At the age of 14 Stephen Smith was a young tearaway, who was arrested for theft. Instead of going to prison however, he was sent to a mental insitution. Whilst he was there his therapist introduced him to amphetamines, which was to dominate most of his life.
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During this period speed was legal and could easily be ordered from a chemist. Smith would regularly buy his drugs and was soon hopelessly addicted. Whilst he was under the influence of speed he was always involved in highly paid criminal activities, making him very rich by the time he was 20. When he was 21 Smith fell in love with and married a young Maltese woman called Camilla, who had only married him for his money. They had a short, stormy marriage, made worse by Smith's drug use. Somehow he had managed to obtain the custody of his young daughter but his money was rapidly running out, and soon he could not afford to look after her.
After he was forced to move out of his home, Smith wandered the streets and spent five years in and out of Salvation Army shelters. When he failed to clean up in one rehab centre, he lived on the streets with other homeless people. In an attempt to find help, he took a boat to Germany where he almost died on the road. Since then he had turned his life around, and now runs seminars for other drug addicts.
The review of this Book prepared by Liza Rosette
