We’re finally back with a pod and boy this one got deep.
One of my oldest friends and cousin Sarky is one of many young people who got caught up in opiods. He’ll be 4 years sober in February and we finally got a chance to catch up when I was in the States recently. Sarky talks about how it all started, how bad it got and how he got clean. This is his farewell story; open letter. Love you dude
Andre's thoughts:
Growing up in both the US and Norway I’ve experienced the vastly different cultures teenagers have towards alcohol and drugs. In Norway, smoking weed in your teens is quite rare and considered taboo, although drinking alcohol by 16 is considered normal. In the states it is quite the opposite and I’ve always thought this is due to the drinking age being 21 and therefore making weed and other drugs more accessible. In general drugs are much more accessible in the US compared to Norway, especially pharmaceuticals. Pills in particular are something I never saw nor heard of in Norway in my teens or even in college, yet it was a regular thing to see at parties in the US. Opioids are much more addicting than alcohol and other drugs and when the illicit opioid fentanyl was introduced to the US market in 2013 opioid addiction and overdoses dramatically increased (2013 - 2016 +80%).
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör Andre Johnsen. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Andre Johnsen och inte av, eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
