Who could express the dark world of addiction better than recovering addicts themselves as they undergo rehabilitation?
That's the thinking behind the production of 60 minutes, an annual drama and musical show to be put on at five schools and a prison in KwaZulu-Natal to dissuade audiences from taking drugs.
Each year, residents of the Cedar Recovery Centre at Umkomaas write the script of a play that forms part of the show in partnership with The 60 Minutes Fight Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse, a South Coast based non-profit company.
The story lines do not necessarily reflect the residents’ experience but of scenarios they would have come close to. They are also the actors.
Stellio Coutsides, a trainee counsellor at the centre and also a product of Cedar's rehabilitation programme, said this year's tour, which starts with a performance at Grosvenor Girls’ High on the Bluff, on July 31, follows the story of a schoolgirl drug addict and her friend who tries to rescue her.
Last year's play, written by Coutsides, was about a young man who tried to rescue an addict and was murdered by street thugs.
“The play each year will depend on the mix of people who are in for treatment,” said Coutsides.
This year's Sixty Minute Show is the sixth.
“When someone is following the path of addiction, often the last thing they think about is their families and loved ones. The emotional and mental stress it puts on them can be worse than physical harm.”
He said his addiction started when, aged 16, he stole alcoholic drinks from his father's liquor cabinet and, when he was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, prescription drugs became part of his journey to addiction.
“By the time I was 30 I had used cat, cocaine, ecstacy, marijuana, tranquillisers, alcohol and acid (LSD).”
Coutsides, who lived in Johannesburg until he came to the South Coast for treatment, said the older he got, the more severe the consequences became.
He said he woke up one morning when he was 30 to find he had no money for electricity, petrol or groceries. “And my girlfriend had left me.”
Suicide felt attractive. However, he finally responded to his parents’ frequent requests for him to go for treatment.
He said he had spent years visiting “sordid spots” to buy his drugs, not thinking what could happen.
“I once got mugged outside a crack house and I also once had my phone stolen.”
He said he was aware of other addicts being raped while going to pick up drugs.
Part of staying clean has been to distance himself from his old lifestyle.
Living in KwaZulu-Natal has, in fact, introduced him to new experiences.
“I have learned how to surf and I have done 50 dives at Aliwal Shoal.”
Other schools that will see the show are Sindelile High School at Magabheni on the South Coast; Clairwood High School; Durban Academy on the Bluff and Gugulesizwe High School on the South Coast. It will also go to the Umzinto Prison.