“It’s just so difficult… you wouldn’t know.”
Megha Varier| Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Being fired from his job in May was a wake-up call that permeated through the relaxed mellowness induced by the marijuana Devank was hooked to. “I realized I had to get my act together before it was too late,” Devank says.
Devank smoked pot for the first time during a college fest at the age of 19, giving in to his friends’ cajoling. After that first time, it became a weekend affair, but soon, he was cutting classes to smoke up with his friends.
More than Samuel and Devank, Samar’s case shows that addiction is not simplistic and neither is it easy to give up. Samar has been in and out of rehab for about five years and hooked to marijuana for nearly 10.
“It’s just so difficult… you wouldn’t know,” he says. “When you are in rehab, it is not difficult to divert your mind to other activities, say reading or yoga. But it’s when you’re out, that you don’t have the courage to withstand the urge. Sometimes you go with the flow, and the flow needn’t be in the right direction,” he laughs lightly.
Asked about the first time he did drugs, Samar chuckles. “Curiosity kills the cat, isn’t it?” But this time, things are different. He had been hospitalised and was heavily sedated when he was taken to rehab. “Life might give you a couple of chances, but will not keep giving you chances for the same mistake. When I see my family’s support even after all these years, I have no choice other than to hope that this time would be different,” he says, sounding determined.