Jean, 20 ans, étudiant en école de commerce: "C'est une question que je ne me pose plus trop, tant la réponse est enracinée en moi. Quand j'étais au collège et au début du lycée, j'ai toujours refusé de fumer quand on m'a proposé de prendre ne serait-ce qu'une taffe, parce que je voulais être un vrai sportif qui ne prend rien. A l'époque je faisais plusieurs heures de rugby par semaine. Au fond, j'avais sans doute aussi peur de la réaction de mon corps au produit, car nous sommes tous inégaux face à la drogue.
Et puis, en terminale, j'ai retrouvé un de mes anciens bons amis de collège que je n'avais pas revu depuis. Lui qui était si jovial, drôle et dynamique était devenu complètement apathique, sans motivation, ni désir. Il avait redoublé et avait changé trois fois de lycée. Il s'était surtout mis à fumer quotidiennement des joints. Cela a commencé à me faire prendre conscience de la dangerosité de cette drogue qu'avec hypocrisie et mensonge certains osent appeler « drogue douce ».
I had no idea it was going to lead me into a very dark place, as far as I was concerned, there was no danger.
We are under so much pressure to look good, to be intelligent, to work hard, to party until late (...) The only way I could stop taking cocaine was to accept my weaknesses. Drugs act as a real break – we think they give us energy but in fact they burn up our energy, take it away.
She does not understand why no one helps her schoolmates, who sink more and more into solitude and some of whom have already left school.
Is it common in Paris and throughout France? Have you heard similar testimonies?
What drives me to write to you is sadness from the heart. I am sad to see that our children are often introduced the world of drugs unknowingly.
I went to consult a famous child psychiatrist with my 12-year-old. The reason of this consultation was his lack of motivation and interest in school, manifested by a lack of attention. After having me tell that my son C. was fidgeting at home and quickly lacked attention in class, the child psychiatrist addressed C. directly. She said that when he had tests, all he had to do was take a pill of some "marvelous" medicine, which would "wind him up" in case of fatigue. And if he felt a lack of motivation, he would be motivated again and fit and he would not escape anymore into his dreams.
We are lucky to have five grand children in good health. Two years ago Guillaume, aged seventeen, told us that his cousin, aged fifteen, took cannabis regularly. Instead of burying his head in the sand my husband, who has always been the family counselor, tackled the problem. He went to a training session with Enfance Sans Drogue and has educated the whole family.
One of my children went through a period of frequent if not intense cannabis use, when he was aged between 14 and 17. Parents are the last to know. People who know your child is taking drugs – schoolmates, their parents, teachers - will not inform you and teenagers have a law of silence. A true friend came and told me as soon as she knew. Later I heard that some parents had known as well for many years that my son used drugs, but they did not judge it necessary to inform me. This is failing to assist a person in danger.
You also have to know that a child who is doing drugs becomes a liar.
I have consumed cannabis in very high doses for 4 years, and from time to time I mixed it with alcohol. I got to a point when I wouldn't work anymore, I would stay in my room, I wouldn't see anybody anymore. Then someone in my family gave me a book to read C'est quoi la drogue? by Marie-Christine d'Welles. It was like a big slap in my face, I agreed with many things and it was then I decided to stop taking drugs. I remember the last page [editor's note: the psychotropic drugs table]
It’s true that the first few times it’s funny. Baise-moi wouldn’t have been finished without coke, because we would have been more conscious of all that was happening around us, we’d have had more normal sensibilities … It helps you keep going all night. I wrote my novel Les Jolies Choses in 3-4 days coked up, it unblocks things. You quickly get high for a short amount of time, then you have to take it again straight away and after a while the brain gets confused. […]
In the last two years, it’s really spread everywhere, in squats as well as in the [internationally renown academic institutes] Polytechique and Ecole Nationale d’Administration, it’s as if in people’s minds it’s on the same level as cannabis or alcohol. If I want to buy some, I can buy it any time, in many ways. It’s easier to find than grass.[...] It’s the same in the provinces, before people didn’t take it much in Nancy or Lyon or Rennes. Now when I go there, I see that people are using it a lot: teachers, social workers, social welfare employees, lawyers. They tell me that in Lyon, it’s even found in public high schools […].
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