Ezra Budman used to smoke several joints per day, but now the Hampstead teen is turning his recovery from marijuana addiction into art.
Sober for 18 months, Budman began rapping about his battle with addiction – a battle that began when he was 15 years old.
“I wanted to hang out with people who were more popular than me and that’s what they were doing,” he said. “The whole week I’m in school and I’m hating it and I get to the weekend and the weekend is where I have fun. The weed becomes associated with everything that was good and being sober became associated with everything that was boring.”
Budman said his friends soon stopped wanting to hang out, uncomfortable with the person he had become. Avi Caplan said the change in his friend was extreme.
“He always has like, a million ideas and I felt like there was almost nothing there,” he said. “There was radio silence.”
An intervention by his family resulted after he hit rock bottom and emotions were high.
“My sister just said some things to me that really hit me very hard,” said Budman. “What really got to me was the unconditional love of my whole family.”
Since then, he’s started attending meetings but also turned to music to deal with what he went through. Along with Caplan, he’s recorded a hip-hop album, ‘Don’t Worry About It,’ that tells his story.
“Life is about what you give to it,” he said. “I found a drug and gave all my gifts to it.”
Now 19 and in CEGEP, Budman said he has nothing against marijuana and understands why people use it, but knows there’s a dark side, too.
“Everybody’s different, just keep an eye on yourself,” he said. “Make sure you’re not lying to yourself. Drugs can be fun but they can mess up your brain chemistry.”
- Concert footage courtesy Madeleine Loud, concert photography courtesy Ihabe Terrak
