ELONA Rasmeni, a young man from Cradock, has just launched his first book, Life Can Still Change, which deals with the 15 years of his life that he wasted on drug and alcohol addiction.
Rasmeni, who calls himself a recovering drug addict, tells the story of how he was introduced to alcohol around the age of six, before he even started school, by the woman who looked after him while his mother, a teacher, was away at work.
“She gave me diya biya (an alcoholic drink) to drink and then I would be good and go to sleep,” Rasmeni said.
In his story he tells of how he and friends started drinking in earnest in Grade 5, when they also started stealing to be able to afford their habit. Grade 7 was when the dagga smoking started, with the result that he failed matric after which he went to Cape Town, where liquor and hard drugs like crack and tik were on the daily menu.
In 2010 he persuaded his mother to buy him his first a car. He enjoyed driving it for a full five hours before he wrote it off completely. After this, he wrote off two more cars in quick succession.
After a serious bout of hallucination, he decided to go into rehab and although he relapsed once, he is now in a very good place in his life.
“It is important that young people must have a purpose in life. My life changed when I got involved with Herbal Life, changed my circle of friends, made it my dream to write and publish a book about my experiences and got connected to a higher power,” Rasmeni said.
“Young people of today must remember tik only has an entrance door, there is NO exit,” he said.
After launching the book in Port Elizabeth, he intends to launch it in Cradock as well. The time and date of the launch are still be announced.
