When most people think of a drug addict, it isn’t a 40-year-old mother who made her first million at 21 that comes to mind.
But that’s exactly what happened to Gold Coast native Andrea Simmons when the man she ‘fell head over heels in love with’ offered her ice for the first time.
What followed was years of spiralling drug addiction and crippling debt, but after getting clean Ms Simmons is now using her experience to warn high school students about the dangers of the deadly drug.
Andrea Simmons spent two years stuck in a drug-induced haze and racked up $75,000 in debt
As she spiralled deeper into addiction, Ms Simmons told the students during one particular lesson that she ‘lost everything she’d ever had in life’
In 2010 she was offered the drug by her partner, who convinced her to try it during a night out.
‘He said “You trust me don’t you? Look at me, I’m alright”,’ she told Daily Mail Australia in 2015.
‘I thought I would let my hair down because if you smoke it – it’s probably like marijuana where if you don’t have too much you should be right,’ she said.
Despite rationalising the risks, and believing she was ‘old enough to control it’, that night signalled the beginning of an uncontrollable drug-induced hell which saw Ms Simmons sell two homes she owned and her luxury car.
Over the course of two years she racked up $75,000 in debts to support a $500-a-day drug habit.
Ms Simmons ended up selling two homes, pawning all her jewellery and maxing out her credit cards
‘It is being given out to kids in school, in sample bags, and they’re telling the girls they’re going to lose four kilos on a weekend,’ she said
She now belongs to a group known as the Australian Anti Ice Campaign, a group of ex-addicts who want to share their experiences with high school-aged children, in hopes they’ll never choose the same road, A Current Affair reports.
They conduct 75 minute sessions with the teenagers and cover everything from what ingredients make up the drug to what your teeth will look like after long-term use.
‘We give a lesson on what it does to your brain, your body, your life and the presenter incorporates their experience into that and we also show through video clips of what ice looks like and what form it comes in,’ she said.
‘I was talking to two pharmacists and a doctor recently and they were asking what it looks like – people don’t know.’
She now belongs to a group known as the Australian Anti Ice Campaign
‘Ice doesn’t discriminate – there are doctors and chemists on it as well – people with stressful jobs.’
Ms Simmons knows exactly what it feels like to be a high-flying success only to have drugs unravel your life.
‘I sold my two houses, pawned all of my jewellery, maxed out my credit cards, sold my Mercedes – I had been a business person, I raised two children, made my first million at 21, but it just ate everything,’ she said.
‘We would spend all of the money on the ice so we would steal food just to get by – we didn’t even have money for toilet paper at the end of the week.’
It was only after a supernatural experience from God five years ago that Ms Simmons finally made the decision to get clean.
She was 40 years old when a partner she thought she ‘trusted’ offered her ice as a way to relax
Faced with the reality: Students were being shown pictures of ice addicts during the session
During the ‘ice school’ sessions, Ms Simmons warns students of all the dangers, from financial problems to mental health issues and even relationship breakdowns.
‘You’re going to get depression, anxiety, psychosis… it’s a really scary journey and I don’t wish it on my worst enemy,’ she said on A Current Affair.
And while she is one of the two percent who managed to recover from ice addiction, and stay clean, she has noticed dealers becoming sneakier in their methods of selling to school-aged children.
‘It is being given out to kids in school, in sample bags, and they’re telling the girls they’re going to lose four kilos on a weekend,’ she said.
The Australian Anti Ice Campaign is working to dispel some of those myths with cold, hard facts. One of which is what’s in the drug.
The pupils were very interested in Ms Simmons’ speech, particularly when it came to the ingredients list
Many of the children admitted to being ‘dumbfounded’ when they found out the ingredients list
‘Drano is a base for ice. You wouldn’t eat this,’ she told students, waving around a tub of the cleaning product.
Many of the children admitted to being ‘dumbfounded’ when they found out the exhaustive ingredients list.
They commented that Ms Simmon’s talk had encouraged them to avoid drugs and help their friends if anything untoward happens to them.
A Current Affair viewers were also quick to praise the group’s efforts, and wanted the government to make these kind of sessions compulsory in high schools.
‘Great education. As a reformed alcoholic/drug addicted individual educating the young mob before they use it is fantastic,’ one man wrote on Twitter.
‘Good on these ex druggies, telling our kids the ugly truth. They are to be commended, and should get government funding to keep doing it,’ another added.