4 July 2009
A mother driven to despair after four of her five sons became drug addicts contemplated poisoning them rather than watch them destroy themselves.
Erica Sampson, 54, is a single mother from Mitchells Plain.
She has worked as a domestic worker and cleaner her whole life, dreaming her sons - who range in age from 19 to 33 - would one day have a better life.
But then, one after the other - except for the middle one - they started using tik (methamphetamine) and a cocktail of other drugs, including heroin, dagga, and mandrax.
She had high hopes for her youngest. But even he has turned into a tik monster, telling her last week: "I'm going to kill you in your sleep."
"I loved this child. I gave him everything. I couldn't believe he could do this to me," she said.
A month ago, her eldest, who is married and has three boys, took an overdose and slashed his wrists.
He has been taken to Toevlug, a state-subsidised treatment centre in Worcester. Meanwhile, her second youngest, 23, went to the Ark City of Refuge for drug treatment this week.
He had been "tikking" for a year after being clean for three years This came after a stint at a drug rehab centre in Ottery.
"I couldn't believe he had started again, but I could see the signs," Sampson said.
"He would hallucinate and see people in his room. And he started stealing again - my Snackwich maker, money, my jewellery - it's all gone."
His 21-year-old girlfriend told Weekend Argus she had initially taken drugs with her boyfriend. But she had stopped, although she still had the craving from time to time.
"The first time I tried tik, it was like heaven. I had so much energy - it makes you feel on top of the world."
But she said it eventually made you sick, especially now dealers were mixing it with rat poison and household cleaners.
Sampson's husband was killed 15 years ago, leaving her nothing but the house, which was in arrears. She said lately she was on the point of giving up hope.
"I was thinking of buying poison and putting it in their food. Then I thought I'm too old to go to jail. But I feel God can take all of them - I just don't care anymore."
She said when her sons were in the house, she couldn't put her bag down without one of them stealing money out of it.
"My youngest was everything to me. I told him I'll work till I'm 60. Just finish school."
But he dropped out before finishing Grade 10 and now steals every item he can find in the house.
"Anything he can sell he steals - household cleaners, chickens out of the freezer, sugar. He even takes dirty clothes from the washing machine."
She said they would burn wet newspaper and throw it on the bathroom roof so she wouldn't smell when they were tikking.
Sampson is rake-thin and has tormented eyes. She said she had to put a lock on her bedroom door and use cable ties to barricade the windows to prevent her children from coming in when she was not at home.
"I can't take it anymore. I've asked God where I went wrong."
She said her youngest had started hiding drugs on the property, which was in a neighbourhood full of drug merchants and addicts. "The other day I found a whole parcel of dagga and I burnt it. I also burnt a matchbox I found in the yard with 10 packets of tik inside. When I find tik lollies (glass pipes) in the house, I ask if they are his and when he says no, I smash them."
Sampson said she had been able to see when other people's children were taking drugs. "But for years I never knew my own children were doing it right under my nose."
She said her second eldest - who has multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis - was using his medication and drugs together.
"Last week I heard he'd run off with a neighbour's R80. Then I heard he'd been put in Lentegeur, but was going to be moved to the DP Marais Hospital in Retreat." Sampson said a nursing sister had called, saying her son wanted to speak to her.
"But I don't want to see him now. I did everything for them, but they make me sick."
She said it was tough on her drug-free son, who lived with her and his wife. "They steal his clothes as well."
Mitchells Plain anti-drug activist Venetia Orgill helped Sampson's one son get a place at the Ark. She said far too little was done for drug addicts' mothers.
Orgill last year testified in mitigation of the sentence of Ellen Pakkies, the mother who strangled her tik-addicted son. She said fathers often just packed up and left.
"It's always left to the mothers to battle and make ends meet."
She said people who needed support could contact her at 084-413-6760.
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