Interview With Hank von Helvete: Impact of Drugs on Society
Transcript of video interview:
Well, the thing with doing the programme is in the beginning the programme is pretty physical. It’s about getting drugs out of your body, cleaning up your body, getting your health back, you know, getting back in shape. But that’s just the beginning of it.
The whole programme is actually designed to make you realise yourself and what it’s all about. Not only how to avoid taking drugs, but realising why you took drugs and also realising what impact it had when you took the drug.
Sometimes it can be tough to face at first, but when you realise it, you suddenly become so much more caring for your fellow being. One example, you know, I’m a rock star and I kind of felt that drugs are just a part of my lifestyle and it shouldn’t be illegal and everybody should be able to choose. And I was very self-focused on my drug addiction. I just quit because I want to live a little longer, but I didn’t hurt anybody, you know. I did my thing.
Suddenly I kind of realised the message that I was spreading was, “that it’s okay to do drugs.” Kids who looked up to me saw me in this state and I was like, “do what I say, and don’t do what I do.” You know, whatever, let’s party. And then I realised that I was actually setting a terrible example for a lot of people who was actually struggling in their lives and I was being one of the guys who said it’s okay to be dark. It’s okay to die. This is what rock and roll is about.
Then I realised it’s my responsibility what people do inspired by me. I need to be careful what I inspire people to do. And then I realised it didn’t only have an impact on the rock kids that kind of followed me into that darkness. I suddenly realised that when they then go and buy a gramme of cocaine, it has impact on poor people in Bolivia. Or you know, poor farmers and kids who can’t grow proper food you know. They are run as slaves up in the cocaine plantation. And you’re supporting that when you buy that gramme. I suddenly realised that. That’s why there are some 30,000 - 40,000 kids murdered in Mexico. I kind of enabled them to start killing each other by being a willing customer for that gramme of coke and by inspiring others to do it you know.
And suddenly it was not only about me and my hunt for pleasure or escape from pain or whatever. It was me being not any solution, just part of a huge, huge planetary problem. And nobody told me this here. Nobody said that it’s your responsibility. Look at the Bolivians. I just realised it out of my own insight suddenly. I looked at The Way to Happiness book you know and the different steps of what we call the ethics part of the programme and I suddenly realised that responsibility was kind of something I had, you know. I could take it, and I always had it, but I just gave it away to somebody else like oh, that’s somebody else’s problem. It’s just me and my drug, you know. And suddenly I realised that if I start helping myself and start inspiring others to stop doing drugs and do their programme or inspiring kids to not start doing drugs, I can be a drop in the ocean there and then, but for me it’s some small step on the way to making murdering each other unnecessary. To make running kids as slaves unnecessary because that just creates a product that nobody wants. And that’s kind of the vision I had. If we just stop buying their product, then they wont have to kill and keep slaves anymore, you know.
Suddenly I can take responsibility for the whole drug scene and say it’s not okay and it’s not just you and me and the right to be high, you know. It’s about everybody. The planet’s right to have sober, responsible, positive people around them that doesn’t go for low morals or murder and thievery and deception, you know. So I kind of realised that I have been backstabbing mankind and I needed to fix that. And it gives me so much more pleasure and reward to know that I have the tools to fix the damage I created earlier because I’m learning the technology here/the different steps here. And I can use that to help others as well and if people ask me now, “Are you doing your part to better the world?”, I can say, “Yea.” Well some years ago, if they asked me the same question, I would have said, “f*#! the world”, you know. So I’m doing my part now. If you have problems sleeping at night, do your part and get some very good sleep.
