“I tried to take my own life via overdose multiple times,” he tells triple j hack.<\/p>\n
“I really couldn’t see a way out. I genuinely could not see a light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n
“In those moments I just wanted to feel nothing.”<\/p>\n
Clay’s family staged an intervention after finding out he was contemplating suicide in 2024.<\/p>\n
As a result, he tried to get clean. He gave up everything except weed for nearly seven months until an unexplained seizure resulted in relapse.<\/p>\n
A few months later he found himself in a maximum-security prison.<\/p>\n
“I was completely arrogant and unwilling to accept the fact that [I would get caught],” Clay says.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5fe0d9c9511780f6ea17e5c7e8777827.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Clay has a scar on his face from a wound he received during a dispute over drug money. (triple j hack: Angel Parsons)<\/p>\n
How Clay ended up behind bars<\/p>\n
Clay says his first run-in with police happened when he was 18. He was waiting for a friend when he was approached by police who found 39 capsules of MDMA in his bag.<\/p>\n
Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n
By the time he ended up behind bars in 2025 he was used to appearing in court, but he wasn’t prepared for police to turn up at his parents\u2019 house.<\/p>\n
“I got a knock on the door and [they] said, ‘Are you Clay Scott? We’ve got a search warrant,'” Clay says.<\/p>\n
“They handcuffed me. Unfortunately, at the time my aunty was down on holiday, so she had to witness the whole thing.<\/p>\n
“Nobody in my family’s experienced anything like this.”<\/p>\n
Clay was sentenced to two years in a maximum-security prison near Sydney.<\/p>\n
“It was f***ing terrifying \u2026 it really showed me what my future would be if I kept being the person that I’d always been,” he says.<\/p>\n
He served three months before being released as part of an NSW Drug Court program.<\/p>\n
The Drug Court provides alternative pathways for drug-dependent people who commit crimes.<\/p>\n
People who have committed violent offences are not eligible for the program, which requires participants to undergo rehabilitation and regular drug testing.<\/p>\n
Clay has just finished his program and credits the time in rehab for helping him overcome addiction.<\/p>\n
“I will still be on a good behaviour bond for eight months, but \u2026 I don’t think there’s been a year since I turned 18 that I haven’t had to go into a courtroom,” he says.<\/p>\n
Getting sober<\/p>\n
Clay, who is 23, has been sober for more than 500 days and has started sharing his story in the hope of helping others.<\/p>\n
“It is genuinely a miracle that I’m still alive, or that I am living a fulfilled and happy life,” he says.<\/p>\n
“Knowing that I could become the man I am today through recovery \u2014 I want other people to be able to achieve that, because it has been nothing short of life-changing.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dd5dd19b854bea9675316b3682ab6052.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Clay hopes that by sharing his story he can help other people get sober and turn their lives around. (triple j hack: Angel Parsons)<\/p>\n
Clay encourages anyone struggling with addiction to reach out for help.<\/p>\n
“Look up your local narcotics or alcoholics anonymous meeting and get yourself to a meeting ASAP,” he says.<\/p>\n
“I know it’s terrifying \u2026 [but] you don’t have to speak. Nobody’s going to make you speak.<\/p>\n
“Just go there [and] see that you’re not alone.”<\/p>\n
Clay has started rebuilding his relationships with his family. He works part-time with his dad as a gyprocker and is completing a fitness certification with the aim of starting a coaching business.<\/p>\n
He hopes his nan would be proud of him.<\/p>\n
“I really couldn’t [think about her during the years of addiction],” Clay says.<\/p>\n
“Knowing what she saw in me and what she would expect of me, and knowing that I was not even close to living up to anything she would have wanted for me was probably the scariest reality.<\/p>\n
“I still get choked up talking about her now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clay Scott first encountered drugs when he was 12 years old. He was at school and his mates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,396768,396766,44317,191674,25774,64577,396770,75037,270256,396767,396769,85,72703,3953,44318],"class_list":["post-822357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-drug-addiction","tag-clay-scott","tag-dave-marchese","tag-david-marchese","tag-drug-addiction","tag-drug-overdose","tag-getting-sober","tag-hack-podcast","tag-narcotics-anonymous","tag-overdose-australia","tag-sober-advocate","tag-sports","tag-the-latest","tag-triple-j","tag-triple-j-hack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}