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A former NRL star has opened up about his dark battle with illegal drugs, admitting to using ice while playing the sport at a professional level.
Solomon Haumono, 40, had a tumultuous past filled with drug binges, multiple suicide attempts and severe depression - but has now vowed to help young kids stay away from the path he took.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, New Zealand-born Haumono, who played for a number of Australian rugby league teams during his career, has revealed details about about his decades-long battle with the drug addiction that almost cost him his life.
'I began using ice while I was still playing in the NRL, I am just so lucky it didn't take a hold of me like it has so many others,' he said.
During his worst times, the NRL star turned professional boxer was manufacturing his own drugs, and testing the recipes on himself.
Consuming a cocktail of hard drugs including marijuana, cocaine and crystal meth every day put Haumono's life into a sharp downward spiral.
Haumono said his last ever experience with drugs was akin to a 'religious awakening', during which he was halucinating so badly he believed he saw demons.
'We were in a four-level nightclub and I began to see demons in people, and as I went down each floor it was like I was getting closer to hell,' he said.
Terrified and confused, Haumono fled the club, and said he has never touched a drug since. He beleives it was a sign from God 'showing me where I was going', and the 40-year-old is now deeply religious.
Haumono said his story is not unique, there are many similar ones in the NRL and all across the country which is why he has vowed to do something to help stop the drug crisis.
He and his wife Margaret are setting up a drop-in centre for troubled youths in Redfern, in additon to the work they already do with 'The Block'.
Haumono is not the only high-profile sportsman who has been embroiled in a drug scandal while still playing at a professional level.
Earlier this month former West Coast Eagles player Chris Judd opened up about what it was like to play alongside troubled Ben Cousins, who has faced a number of scandals during the last decade.
Judd, 32, and Cousins, 37, were teammates with the West Coast Eagles from 2002 to 2007, during which time the star midfielders each won a Brownlow Medal and premiership.
Judd - who left West Coast to join Carlton after the 2007 season - has lifted the lid on Cousins' battle against addiction in a revealing book, Inside: The Autobiography
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3288249/Solomon-Haumono-opens-dark-battle-drugs-claimed-life.html#ixzz3pYrWeCZd
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Solomon Haumono, 40, had a tumultuous past filled with drug binges, multiple suicide attempts and severe depression - but has now vowed to help young kids stay away from the path he took.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, New Zealand-born Haumono, who played for a number of Australian rugby league teams during his career, has revealed details about about his decades-long battle with the drug addiction that almost cost him his life.
'I began using ice while I was still playing in the NRL, I am just so lucky it didn't take a hold of me like it has so many others,' he said.
During his worst times, the NRL star turned professional boxer was manufacturing his own drugs, and testing the recipes on himself.
Consuming a cocktail of hard drugs including marijuana, cocaine and crystal meth every day put Haumono's life into a sharp downward spiral.
Haumono said his last ever experience with drugs was akin to a 'religious awakening', during which he was halucinating so badly he believed he saw demons.
'We were in a four-level nightclub and I began to see demons in people, and as I went down each floor it was like I was getting closer to hell,' he said.
Terrified and confused, Haumono fled the club, and said he has never touched a drug since. He beleives it was a sign from God 'showing me where I was going', and the 40-year-old is now deeply religious.
Haumono said his story is not unique, there are many similar ones in the NRL and all across the country which is why he has vowed to do something to help stop the drug crisis.
He and his wife Margaret are setting up a drop-in centre for troubled youths in Redfern, in additon to the work they already do with 'The Block'.
Haumono is not the only high-profile sportsman who has been embroiled in a drug scandal while still playing at a professional level.
Earlier this month former West Coast Eagles player Chris Judd opened up about what it was like to play alongside troubled Ben Cousins, who has faced a number of scandals during the last decade.
Judd, 32, and Cousins, 37, were teammates with the West Coast Eagles from 2002 to 2007, during which time the star midfielders each won a Brownlow Medal and premiership.
Judd - who left West Coast to join Carlton after the 2007 season - has lifted the lid on Cousins' battle against addiction in a revealing book, Inside: The Autobiography
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3288249/Solomon-Haumono-opens-dark-battle-drugs-claimed-life.html#ixzz3pYrWeCZd
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
