I DID MY first deal in 1998 when I was just ten years old. There was no escaping it. The whispers around the schoolyard demanded you heed the peer pressure. Everyone knew it was wrong. There were school assemblies dedicated to making sure you knew that this sort of deviant behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated at Burleigh Heads State School. But it didn’t matter.

The night before the deal, I defied my parents’ orders, staying up until 4 am so I could meet an old man on the outskirts of the woods, where he gave me something to make me feel invincible. The only risk was that it might destroy me from the inside. Heck yeah, I thought. The opportunity to feel on top of the world in exchange for the small chance that it’d break me? I’ll take that wager. What have I got to lose? Please know that I was sleep deprived when this happened.