Ex-cocaine addict shares recovery journey after spiral into life of crime

Former user Danny Shannon has detailed some of his worst memories from his 19-year drug addiction.

It is August 1996 and ex-cocaine addict Danny Shannon has travelled more than an hour from Sydney’s west to the blinding lights of Kings Cross in search of a line of cocaine. It’s the seventh day in a row he’s used the drug but he needs it and he knows he can get it.

Dealers are on every corner of the main strip and even a local store openly sells empty capsules that can be filled with coke. A secret corridor inside a strip club leads him to an injecting room. He buys a $50, which is enough to give him a 5-minute high.

In his years of using, he tried every drug from heroin to weed and methamphetamine, but it is “snow” that still haunts him today, almost a decade after he got sober.

It pulled him into a life of crime and robbed him of his family and friends.

Former drug addict Danny Shannon has been clean for over a decade. He works full-time helping other addicts get straight. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“It was an obsession and compulsion. I would drive to Kings Cross every night we’d spend from midnight to 6am using and committing crime to get more. Then on the way back we’d have to buy more to come back down again,” he said.

At the height of his addiction, the 45-year-old would inject cocaine daily - a habit which cost him more than $800,000 over his lifetime. Sometimes he would combine cocaine with heroin - a combination known as a “speedball.”

“All IV drugs are instant but coke did something else. It’s the only one that doesn’t trigger me but takes me back there because it was so intense,” he said.

“You’d get this taste in the back of your throat like acetone ... (You’d) start to hear echoes, boom boom boom. It was instant euphoria.”

The craze of addiction led him to commit petty crimes like break-and-enters to pay for his drug habit, eventually costing him six years in jail.

“It was a five-minute buzz so I had to start getting the proceeds of crime to get more. Crime is inevitable. For me it was break and enter, robberies, stealing cars,” he said.

One addiction led to another, with the cocaine driving him to have sex with prostitutes and gamble excessively.

“It was the same as all the other drugs. It brought me to jails, institutions like detoxes and hospitals, rehab, it broke all my relationships with my family, friendships, I was just alone. All I wanted to do was use more.”

It was a 19-year spiral but Danny recalls one particularly dark moment when he drove his young son in a stolen car to pick up some money from his mum - all just to go and spend it on drugs.

Danny Shannon said cocaine addiction pulled him into a life of crime and robbed him of his family and friends. He’s been clean for over a decade. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“It gives me goosebumps thinking about it. We demanded we get the money and got a couple of grand. I met mum at Maccas in Smithfield, we had my son in the back of a stolen car. I picked up the money and went and used.

“I was oblivious to everything around me, even though I had a poor kid in the back.”

His turning point was in the grips of his addiction in 2009 when he was on a train to Kings Cross and had an epiphany.

“I was going to buy more drugs but instead went to Glebe House - a drug addiction recovery centre.”

“It was a miracle like that day, I made a different decision for the first time ever, and basically have never come close to using again and that was almost 12 years ago.”

He went on to join a Narcotics Anonymous group where he reached the 60-day clean mark and realised he could turn things around.

“I started to build connections with people, people who were on the same journey as me and it started to give me hope,” he said.

Powder Keg is a groundbreaking investigation into the nation’s cocaine fixation.

Danny decided to use his experience to help others by working at Glebe House. Today, he lives a happy and healthy life with a family and has launched a business called Encapsulator which helps other addicts to recover.

“I came up with this idea to video myself on my 10-year anniversary and captured what I wanted for myself in the future. And since then, I’ve captured like 200 clients over the last five years.”

After 12 years clean, Danny is happier than he has ever been. And his life may not have always been easy, but it’s a battle he’s determined to keep fighting.

“I have to be brave daily but I love life and so it’s not hard.”

GROWING NUMBER OF ADDICTS ASKING FOR HELP

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a growing number of cocaine users to reach out for help getting clean.

Jack Nagle, a former addict and the director of drug rehabilitation clinic Connection-Based Living has seen a record number of people struggling with cocaine use signing up to his rehab program in NSW.

Reformed drug addict Jack Nagle said he’s seen a record number of people signing up to his NSW rehab program. Picture: Aaron Francis

“Since Covid, we’ve just been having probably the majority of people coming through now with cocaine issues as their primary drug of concern,” Mr Nagle said.

“The biggest cohort that we’ve had is from New South Wales, more specifically Sydney and the Wollongong area.”

He believes the spike in help-seeking is a result of the border closures, coupled with people having more time to self reflect.

“With the borders being shut, I think maybe for a period of time there was a lack of cocaine and maybe that people that had addiction issues couldn’t get the substance anymore, which drove them to get help.”

His program allow users to recover without attending a rehab clinic in-person, instead helping them to change their habits with online programs.

The former addict is urging anyone who is struggling with addiction to come forward and to not be ashamed to get help.

“Now is a really good time to do it because it’s almost like the world is having a bit of a reset,” he said.

*Watch Australia’s Cocaine Crisis Sunday 7.30pm on Sky News.