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• Former drug addict urges young people to resist peer pressure

Former drug addict urges young people to resist peer pressure

24 April 2008

Peer pressure to use drugs at an early age nearly cost Steve Sookraj his life.

Steve, an adult now, started using drugs in his teens, at the prompting of friends, who managed to convince him that this was the acceptable behaviour of the group.

Steve complied with the intention of giving it a try. He started with alcohol, but soon graduated to cigarettes and marijuana and finally cocaine which led him down a path of what was described by his family as certain destruction.

Steve told his story to students in a Motivational Speech at the Mercy Wings Vocational School in Guyana on 18 April 2008 at a special forum organised under the auspices of the Commonwealth Youth for Positive Living (CYPL) which targeted young people who were themselves battling peer pressure.

Strained family relations soon resulted from his stealing to satisfy his habit. Steve’s behaviour continued to spiral downward and consequently, his wife and son suffered physical and emotional abuse. “I would drink and smoke and go home and behave badly. I would even steal money from my own wife when she refused to give it to me; things had gotten real bad to the point where they moved out of the house and I lost contact with my son,” he recalled.

This proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Steve’s habit totally spiralled out of control - stealing from neighbours and friends. “I didn’t know how to stop. It was like I wasn’t even thinking; all I wanted was to get high, either on alcohol or drugs.” His need to get ‘high’ landed him in prison. He describes the experience as a horrific one, but one that taught him that he needed to “pull his socks up”.

Out of jail and no family to turn to, he started to live on the streets. Wherever night found him became his resting place after a long day of doing odd jobs for money to eat and change for alcohol or drugs. This continued for eight years and by this time, he was officially a “junkie”.

However, with the help of a friend, he enrolled in the Salvation Army drug rehabilitation programme. “Thank God for that programme, I got clean, it wasn’t easy, but they really helped me. Today, I can say I was a junkie. Now I have a decent job and I am in contact with my son after 15 years”.

He emphasised that goal-setting was one of the main lessons of the programme which he credits for his transformed life. Steve encouraged the students to set goals and work hard to achieve them.

Students and teachers from Mercy Wings benefited from the life story of Steve, who at the end of the presentation entertained questions. In parting, he encouraged the group to resist peer pressure and learn to make their own choices. “Remember, it starts with one sip, or one pull and no matter how strong you think you are, you can get hooked,” he warned.