Ditching drugs

Pope Benedict is dedicating his prayer intentions this month to the millions of people around the world who are struggling with addictions to drugs and other substances. Although concrete figures are hard to come by, some newspaper reports say that Britain had got the highest levels of drug addiction in Europe. But what is it really like to be a drug addict? Susy Hodges spoke to two former addicts in Britain to get the inside story of their own personal hell of heroin addiction.

Gerry Adams from Bristol spoke of the desperation he felt during that period of his life as an drug addict.. "They were dark times indeed and on some occasions I remember getting down on my hands and knees, with tears coursing down my face, asking God to take it away from me, I was in my own hell." Another former addict Kerry Norridge in London who spoke at length of his experience says "I very quickly got addicted, probably within a month or two of first using heroin, I had a physical dependency on it" From then on it was a downward spiral until he says "finally the situation I found myself in was homeless, on the streets." Ask about the frequency, Kerry said he needed "to buy and use drugs daily and often more than once a day, and the entire day would be geared around raising the money to buy and use the drugs." Like Gerry, Kerry was finally able to kick his addiction and since then his life has been transformed , "Today I have choices and my life isn't governed by this absurd need ... to do something that is so damaging to myself."