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ADA-SA was founded by Quintin van Kerken.
Growing up in Krugersdorp on the West Rand, Quintin started using drugs rather late in life, at the age of 19. An evening out, a wrong choice to experiment with the party drug Ecstasy and 10 years of hell. No person tries drugs, alcohol or even gambling the first time and says, “Great, I want to be come addicted to this and let it destroy my life...” One pill led to another. A Friday night suddenly lasted a weekend. One fateful night, just three months after that first pill, he tried smoking heroin, to come down from too many pills. Thus began the first five year long nightmare.
Very soon, Quintin realised that heroin was not a cheap drug, and started dealing the drug to pay for his own use. Deals got bigger, money started flowing. Other dealers started to get angry as they began to lose money.
One crisp winter evening, in the parking lot of a upmarket pub, a deal went very very wrong. As he leaned into the boot of his car to take out a bag filled with heroin, he caught the movement in the corner of his eye. He looked up into the barrel of a 9mm pistol, and the man holding pulled the trigger.
Once, twice, three times. The gun jammed as the man continued to try and pull the trigger. He finally gave up and ran, leaving Quintin standing there, alone and scared. Suddenly his life was turned upside down. From being a drug lord wielding unimaginable power in the underworld, he was now hunted, with nowhere to go.
Several more attempts on his life the following week, and no more drugs or money, he decided he should quit drugs. He spent several months in rehabilitation, and came out feeling great. He had beaten drugs and was on top of the world.
Or so he thought.
A dinner party with new friends introduced him to a new drug – Cat. Within two weeks he was dealing.
Within a month of that, he was manufacturing the drug.
Over the next five years, Quintin tried desperately to stop. Rehab after rehab did not help. Each time he came out, he started using almost immediately again.
Quintin realised that he was going to die, either from overdose, or by the hand of an opposing dealer. He decided to take the easy way out – overdose. 350 grams of Cat and Tik would do the trick.
After 13 days, with all the drugs finished, he collapsed. Awaking from a four day coma, having suffered 2 heart attacks, a collapsed lung, kidney failure and having holes in his sinuses, Quintin weighed only 48kg.
He realised that he could never do this again, that this was the final party. It was over.
Recovery is not that easy though. Why did rehab not work? Why did he still crave? Why did he feel like using when he was happy, sad or bored?
Quintin dedicated his life to researching and studying addiction. Society pushes the fact that rehabilitation is the “cure” for addiction, however many come out feeling alone, depressed and not helped. To complicate matters further, the family of the addict has not received any therapy or guidance, which makes the recovery of the addict almost impossible.
ADA-SA was founded on the premise that addiction is not an addict problem, but a family problem, and it is only in treating the entire family that recovery can truly happen.
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