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Spectrum was a long-running weekly radio documentary series which captured the essence of New Zealand from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.
This episode, Julie's Story, focuses on the experiences of a girl who became a heroin addict at the age of 14. She talks about the proliferation of drug abuse in schools, and her spiral into drug addiction. (Julie’s words are spoken by actor Susan Wilson, to protect Julie’s identity. This programme was a winner in the "Best Factual Spoken Programme - Non Commercial" category of the 1978 Radio New Zealand Radio Awards.)
From a wealthy provincial home, three years ago Julie stood on the threshold of her teens but the next few years were to hold problems she would never have anticipated: While still in the fourth form she became a heroin addict, and now at age 16 she is undergoing treatment at a drug rehabilitation centre.
We hear how Julie became aware of drugs in the third form at school where marijuana use was common. Julie was intrigued by what she saw and thought simply that it seemed ‘cool’ and she would like to try it too. The drugs are home grown and then ‘pushed’ onto the younger kids by the older students.
As time went on Julie wanted to get ‘harder stuff’ and would get money from her parents for clothes and use it for drugs instead. She also began to sell drugs at school to earn money for her growing habit. Julie states that she could have just kept on going with smoking marijuana but circumstances led her to meet someone dealing heroin. She then began sniffing heroin and then injecting.
Julie doesn’t believe the accepted wisdom that marijuana use necessarily leads to heroin, as many people never move on to anything stronger. Julie reflects that the decision to move to harder drugs all depends on many factors. For Julie an unhappy home life strongly contributed to her drug use. She never wanted to go home, and was always looking for friends and things that could make her happy outside of her home life.
Julie obtained a drug debt of around $600 and explains how female addicts would often exchange sex to clear debt or to get a free ‘hit’. Julie was caught by teachers and brought before the Principal who was unable to comprehend or accept that drug use was happening at his school. Julie was suspended from school and her parents encouraged her to leave school completely.
Her brushes with intentional and unintentional overdoses are discussed. At this point she entered the drug rehabilitation centre where the interview takes place.