed, cocaine, and ecstasy. During periods of more frequent heroin use, she says she developed ‘small dependencies’, feeling that she physically needed it ‘to function’. On these...
Sophie first tried cannabis as a pre-teen, after seeing her sisters smoking it. She then began smoking cannabis regularly. After some time, she started smoking heroin through a bong and then when she found she ‘wasn’t getting a kick anymore’ she started to inject it....
Peter first tried heroin in his late twenties and has taken it intermittently since then, including periods of between three and six months when he stopped taking it. He’s at times gone onto opioid pharmacotherapy treatment (methadone maintenance treatment [MMT] or Suboxone®, a combination of...
Nick first started taking heroin regularly after he was involved in a car accident. He stopped when he moved overseas and was working full time as the ‘breadwinner’ for his family. He resumed taking heroin when he returned to Australia over ten years ago and...
Ned began taking heroin in his late twenties, stopping after a few months when he felt he had developed a ‘habit’. For the next few years he smoked cannabis regularly and then in his early thirties he began a new relationship and started taking speed...
As a child Misja lived with his father and later with foster parents. After experiencing physical abuse throughout his childhood he ran away from home and found himself homeless in his pre-teenage years. He says he began taking ‘anything’ he could to ‘get high’ and...
Kate began taking heroin every day in her late teens. In her twenties she took it on and off, stopping when pregnant with each of her children or when undertaking a drug treatment program. Over the years she’s completed a youth detox program and a...
Josie first tried heroin in her early teens and has taken it fairly regularly since then, with long periods when she stopped taking it while pregnant. She now takes heroin about once a week and is on opioid pharmacotherapy treatment (methadone maintenance treatment, MMT)....
Jack began taking heroin occasionally in his twenties and stopped in his early thirties after his doctor prescribed him morphine and Xanax® (alprazolam). Over the next few years, he began to think he was ‘hooked’ on morphine and Xanax®....