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Background information from Evert van den Akker.

My drugs use.

From the age of 10 to 16, during the holidays I worked in the Plaswijckpark in Rotterdam Hillegersberg. It is a playground/petting zoo, where I worked in the stall making poffertjes, which are typical Dutch, tiny, fluffy pancakes. Most of the time I helped baking the poffertjes, especially turning those little delicacies around. I would stand on one side of the baking tray on an empty crate (otherwise I wouldn't rise above the tray) and on the other side was the baker who scooped in the batter. Together we turned the poffertjes in a fast pace and when they were ready we scooped them on the plates. Jaap was the major ‘’poffertjesbakker’’, and I really liked him. One day Jaap didn't come to bake. He had died. I was shocked and didn't understand anything until Benny explained to me that his brother was on drugs and had died of an overdose. Later I got some information about drugs here and there and in my experience I started to get scared of it. Drugs, in my mind, were synonymous with dying.
From the age of 14, together with some older boys, I went to the discos in the city, where we also visited the Pauluskerk, the Mecca for drugs. I entered a room full of mattresses where all the people are lying on. Readings were mainly the Suske and Wiske books and other comic books. I lay down quietly between them and found it relaxing, especially because I could read comic books. I already smoked a lot of tobacco in those days. There was no need to take care of tobacco myself. There was a big cigarette going from hand to hand and everyone took one or two hoists of it. When I (after an explanation from the hippies lying next to me) understood that such a thing was called a joint and that it contained drugs, I didn't know how fast I had to pass it when that thing came to me. There were no protests because my neighbor wanted to take over the joint from me. I could tell you that it was cool of me, not taking a hoist or that I used my conscious mind (even then), but the truth is that I was just scared shitless of that deadly thing.
These experiences are engraved in my memory and have ensured that I have never and would never use these kind of substances.

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