Drug use: Three Belfast friends struggling with grip of addiction

Caolan’s best mate, Sam, who works as a contractor, is in the grip of addiction.

“It’s always there. I used to play football, I used to have interests, hobbies, now it’s go to work, drink, take coke, repeat.

“Even looking back, it’s like the amount of things that you dropped to pick up that one thing,” says Sam.

Looking to the future, Sam is hopeful that he can beat his current reliance on cocaine.

“People say there’s [sic] two results, there’s three. It’s jail, dead or a future. I hope for the third but the first two are a lot more likely if I keep carrying on.”

Caolan, Sam and Pete are all friends, who know all too well the dangers of heavy drug use, each has lost close friends or family to drug overdoses.

Sam says: “There’s probably 10 people who have died of drug related death within probably 500 metres of my home.”

Friends Caolan, Sam and Pete rely on each other for support, as Sam says, “there’s times where there is no one else to ring, and you ring their number and everything’s all right an hour later”.

With today’s click and collect culture of drugs, addiction is a daily battle and it’s the support from friends and family that give many hope of a future.