After I got the dreaded IPP sentence I blagged a script that any junkie would be proud of – 70mg methadone, 30mg diazepam and 600mg pregabalin a day... I don’ t know why they allowed me that much medication for that long. |
ANXIOUS DAYS
I’ ve been taking drugs since I was 14 and am now 56. I first came to prison in 1985 and have spent 38 out of the last 40 years in prison – 90 per cent of the crime I’ ve committed has been to fund my addiction. I’ ve been an IPP [ Imprisonment for Public Protection ] prisoner for more than 17 years.
It started with cannabis, then ecstasy, acid and cocaine in the late’ 80s to early’ 90s, through the rave scene. At the age of 22 I first took heroin in prison, then crack and never stopped till 2007. I tried to give up many times through methadone scripts and so on, but my heart wasn’ t in it – I used to swap my methadone for heroin and crack.
In 2007 I was arrested for aggravated vehicle taking and spent three days in the police station. Whilst there I started hallucinating and had severe withdrawal symptoms from heroin and crack. I
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refused to go up into court. I would probably have made bail but I was happy to go on remand just so I could get a methadone script, with the idea that I would apply for bail the following week. My first healthcare screening discovered a collapsed lung, pneumonia and an abscess on my lung – an empyema. I spent months in hospital and had to be given strong antibiotics intravenously throughout the day and night. It was so painful I wanted to die.
I had fluid drained from my chest and was given methadone, dihydrocodeine and temazepam to help with my withdrawal symptoms. After months on the healthcare wing at the prison, my chest drain came out, the antibiotics stopped and I was released a month later, when I managed to get off the methadone and the dihydrocodeine. I have never taken heroin or crack since – I was so close to losing my life. I
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was so high on drugs before I got arrested that I had no idea that my lung had collapsed nor that I had pneumonia – the drugs were hiding the pain. It was prison that started my 15- year heroin and crack addiction, and it was prison that ended it.
Three months later I was arrested for an offence and given an IPP sentence, but my journey wasn’ t over as far as drugs were concerned because I never stopped smoking cannabis and didn’ t want to. After I got the dreaded IPP sentence I blagged a script that any junkie would be proud of – 70mg methadone, 30mg diazepam and 600mg pregabalin a day. And I was given this by prison healthcare in several prisons every single day for ten years! I don’ t know why they allowed me that much medication for that long. Don’ t get me wrong – I wasn’ t complaining, in fact I loved it, but it was a reckless thing to do; more so because I started
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