There were days when I woke up with the needle in my arm, once with a dead body on my side

“There were times when I missed my vein and my arm would get infected. You wouldn’t go to the doctor to ask for antibiotics so there is a home remedy to clean it. You boil some water and get a piece of the crust side of bread. You cover your arm with it and put a little soap and a teaspoon of sugar on top. When the kettle boils you put a drop of hot water on the bread. It hurts like hell, and your instinct says to pull it away but if you can hold it there for a few seconds it cools down a bit. Then you wrap it with a bandage and leave it on for the evening. In the morning you wash it and clean it and you go on with your daily routine.”

“What is your daily routine like?”

“My days are very similar, I live with my mother, she is old so I do the heavy shopping for her and maybe cook something and then I look for some money for drugs. I sit on the streets if it’s not too cold or steal and then sell something… It makes you very busy I can tell you that. I got addicted to heroin when I was 17-years-old. I can’t even remember what life is like without thinking about where I will get my next hit from.I’m on methadone now, on a much smaller dose than I used to be, but there were days when I woke up with a needle in my arm and once with a dead body by my side so I don’t have much hope for the future.”