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'It's an everyday battle' - Super Rugby star's brother bravely tells of P addiction, how life spiralled out of control after serious injury

October 8, 2018

Whitiaua Black, 31, was touted to be a star of the future until injury saw him turn to drugs.

Whitiaua Black was once a touch superstar, but that all came crashing down after he became addicted to methamphetamine.

Whitiaua was one of the youngest players ever to make the New Zealand men's open touch team, making the side at the age of 15.

His family has excellent rugby and league pedigree, with his younger brother Otere Black playing first-five for the Blues and his cousin Benji Marshall a Kiwis league legend who still plays in the NRL for the Wests Tigers.

Whitiaua went on to become a member of the New Zealand under-19 rugby team in 2006, but was ruled out of the side after suffering a shoulder injury.

"After a few injuries come into play, I remember making the New Zealand under-19 and going to the World Cup and I think it was in South Africa for rugby," Whitiaua told TVNZ's Marae show. 

"A week before that I played in a touch tournament and popped my shoulder and it put me out for that tournament which was a big blow in my sporting career."

He was replaced by former All Blacks fullback Israel Dagg in the New Zealand under-19 side.

The injury saw Whitiaua turn to drugs for comfort.

"It was a matter of a lot of things, getting a little bit depressed and not being able to go on the trips and making these teams.

"But also making the New Zealand touch team at such a young age and hanging around older friends I suppose," he said.

"I was only 15-16, all my friends were 25 you know, all an older age and were users of the drugs."

The 31-year-old said his drug addiction started off with using marijuana before he eventually turned to harder drugs.

"Marijuana was what I first started off with and then it got a little bit more serious and into the methamphetamine.

"That was almost the killer. It's a drug that makes you lie a lot, people ask if you are alright and you say 'I’m all good, nothing wrong with me.'

"You lie in order to get the drug, you got to lie about where you are. Lie to your partner a lot, lie to my family a lot."

For over ten years Whitiaua was addicted to drugs.

"I was probably a functioning addict, I'd still be going to work, I'd still be doing good job.

Whitiaua Black in action against Benji Marshall during a touch tournament.

"Got to a stage where I lost two people I loved the most. My son and his mum, I lost them over it."

Whitiaua says his family is a big drive to stay clean and refrain from using again.

"It's an ongoing journey I suppose when you are addicted to something you are addicted to it for life and that is the honest truth.

"People say they are not addicted to it anymore, that's a lie.

"It's about finding strategies and a way to cope with it. It's an everyday battle you know.

"So it's about consistency, it's not about talking about it, it's more in your actions and they (family and friends) want me to show them, not tell them kind of thing."

His father Professor Taiarahia Black said after finding out his oldest son was using P, he was shattered.

"I'm going to be straight up and say when he was in that world, I shut the door to the family," said Professor Taiarahia.

"He's still alive today and that’s a miracle. We the family cannot save him, I believe he needs to find his own salvation.

"The aspiration is in every parent when our children go down that journey with the most brutal drug, it is an epidemic.

"Every parent has the aspiration that they (children) will recover from this, we've got to get on with life."

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