"They need help!" I cry out loud to myself. I listen to the song playing on my Def Leppard CD. As I sit and cry, I think of all those who have died and all those who have drugged themselves up. They lost their lives. I want to help them so much. Their addiction has a hold on them, these people around me.

My friends do drugs! How can I help them? I wonder. They will die! My friends will never see themselves marry. They will die before their children have a chance to live. I try to imagine why a high that lasts too short a time to remember is better than living. Will they survive?

For hours I sit and ponder whom I can turn to. Can I trust an adult to change our world? Our society is going nowhere. These friends poison their veins and like it! Why? How do I tell them our world is filled with great things? These great things last longer than one "inhalation of a bone."



Sometimes I go to parties with these friends. All that I see is a big keg of beer and obnoxious people. I see girls being taken advantage of by drunken boyfriends. I see eyelids that blink over bloodshot eyes. Once in a while someone will offer me a beer. That is when I take my sobriety and walk out the door.

Can all the good in the world overcome drug abuse? I hope those reading this will seek help. I want to help. I want addicts to help themselves. Wanting my friends to change their ways may not be enough. They have to want it too. Someday someone is going to lose a loved one to drugs. Then they will perhaps learn. I saw the hard way what drugs do. They take over your mind and slowly you're another person. You don't see this until it is too late. I lost a friend; now there is one less person around me. n



This is dedicated to Tommy, I love you.