Transcript: Untitled

Untitled 

by Zeek

Hey everybody. Thank you all for coming out.

My name is Zekiel, but unless I'm in trouble, you can call me Zeek and my pronouns are he/him

I'm an AOD peer worker and I volunteer in the sector. I'm a raver and a festival regular, so I'm sure you can imagine drugs and alcohol are a big part of my life. I love talking about drugs and learning about their effects. I love looking after mates who are on drugs and every now and then I enjoy taking them.

I started using drugs in my early teens as a way to escape and feel good.

The person who had introduced me to drugs and taught me a lot about them unfortunately had.

A fatal overdose.

There's a lot about that time that I've had to process and deal with as an adult, but being so young and losing a friend in that way really affected me.

Guilt and sadness and anger followed me in.

The years after that.

Dealing with that loss on top of some other really heavy experiences was a lot to handle for little teenage me, and I found comfort coping and just a lot of fun in drinking and.

Taking drugs.

Over the years, I have used drugs to celebrate milestones, disconnect from reality, connect with my friends and my community.

To manage pain.

To promote self-care, to enhance experiences, to experience gender euphoria.

Connect with myself and just make incredible memories.

I often hear a lot of talk about addiction and recovery or services being available when you're “ready to quit”, but I don't really relate to that kind of language.

Over my relationship with drugs.

Has been unhealthy at times and I.

Have engaged with support.

But for the most part, I've been able to maintain what

I consider to be a pretty healthy relationship with drugs and alcohol.

I've experienced so many of the amazing thing's life has to offer. I've found love and friendship.

I've got a degree and a career that I love. I've found passion and purpose and I've done it all as a person who uses drugs.

I've been lucky enough to meet some amazing people along the way.

One of my dear friends in particular, I was always just in awe of him.

He started his own business when he was 24.

And worked his ass off to successfully build it into a company with his beautiful fiancée. He was funny and charming and had brains like you would not believe, but he was also a prankster and a bit of a dickhead, which is why we got on so well.

He was a power technician and the fireworks show that he put on when he proposed to his fiancée was absolutely incredible.

Still he found time to travel.

Go to festivals with all of us, hold game nights, go rock climbing, mountain bike riding. He just never stopped.

Earlier this year, we got a phone call saying that he had overdosed and was in the hospital after that call. I remember the air just immediately felt heavier.

My partner and I sat together in silence, just holding each other's hand for what felt like hours.

The first thing I said to break the silence was he's going.

To be OK, he's going to be fine.

A couple of days later, we got another call.

Letting us know that he had died.

And the world seemed to just stop after that.

Going to his funeral was hard.

The wake was lovely but also hard. But the kick ONS.

All of his friends went back and packed out his house and celebrated his life together. And it was incredible.

In every single room there were stories being shared about him.

And roars of laughter.

His fiancé was telling all of us about all of the beautiful things he would say about us and all of the reasons he loved us.

There were tears and grief, but there was also so much love and care.

And that was the night that It felt like the well started to move again.

The thing about lived and living experience, the reason it's so important in this work is because you can't.

Learn it in a textbook.

No amount of research or study can make you actually understand the way it feels to sit through.

A loved one's funeral.

There's been a lot of research about some of the factors that can lead to unhealthy relationships with drugs and alcohol. And of course, these factors are so important and do need attention.

But it's not always that serious.

Often it's just about dignity of choice. Some people just want to drink and take drugs, and that's actually a good enough reason.

And no one who uses drugs or alcohol for any reason deserves to lose their life because of it.

Peer led harm reduction has had an overwhelming impact on overdose, but it is not enough.

It's more important than ever to come together as a community, eradicate lateral violence, address medical gaslighting and gatekeeping, and advocate for drug law reform and policies that prioritise our lives over the war on drugs.

Every life that has been lost to overdose is a catalyst for change, and we are the change makers.

Together we can end overdose.