The first thing we'll tell you about our next story is that it may not be suitable for children, so if you have young ones around, we advise parental discretion. Also, if you're easily offended by the seedy side of city life, you might want to tune out. But just because the content may be objectionable in some regard, that doesn't mean it's a story that shouldn't be told. In fact, the next feature about a young man in the throes and grips of drug addiction is one of the most relevant stories we can tell. Relevant because at every level, in every area, Belizean society is bedeviled by the demons of drug use and drug addiction. Again, it's not what you might expect. The story doesn't speak of one man's triumph over drug addition, in fact it is a despairing look at how difficult it is to escape from addiction. Not uplifting at all, but it may be a testimonial we need to hear because even though we cast off drug addiction as just one more sore on a deteriorating society indeed, this health problem, has far reaching social implications. That's why a few weeks ago our Fortunato Noble spent an evening with a drug addict and what he found may shock you, or cause disquiet but we hope in some small way this courageous testimonial somehow enlightens you. Again, we advise, the following story is not for children.
Jules Vasquez, 7NEWS Director
This is the sure, slow sound of crack cocaine roasting in Ernest's foil pipe. He has been using crack for much of the past decade and now this hardened veteran of the drug game wants to share his hard knock wisdom.
Ernest,
"You will say that it will never happen to you or this would never happen in your family. But I got this to say to you: whosoever you are or wherever you may be sitting down cooking or whatsoever you're doing, I got this to say to you and listen keenly, quote this, open your eyes whether you're first, third, or no class people in society because this is for real."
A real nightmare that he's been living for over a decade. When we found him he was holed up in this house, waiting, always waiting for the next hit. It's a cycle of desperation from which it seems he can never escape.
Ernest,
"Me personally I love cocaine, I love it but I know its not something good for me. You ask any drug addict, he would put down a plate of food, he would go and rob, thief his mom, thief anybody who he could deprive."
Sage lessons from the underbelly of the beast and going from one high to another as evening progressed into night he continued to share, to preach from the pulpit of addiction about the lean terms of the life he's chosen.
Ernest,
"I live on the street."
Fortunato Noble, 7NEWS Videographer
How does it feel?
Ernest,
"Well it's the best kind of life one could ever look for but I would advise you don't even try pick it up if you're not ready for it, if you're mind is not strong for it. Why I say it's the best kind of life is no bills, no baby crying, no gas bill, you don't have to worry about nothing raising or dropping."
Nothing dropping except for the hardened wisdom of a man steeped in the experience of uncaring and desperate streets that all seem to lead to dead ends.
Ernest,
"Its in my environment and I see it everyday and this, yes this, is what you as the person who is giving me this interview don't have this knowledge and I'm giving you this knowledge now and listen, this is what I and every low class people go around."
It's a cycle that he first fell into a decade ago all because of curiosity.
Ernest,
"Curiosity just like any individual who would come up to you and 'boy I would like to try that thing there, give me a little piece.' CURRIOSITY!"
Fortunato Noble,
And you get hooked?
Ernest,
"Yeah."
Fortunato Noble,
One hit, that is all it takes?
Ernest,
"That's all it takes so if you feel that you're man or macho and you feel that yeah you can take it, if you have $200 in your pocket you will blow that out and by tomorrow you will your girl, 'go to your mom in PG,' and by the time she comes back if it was me I already sell your house long time, you di the play. When she meets you it is because you are barefoot. I am learning a lot of things that you may not think I am learning because I know who is my good friend from who is not. When you're upstairs there, everybody loves to be your friend because then you have what they need. But when you're downstairs there they walk up on top of you. It is like you go to jail and you drop sick in the hospital and you exactly who is your friend."
And though not many of us would call him friend, this declaration, he says, is an act of faith and friendship to his community.
Ernest,
"I'm opening this door to my heart and I'm turning on the lights so you can see what's going on; what's going on in my mind and whatsoever. This is what I am working on. I have to adjust the scale in my life; this is what I need to do. If you know how deep my passion goes to my community and my society and the hell I am going through I blame it on no one but this interview I hope wizen up some people out there."
And as he pens poetry and maps out rough sketches, Ernest accepts that he hasn't - he hasn't been able to heed his own wisdom. It's a grim realization but one he accepts as he holds his corner, way out there at the far end of society's scorn.
Ernest says he has been through a number of rehabilitation programs that took him across Central America but none of them worked. He continues to live and hustle on the city's streets.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
