Poem by a drug-dependent prisoner in Kyrgyzstan

The following is an extract from a longer poem written by a prisoner in Kyrgyzstan. He started using drugs as a young teenager, “just to try it with the older boys”, but quickly became addicted. He has now committed himself to follow a methadone substitution therapy programme to stop his drug addiction.

...And so it happened to that I am the only drug addict among my relatives.
I grew up like any other regular boys, a tomboy and a troublemaker.
But however the childhood has gone and is behind me.
The older fellows acquainted me with the needle.

And it rushed forward so rapidly that I didn’t have time.
To realize that I got addicted to a needle.
And until its not too late I started realizing.
That everything has gone too far and it’s high time to quit ASAP.

I fail to it myself and now we have the result.
For the drugs I was imprisoned.
And behind the bars the world is different and different dimensions.
Yet in prison as in the forge they forge different generation.

You will hear a lot of things here, prison is not the place for correction.
But it is an institute for new crimes.
All the murderers, rapists and thieves they are all put together in one cell.
And where is the answer? That these guys will not follow their bad example.