The real tragedy of drug addiction
The ‘lock em up brigade’ really should have met Georgie but they never will. She was not a problem person but she was a person with a problem. She needed help, not approbation
I WISH more people had a chance to have known Georgie.
I consider myself lucky to have known her, albeit far too briefly. She was one of those people who are made out of sunshine.
She was ferocious and precocious; smart and funny and beautiful in a leggy blonde Instagram model way.
She loved skiing and her mates and her rescue dog Bailey. It’s a cliche, but she lit up the room.
Georgie was also a drug addict. She died of a heroin overdose two months ago. She was 22.
Her life was a fairly ordinary one; she’d grown up an outdoorsy kid in regional Victoria with a solid and loving family. Drugs entered her life as a way to deal with post traumatic stress disorder brought on, ironically, by an incident in which she was assaulted as a teenager by a heroin user.
Her drug use and her mental health issues made her tough to be around sometimes, but her friends and family never gave up on her.
She was loved wholly and completely until the day she died. But even with all her advantages, Georgie wasn’t able to break free from her demons and the world is a poorer place for her death.
I think of Georgie often, every time I read comments online on court stories about drug users tied up in the legal system.
“Death penalty is too good for her”, “druggo scum” and “hope he rots in jail” are com- mon ones. The people who leave these comments wishing jail or death on users are the ones I most wish had known Georgie.
Had they known her, would they have thought Georgie – hilarious, bold, complex and troubled Georgie – deserved to die?
She deserved help, understanding and love.
In a way, Georgie was one of the lucky ones.
She got that love and understanding from her family and her loyal mates. But she didn’t get it from the rest of society, which demonises and ostracises drug users.
There’s a parliamentary committee underway in the NT right now looking at ways to reduce harm wrought by ad-