"Drugs can affect just about anybody. It doesn't matter what people look like." by Gabrielle Adams

Description

• 0:00 - 0:00
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• 0:01 - 0:04
Who is in relation to you that you have lost to drugs?

• 0:04 - 0:05
My uncle.

• 0:06 - 0:08
Was it sudden or was there signs of the issue?

• 0:08 - 0:09
There were signs.

• 0:11 - 0:13
How has this changed your outlook of drugs?

• 0:17 - 0:31
Drugs? Uh, it changed my outlook that drugs can affect just about anybody. It doesn't matter what people look like, it doesn't affect one specific group of people. And they all say the same thing, that they, they tried it once and they were hooked on it ever since.

• 0:32 - 0:34
How has this affected your family?

• 0:36 - 0:56
Um, messed my family up for a little bit. My grandma was devastated for a long time and honestly, I believe my dad and my, and my aunt, they still haven't even processed the grief. And especially my cousin Alicia hasn't really, it's really changed her life too.

• 0:59 - 1:02
Was there a change in personality after the drug started?

• 1:04 - 1:28
Um, yeah. I mean, yeah, kind of like, he'd just be more, he wouldn't, when he was, my uncle would like be on drugs, like he would because he would go hang up periods where he'd be very like clean for a while and then like on drugs. And when he was on drugs, he just really wouldn't come around because he didn't, cause he knew he was slipping up. So,.

• 1:31 - 1:31
Um,.

• 1:32 - 1:35
Has your loved one tried to get help in the past?

• 1:37 - 1:42
Uh, I don't, I honestly don't even know that, the answer to that. I would assume. Yeah.

• 1:44 - 1:49
Do you think stigma played, played a role in them getting help or not seeking help?

• 1:52 - 2:06
No, because he would get, he, he, he would. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz he would get help and actually, yeah, he, so he would get help. He would get help and become clean and then go back to using he, he would be clean for a little bit, like I said, and then go back to using.

• 2:08 - 2:12
Did your loved one realize that there was a problem in his or her actions?

• 2:13 - 2:31
Yeah, he knew, but he just couldn't, he couldn't, like, it's not that he couldn't stop, like he just had demons and he just had a lot of stuff to happen in his life and a lot of bad stuff that he couldn't deal, like deal with the pain with. So he resorted to drug use.

• 2:33 - 2:35
Is drug use common in the family?

• 2:37 - 2:43
I would say yeah. Hmm. I at least all of 'em all probably experimented with drugs.

• 2:46 - 2:49
Has there been previous overdoses or other scares?

• 2:51 - 2:58
Not anybody else in my family. But yeah. Before my uncle died, he overdosed a month, like a month or two before he overdosed and they had to narcan him.

• 3:00 - 3:05
What kind of actions do you think can be taken in order to prevent this from happening to others?

• 3:06 - 3:39
There's a lot of things that they can be do, but I think honestly the biggest thing they think is probably just legalize drugs. I don't legalize drugs and give people clean drugs and pure drugs. Sin not, not like fake stepped on drugs. That's why people were dying. I mean, don't get me wrong, people can drive die from drugs regardless, but if they're give them clean drugs, clean needles and you also take away, you decriminalize drugs completely.

• 3:39 - 3:52
It changes a lot of stuff. A lot of people are in jail because of their drug use cuz they're caught with drugs on them. So they get sent to jail, sent to prison and they're in and they overcrowd.

• 3:55 - 3:59
What do you believe can be taught to children in order to inform them not to do drugs?

• 4:00 - 4:01
To keep on having.

• 4:03 - 4:37
People come into schools and talk about their experience. I feel like they need to get back to that, but I feel like they need to make sure that it's like something real. You gotta have a really good speaker. You can't just have some like regular person. Nah, you gotta have a really good speaker that's gonna get to people. Or maybe even take kids and take people, I don't know, it sounds crazy, but take 'em on field trips to where these, where these people go and buy drugs and what it looks like to be a drug addict where you're hanging out at.

• 4:38 - 5:03
Cause people don't realize the, these people were in like the, in the trenches. Literally the trenches. So I feel like if you show people what, what these people do to get high, where they go to get high, that would change people's minds. Like, oh, like I, I, I would've want to do that cuz a lot of people would be intimidated to just even go to these places to go get drugs.

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• 5:09 - 5:14
Is there anything you would wanna tell people who are in a similar situation as yourself or your loved one?

• 5:16 - 5:28
Yeah. To tell all your other loved ones about what's going on. What, what are whatever family member who or whoever it is that's who's doing drugs to intervene before it's too late.

• 5:31 - 5:37
What were the first warning sign you noticed that made you think your loved one may have an issue?

• 5:40 - 5:47
You would lose a lot of weight. Lose a lot of weight. Gain weight. Lose weight. Gain weight. Freaking fidgety.

• 5:52 - 5:57
Have people had a common reaction to your loss or has there been a multitude of reactions?

• 5:59 - 6:00
A multitude.

• 6:03 - 6:09
And who has been affected by the tragedy? By who has been affected the most by this tragedy?

• 6:11 - 6:15
My cousin, her dad, his daughter

• 6:17 - 6:18
Thank you.

Participants

• Gabrielle Adams
  
• Laurie Smith
  

Interview By

• Laurie Smith