Gurudeva introduces men in prison who tell their stories about drugs. Today, Gerald, an inmate tells about crystal meth/amphetamine use and what it did to his life. The cost of drugs to support habits; stealing, hurt, paranoia.. This inmate today also talks about the effects his drug abuse had on his children and family and the physical effects. Life in prison is described.

Unedited Transcript:

Gurudeva: Today at Kauai Aadheenam. This is November 14th. I had no idea there would be so much interest. We are having Arumugaswami dig deeper into the life of men in prison. Gerald Teves is going to tell about his experience on ice and other kinds of mind-changing substances and I hope it will discourage some of you young people out there. You don't want to have to grow up and have to go through his experience. He will get the good karma if he can turn your life around at this early stage.

Gerald: Hello, my name is Gerald Teves. I'm an inmate here at KCCC. I'm outside in the 'Lifetime Stand' program. I am in prison for theft, second. My crime was because of crystalmethamphetamine. I was sentenced to five years in prison. I've been down now for four years.

Arumugaswami: Have you been at this jail for all those four years?

Gerald: No, I've been at Halava High Security for two years, in close custody. Then, from there I transferred to the medium facility and back to Kauai now.

Arumugaswami: Why did you start taking drugs and how old were you?

Gerald: I started taking drugs about twelve years ago and the reason why I took drugs was because I thought getting high was the right thing to do. Honestly, I can say that all the people I used to hang out with, were all into drugs and I went on the wrong path. I got myself deep involved with mostly crystalmeth. I lost everything I had.

Arumugaswami: What was the first thing you took?

Gerald: I started off with marijuana, 'paco lolo', and from there I went to crack cocaine, and from cocaine I went to crystalmeth.

Arumugaswami: How much were you spending on drugs?

Gerald: I was spending a lot of money on drugs. I was smoking at least three to $600 worth of 'batu' a day. I was buying drugs from big time dealers on Oahu. I was getting them cheap from them and selling them down here for more. Just to support my habit, and get high. Along the way, I stole a lot of things from people, caused them a lot of pain, hurt. I stole money, car stereos, cars and wallets out of people's rental cars. Anything that I could trade or sell, just to get more drugs.

Arumugaswami: Let's talk about the drugs for a minute. What did they do to you. What did it feel like to take crystalmeth?

Gerald: The most I went through was paranoia. I always thought that my girlfriend was fooling around, when she wasn't. I always thought that I had cops watching me.

Arumugaswami: Do you have any children?

Gerald: Yes, I have a son and a daughter. My son is seven years old and my daughter is six years old. I see them every Sunday.

Arumugaswami: How often did you see them at Halava?

Gerald: Through my whole two years that I did at Halava, I had never seen them, not once. I am just hoping that some day we can get back together so the kids can be with their mom and dad.

Arumugaswami: What did the drugs do to your mind and body?

Gerald: What the drugs did to my mind was to make me do things that I never thought that I was going to do in my life. Hurt people, steal, cheat, lie. What the drugs did to my body was deteriorate me, made me lose a lot of weight. The bones in my face started showing. That is how my family caught on that I was doing some heavy drugs. My message to the young kids out their today is: Drugs is not the way to go. Drugs will make you lose everything in life, your family, your children, if you have children. You lose your freedom. Come to prison and be told when to eat, when to sleep, when to shower. You lose everything. It is going to be real rough. There are a lot of other better things to do in life than to take drugs or to even think about them. When you pick up that pipe and decide to take that hit, you are only picking up a shovel to your grave. To me, I feel drugs is crazy. Drugs is not worth it. There are many other positive things we can do in this community. If you catch them when they are young, then their roots is still young yet. You are going to have to dig deep and deep and work with them for years to stop them from going further into criminality and drugs and all that.

Gurudeva: Gerald, we want to thank you very much for lending your name, your voice and your experience to the youth out there in many countries. Norway, Sweden, France. Many countries tune into 'Today at Kauai Aadheenam'.