This article sets out the dilemmas faced by people who inject drugs who are also peer educators. They are suspected of promoting drugs by the community, of using or dealing by the police, and of informing by other users. One has to admire them for continuing their lifesaving work in such an atmosphere of distrust.

Good article.

Jamie

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Hooked on heroin
Nyein Ei Ei Htwe
Myanmar Times
Monday, 26 January 2015

Ko Thura was only 14 years old when he tried heroin for the first time.

He blames peer pressure. “My friends said if I was a real man I wouldn’t be afraid to use heroin. In the end, I decided to taste it,” said Ko Thura, who is now 32.

The youngest of four children, Ko Thura lost his father when he was 10 years old. His mother worked away from home during the week, only returning at weekends. Ko Thura was no stranger to drugs, even as a child. His elder brother was a heroin addict and regularly used other drugs such as tabs and diazepam.

“When my mother found out my brother was using drugs she sent him to hospital, but she didn’t know I was starting to use heroin at the same time,” he said.

Ko Thura has little memory of his schooldays. He dropped out after failing to complete 10th grade and soon afterward his life became consumed by drug use. But as a young child, finding the money to buy drugs was difficult. “Back then, we were just young kids and we had no income except for our pocket money,” he said.

It wasn’t long before Ko Thura and his friends were forced to find other ways to fund their habit. One of his friends told him about some bronze vases in a shrine at his family’s home, and Ko Thura helped him steal them and replace them with cheap enamel replicas.

“We sold the bronze vases to a shop and bought heroin with the money. But it turned out they were heirlooms from the colonial era, and when his family found out we’d stolen them they punished us,” he said with a laugh.

A few months later, however, Ko Thura was shocked to learn that his friend had died from an overdose of heroin. His friend’s family blamed Ko Thura for their son’s death and, overcome with guilt, Ko Thura vowed to give up the drug.

But his addiction had too strong a hold over him, and he found it impossible to stop. “I knew it was not good for me, but I couldn’t live without it. I also knew people looked down on me for it, so I decided to stay away from those people. Anyone can make a mistake. I certainly did,” he said.

His obsession with drugs destroyed his other interests. Once a keen footballer, he lost interest in the game. “You play great on heroin, but when you come down from the drug, you’re twice as exhausted,” he said.

Another hobby was playing the guitar and singing songs. He said playing the guitar while on heroin was like flying.

The low point for Ko Thura was when his beloved mother saw him handcuffed by the police. “She had no idea I was using drugs. She came home from work to see me in chains,” he said.

He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years at Insein Prison, and says the worst thing about his imprisonment was being deprived of his fix. “The first year was the worst. My blood demanded heroin and I couldn’t live without it.”

After his release, Ko Thura went back to live with his mother and found a job working for a non-government organisation (NGO). But his attempts to escape the cycle of drug use proved short-lived, and after two years he was back on heroin.

“I don’t have many friends, and most of them are users, so I had no way of getting out,” he admitted.

When one of his user friends was arrested, Ko Thura and other friends decided to run away. He relocated to a small village in Myeik township, Tanintharyi Region, where he lived with a family who, like him, were Karen. Since there was no school, he taught the local children how to read and write.

Then came news that his elder brother had died. As he missed his mother, Ko Thura decided to go back to Yangon and live with her.

Now he works for an international NGO as a distributer of clean, disposable needles in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“I told them at the interview I was well qualified for the job because all my friends are drug users,” he said.

But Ko Thura’s is still unable to forget his background as a drug user. When he started working at the NGO, many suspected him of introducing young people to drugs through his work, while his old associates accused him of being a police informer.

“My work became really dangerous because the drug-users hated me and they were afraid I would set the police on them,” he said, adding that he told suspicious friends he no longer used heroin because he had suffered kidney damage, and was trying to raise money for an operation.

Every day, Ko Thura commutes to work by train, getting home in time to eat the dinner his mother makes for him and to chat wth her. She is over 60 now, and no longer works outside the home.

“She is happy now looking after me. She likes to talk about what she’s been doing during the day, and about her grandchildren.” His two surviving brothers, drug-free, are now married with children, who rarely see their uncle Ko Thura.

He becomes embarrassed when his mother suggests he should get married and settle down with a family of his own.

“I can’t do it. I spent all my strength on drugs when I was younger,” he responded.

His spare time is spent reading and listening to music, but he is still eager to teach children.

He tries to maintain a positive outlook, applying to the difficulties that confront him the experience, often bitter, that he has gained.

“If I’d never used drugs, I wouldn’t know about all those bad things, and wouldn’t be able to help other people with their own bad experiences,” he said. “I try to be optimistic.”

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/12915-hooked-on-heroin.html