Ever since I was using drugs my life went downhill. Because it all started when I started high school, and I was innocent to marijuana and alcohol. I thought it would be something new to try, and also most of my friends were using them, too, so I decided to try it. So after that I dropped all my old friends that I grew up with to go and hang around the kids that used drugs, because to me it was the cool thing to do. After a while I started to do things that I never thought that I would do. I would steal money from my mother to get the drugs and alcohol that I wanted and every time I would use I would never do what I had to do. I did what I wanted to do because I did not care for anyone but myself and what I wanted. Also my relationship with my family went downhill. All because of my drug use. Me and my mom fell apart. We stopped talking and everyone else resented me and did not want to talk to me or be around me because I was not the same old me. And also I started to grow apart from the most important people. Then I started to think that all my drug use was hurting the people that I’m close to and I love the most. So I started to stop on my own free will and after I got over my drug abuse my family relationships got a lot stronger. And I feel a lot better about myself and knowing I can live a longer and healthier life without drugs. And I hope that I can pass on the experience with someone that is going through what I went through.

Letter 2

Drugs have a very negative impact on your life. I am a living witness to how drugs affect your life. I have experienced a lot of pain, heartache, violence, and loneliness behind drugs. The drugs that negatively influenced me were alcohol and marijuana. These substances caused me to skip school and earn poor grades in class. I would find myself not willing to do anything and as my tolerance for drugs got higher, my motivation to succeed in life became lower. I got to the point where I didn’t care about anything. I started staying out late, selling marijuana, victimizing people, and doing what I wanted to do. I got deep in the game and my family began to tear apart. My parents didn’t trust me anymore and started viewing me as a problem child. I was hurt by everything that was happening but I just continued to abuse drugs to hide my pain. Eventually I got locked up and sent to juvenile for 6 – 9 months and I knew I had to change my life.

Letter 3

I have had problems with using you (drugs). No, it’s fun at first but then as I look back 6 years later and I see all the pain and hurt I put on myself and the ones I love the most. But when you use drugs, you don’t care or have any feelings for anyone. And now as I look back all I can do is work to be a better person and a better son for my mother. And another important thing I lost the most was giving up on my family, school and sports. I was really into baseball and I used drugs at a very young age and I didn’t feel like doing anything. And I have been homeless doing anything and everything to feel that high. And please trust every one of these words because it’s all true. And if you don’t – drugs will lead to jail, institution or death. O my???Are you ready for this…

Letter 4

When I first used drugs, I thought that drugs were fun and they had no negative impact. I smoked marijuana when I was 13. I used to smoke to fit in with friends and for the feeling of it. Now that I have been in treatment and have learned more about drugs I think that using drugs are not cool. They do have a negative impact on everything. They destroy family relationships. Also they are a threat to communities. They destroy young lives. This is how I feel about using drugs and how they hurt people’s lives and minds.

Letter 5

I was a brother, a son, a high school student, then I became a delinquent child, a number, a treat, a cellmate. Where was my brain, where was my family, nowhere to be found, instead I found the devil in the form of company. The streets, the homeboys, the girlfriend all came along on my road to destruction. Why did I take this path, it was drugs. I got smoked, I got drunk, I got a grip at happiness, but then it always slipped of my hands. My brother took the same road but never came back. This is when I realized the impact of drugs. This was a time of revelation; I accepted my wrongs, now I know a different road. My word to all is if drugs come, don’t be fooled, don’t hesitate to say NO, this way you don’t take this unknown road.

Letter 6

Drugs have affected my life and my neighborhood in a real negative way. I was on the football team and also a good student until drugs came into my life. It was all around my neighborhood and because of that the crime around my neighborhood was tremendous. People were doing any and everything to get the drugs they wanted. As I abused drugs and also selling them, my relationship with my family grew apart cause every time my dad would ask me to stop I would get offended and think he was saying things to try to hurt me and not telling the truth. I was stuck in my own world thinking that using and selling had no wrong to it. But when it comes down to it my dad was right. I was making my neighborhood worse. I was also causing harm to myself by using. I could have been a great football player and have a scholarship to a good college. But my decisions I made affected my life and a whole lot of other people’s lives also. SO DO THE SMART THING AND LEAVE DRUGS ALONE.

Letter 7

The negative affects that drugs had on me when I was using was they put me in a negative state. When using drugs I really didn’t care. When I was under the influence I would fight people, skip school and have bad relationships with people. The bad relationships I had was mainly with my family. Drugs caused a big trust problem with my family because I would lie about what I was doing and where I was going. Really when you’re on drugs, they change your personality and you yourself do not notice until after you realize what you’ve done and get help for it.