Woman issues heartbreaking message as gateway drug cannabis turned into £300-a-day class A addiction
Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction and suicide which some readers may find distressing.
At the age of 35, Joanna Warner finally got clean from her drug addiction after she first smoked cannabis at the age of 12.
Now 43, the woman was sent to prison nine times for shoplifting and has been hospitalised 10 times for overdosing.
Once she became sober, she faced thousands of pounds worth of debt, but has now wiped it and started a new life with a clean slate. And Joanna now does public speaking, warning others as she shares her journey to recovery with prisoners and in schools.
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Joanna’s childhood saw her alcoholic father taking her on shoplifting trips and from the age of seven she says she acted as a ‘caretaker’ for him.
“I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but he was cruel at times, he went lower than most,” she said.
At the age of 12, she was given alcohol and cannabis by the families she babysat for.
This then progressed to speed at the age of 14, given to her by her mum’s late friend.
“It was just really bad where I grew up, everyone’s parents were addicted to something," Joanna said.
And when her dad passed away when she was 17, she started using crack and heroin.
'It was like the devil was tapping me on the shoulder'
After this, she began getting arrested for public order offences such as being drunk and disorderly and getting into fights.
At the age of 19, Joanna became pregnant with her son and believed having a child would ‘save her’ and help her along the way to recovery.
“But it was like the devil was tapping me on the shoulder, and telling me to score,” she explained.
“I started using up to £300 worth of drugs a day, and at age 22, I started selling my body.”
Just as her dad had done, Joanna funded her habit by shoplifting meat and selling it in the pub.
“I ended up repeating the cycle,” she said.
'I thought I was going to die'
Over the years, she was jailed nine times for shoplifting, with her sentences lasting between two weeks and six months. She says her mental health deteriorated inside and she was put on suicide watch.
“I never thought I’d get out of my situation, I thought I was going to die,” she explained.
Joanna found it ‘humiliating’ when she turned to prostitution to pay for her drug use and suffered multiple attacks from men but was often too scared to report them for fear of being arrested.
“Some men just go down there to abuse women,” she said.
When Joanna was 25, her son went to live with her mum where he remained throughout his childhood. But the now 22-year-old always maintained a close relationship with her.
The woman’s muscles began to waste away due to drug abuse and she was left hardly able to walk. Joanna also almost lost a leg after injecting into her groin gave her deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot that forms in a deep vein.
'Do or die'
She had tried to get clean on multiple occasions but at age 35, after realising she was going to die if she carried on, she started going to Fellowship meetings.
“And hearing the stories of other addicts who had gotten clean gave me the strength to do it myself,” she added.
Joanna managed to get funding for rehab through the group and began a nine-month detox, which felt like ‘torture’.
But she’s now been clean for eight years, has found a love for CrossFit and runs a dog walking business.
She has also started going in to schools, prisons and recovery events to share her story and inspire others, and has just finished a Crime and Criminal Justice degree.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Topics: Mental Health, Drugs
Jess Battison