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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2002-11-27, Page 23Seeing the reality of drugs Julian Madigan was blunt and graphic with F. E Madill Secondary School students in Wingham last week when he told his story of five years lost to drug addiction. (Janice Becker photo) Gift Baskets Food or Body Care Pre-packaged in our store or custom-made for you Christmas Baking Supplies Bulk and Pre-Packaged 222 Josephine St., Wirtgnam 357-3466 THE CITIZEN. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2002. PAGE 23. Former addict's talk paints graphic picture By Janice Becker Citizen staff It is a story no parent wants to live through, but one all hope their child will listen to. It is the story of-Julian, a 14-year- old, smoking a joint for the first time and his rapid descent into a life of degradation, stealing from family and trashing friends. When Julian Madigan spoke to hundreds of students at F. E. Madill Secondary School last Thursday, in sometimes disturbingly graphic detail, it was not only to tell of his five-year ordeal with drug addiction, but the stories of others who had suffered. Madigan had a life similar to other young people. His parents divorced when he was young. He lived with his father and grandparents. He was surrounded by friends and sports were the most important part of his life. He had Olympic dreams when he was just 13, he excelled at swimming. He was setting records and receiving encouragement from his coach. His dream was to one day represent his country at that international event. However, as he entered his teen years, social aspects began to consume more of his time. He became interested in girls, hanging out with his friends and attending parties. He was soon smoking cigarettes and by 14, was drinking alcohol. Madigan laughs as he tells the students of his early foray with alcohol. "After all, I'm Irish," he smiles. Humour was a major component of Madigan's talk. He didn't lecture them, but told his story in a manner to which youth can relate. He joked about raging hormones at 14 and gyrates as he talked to the males about their attraction to the girls. The crowd responded. Madigan says that as a young teen, he had absolutely no interest in other drugs. He had always been told that drugs Would kill him. But then, while attending parties, he saw friends smoking marijuana or hash and they survived. Eventually, peer pressure and curiosity won out and he too was taking a toke. "Soon I was like, 'Oh man, feel the grass.' I realized I wouldn't die. I was invincible." From that "light bulb" moment, Madigan says he began to smoke a lot. "My friends changed and so did my sports." By 15, he was attending raves. He loved the friendly, family atmosphere and saw all the happy people who could dance non-stop for hours. "We weren't like that and I wondered why." A few enquires soon revealed the fact there was a wide assortment of drugs being used. He popped some acid. "I was 1,000 per cent accepted into this family then," he says. Th,vgh he saw the happy part of doing drugs, Madigan says that is only 10 per cent of the experience. He began attending raves every weekend and his life changed. He didn't care about his family, his school marks dropped and his sports went downhill because he no longer had time to train. It was all about the next high. "I neglected my family, my education and my future in the matter of a year. Drugs were all I thought about and did. They became my life." Soon, Madigan began taking ecstacy, or E, a popular rave-scene drug, at $50 a pill 11 years ago. "It tasted awful and I spit it up." However, he persisted. He got such a great feeling, he wanted it every weekend. He soon discovered that the high from the first pill never happens again. It is different every time, depending on your physical condition, he says. The tolerance for the drug increases and the need for a way to finance the high become greater. Madigan was taking two and a half to three pills per time, within three months of the first experience. "It was costing me $200 per week and I had a part-time job making $ I(X). 1 sold my clothes for a hit and I stole from my grandmother." When he speaks of his grandmother, it is with regret. She had been the one constant in his life, (altering unconditional love. She died while he was still hooked and he never had the opportunity to apologize to her. Madigan even used his father's ATM card to secure funds. His lather had given him the password several years earlier and he remembered the information. By the age of 17, he had turned to dealing to support-his-habit. What he didn't need to sell to cover the cost of supplies would be his for the weekends, that had now stretched into four-day benders. That year, his father remarried, bring four new people into the family. "I hated those kids," he says, If a psychiatrist had talked to me then, I would have been put in a cell. (With the drug-induced state) If I said I hated you, I really hated you." When he was robbed of a drug stash, he actually visualized and planned how to kill the culprit. Fortunately, that never took place. The following year, the death of his • grandmother compounded his failure to graduate from high school. He repeated school the following year at a facility geared to those with drug problems. His marks were worse. By 1994, Madigan's tolerance for E was so high, he had to consume two pills just to feel anything. By the end of the summer, he was no longer getting a sense of euphoria. He had to sleep 24 hours just to recover from his weekend. Ecstacy drains the serotonin from the brain and depression sets in, he says. "Eventually the _"serotonin factory" in the brain shuts down and there is nothing that can restart it." He then related the use of crystal meth, which releases dopamine from the brain, also released during sex. He asked the males in the crowd what it would be like for the wedding night to mean nothing. "You wouldn't care. You have no interest in sex." "Though sex- is not the most important part of a marriage, if the intimacy is not there, it affects the _relationship," he says. "When you are dying, it is only your relationships you think about." "You should all be thinking if you left every relationship better for having been part of it." By the fall of 1994, Madigan received a wake-up call. Police raided his house. Though they found no drugs (it was Sunday evening), he had to admit the situation to his father. He began counselling and tried to quit for six weeks. However, he quickly slipped back into the lifestyle. By December, his habit was up to $1,000 pet week. He had decided he couldn't handle reality and the drugs took the edge .,off life. Within four months, he owed a dealer $1,500 and was threatened with a bullet to the head. It was then that he had to decide between telling his father who 'would kill me' or the drug dealer whom he knew truly would. Upon seeing himself in a mirror, he asked "Where's the fun". He had become a liar, a junky and a dealer with no friends and no family, he thought. However, with the support of his counselor, he told his father. "At 19, I had reached the lowest point in my life. I cried my eyes out because everything about me depressed me." Then, thanks to a hug and kind words from a step-mother whom he had never liked and a large circle of support, Madigan began his recovery. That support kept him alive in a way three friends had not discovered. Without backup, one friend hung himself, another drove off a cliff and a third drugged himself with booze and pills to a point where he could gut himself. Madigan told the students of other cases where teens had died after the first hit or as a veteran of drug use. A man in Ireland, a drug user for four years, died after taking half a pill of E. he says. "No one overdoses on E as I have friends who have taken 13, and 80 per cent of all E deaths are from pure pills. It affects everyone differently and each person different each time. It is like playing russian roulette." He tells of a 15-year-old from Australia who attended a junior high school graduation party. Never a drug user, her friends convinced her to take a pill. She soon began feeling ill and her friends said just to keep drinking water because she was dehydrated. Within three ours she was found foaming at the mouth and disoriented. Though taken to the hospital, her friends would not admit what- she had taken so the doctors were at a loss. After working on her for nine hours, there was nothing more that could be done. It was discovered she had died from water intoxication because the E had shut down her body's ability to absorb water, If the doctors had known, they could have saved her life. The parents of an' 18-year-old had to shut off her life support machines after E caused her body's core temperature to rise so high that her blood actually started to boil in her body. Blood leaked from every orifice. "E does two things to you. It kills you or puts you in a coma, then kills you," he says. "There are no medicines to reverse the effects of E. It shuts down your organs, then your brain." "I was lucky to quit and get out," he says. "When I smoked my first joint, I said drugs would never change me," says Madigan. "Ask your friends if you have changed." "I want to share my experience, to make you stop and think before you make that choice. You may think it will help you get away from your problems, but it only diminishes your ability to deal with them." If having trouble, Madigan suggested getting support from anyone you can. From there, he says there are certain steps that need to be taken. Open and honest communication is a must so that support people know what they are dealing with. The user must make the decision to quit as it is the only road to success. The user must break away from old friends who enabled the destructive life style. And lastly, the void left by no longer using drugs must be filled whether it be with sports, hobby or anything positive to fill the time. Today, thanks to his circle of support, Madigan has been married for two years and has an infant daughter. He has travelled the long road to recovery. Anyone wishing to discuss drug use issues or seek information, can contact Madigan at julianmadigan @hotmail.com. Young man assaults parents Huron OPP on Nov. 24 at 9:30 p.m. were called to a residence in Morris Twp. A parent had found marijuana in the home hidden inside a bedroom. The parent disposed of the substance and when their son got home that night and learned of the incident he threatened the couple. Police say, the 19-year-old male then assaulted his mother and when the father attempted to intervene he was also assaulted. The young man then destroyed some property before fleeing. Officers a short time later came across the man in Brussels and after a foot chase caught him on Church Street. The 19-year-old has been charged with two counts of assault, mischief under $5,000, possession of a controlled substance and breaching probation. He has been held in custody awaiting a bail hearing in Goderich.