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Real Life Stories: Martin
Excerpt from a local Edmonton Magazine


When Martin was first offered some meth at a rave to keep his energy up, he had no idea what he was in for. “It won’t mess you up,” he was told. “It’ll help you stay awake.” The part about staying awake was true enough, but the other part proved regrettably false. This was the beginning of a month-long meth bender during the course of which he says he slept only a total of 72 hours.

Now, having recovered from a five-year addiction, Martin will be volunteering with the upcoming Death to Meth benefit show. Neglecting the mug of coffee in front of him, the 24-year-old rapper talks about the way his lifestyle led him to becoming a dealer and then a user of meth. “I went through about 17 different foster homes between the ages of six and 10,” he explains. “I went through a lot of abuse, physical and psychological. I had a lot of anger issues and I wasn’t getting along at school.”

After being kicked out of a youth emergency shelter for fighting, he was homeless, and dealing drugs was his only means to survive. “I was easily adapted into that kind of world,” he says. “Going through several different foster homes I was able to adapt to different lifestyles, and the drugs came natural when you’re on the streets.”

Looking back on the history of his addiction, Martin credits ihuman, ... for providing the means to his recovery. ihuman’s mandate is to help youth become involved in creative projects that include theatre, painting and music, and when Martin began to use the centre’s studio to record his rap, it grew to be not only a creative outlet, but also a means to overcome his addiction. Whether or not his music career takes off, Martin intends to continue working with ihuman in helping his peers overcome their drug habits.

Aside from the artistic endeavours, it’s Youth Director ... Wallis who realizes that recovering from a meth addiction is a slow and arduous process. “This is not a program where we reshape a person in six weeks,” he explains. “Realistically, it takes much longer than that.”

Update:
Martin, tragically slipped off  track and back into Meth use, ihuman has helped him get clean again and into addiction treatment. Martin desperately wants to become a ihuman youth worker and has great potential, but the fight against Meth addiction is long and hard and sometimes takes numerous tries. ihuman will support Martin always, and unconditionally.

Note: Names of the youth have been changed for their privacy.

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