I hope that you’ve been enjoying the vocabulary from Ici et maintenant in these recent entries. In another episode of the show, host Pénélope McQuade meets Sébastien, a father of three who used to be a drug addict, un toxicomane.
Sébastien tells Pénélope and us the viewers that he began to take drugs, il a commencé à consommer, around age eleven.
Sébastien was a tough kid, un p’tit tough, and a follower, un suiveux. Other people around him were doing coke, ils faisaient de la coke, so he did too.
Pénélope tells us that Sébastien had trouble with la coke, le pot, la bière and le speed.
This year Sébastien is celebrating his three years of abstinence, il célèbre ses trois ans d’abstinence. But, as Pénélope explains, it’s also three years without any really big high, trois ans d’abstinence de gros high.
So Pénélope helps him to celebrate his three years by giving him une dose naturelle d’adrénaline — by encouraging him to go parachuting, sauter en parachute.
The rest of the segment is dedicated to Sébastien’s jump. As Pénélope explains, to jump out of a plane is to experience a natural high, vivre un high naturel.
[Vocabulary from Ici et maintenant, season 1, episode 6, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 18 February 2012.]
Le fait d’employer «consommer» sans complément — «il a commencé à consommer» — paraît être propre au Québec. My two cents : http://oreilletendue.com/2009/11/09/et-mon-complement-vous-l%E2%80%99avez-vu/.