MY LIFE AND DRUGS

Copied from a earlier post on Clemens . . .

Please note the names and dates have been changed to protect the guilty (innocent? you be the judge).

I have written numerous times about the pitiful job our government is doing in protecting our youth from serious drugs. So why have I spent so much time blubbering on about this topic? It is because I have been surrounding by drugs in one form or another from my teens to my late 20's. And during this period I witnessed many people that I knew and cared about make bad choices with respect to drugs that changed their lives for ever. And in one circumstance end a life.

Moreover, when I look back on my life I realize that I was very fortunate not to have been one of those persons. It would have been quite easy for me to have made one severely poor decision; as I almost made several that could have changed my life for ever. From my experiences, I have no doubt that luck played a good part in me avoiding the perils of drug use and addition. I also believe that if my home life was just a "bit" more uncomfortable I probably would have decided to abuse drugs as a form of "self medication."

Really, it shocks me that parents don't realize how pervasive drugs are; but then maybe the parents I know “now” are not from the neighborhoods in which I grew up. And the parents that need to be concerned are too busy working two or three jobs just to keep things together. Ironically enough, it is this courageous effort to keep a family together that results in young kids having to make adult decisions regarding drug use.

Let me just say that I know that drug use is prevalent in middle and upper class families. As with any family, when parents are not around kids will have to make these type of adult decisions, or might explore their curiosities. However, I would argue that middle and upper class families have more resources to fix problems caused by their children making poor decisions. Therefore, the lower class kids that make these same decisions tend to suffer longer-term complications.

Therefore, when you consider the fact that our government has failed to stop the drugs from entering this country in any meaningful manner, and the fact that the long-term risks associated with drug availability and use by “poorer” families are potentially staggering, our government's handling of this matter is shameful.

I was the child of a single parent who worked full time while attending school full time. I spent most of my waking hours without parental supervision. From the time of 2nd grade, I remember getting myself ready in the morning and walking to school. Most of the time until high school my walk was between one and two miles each way. Not that bad, but less than ideal by today’s standards for a middle class family. And most of the time, my mother was busy until late at night.

Did I mention that until my late teens we were basically broke? Bottom line, I had lots of unsupervised time in which to get in to trouble; and I often took advantage of this opportunity. Can you say “troublemaker”?

I was a young kid having to make adult decisions; or at least a kid being presented with choices that required an adult's sensibility. So you can see how easy it would have been for me to make a very poor decision that I would have had to live with for ever.

There were a handful of times that I can remember in which I was an instance away from making such game breakers. I therefore consider myself lucky to have made it through all of these hurdles with relatively few abrasions. Some might even say it is a miracle, but I prefer the term lucky as I don’t consider myself any more deserving than anyone else that was in my situation.

Now back to the point of this rambling. Drugs were everywhere when I was a kid; especially when I was in high school. At my prom I can still remember the surprise on my date’s face when she saw all of the cocaine that was piled up on a table of one of my friend's room. Fortunately my drug of choice in high school was beer. Even so, beer often left me in situations that could have been very bad as I made many poor decisions. Decisions that I would not tolerate as a parent because of the potential risk to others, etc.

Two years after high school I think most of my friends had some type of drug problem. Two people that were close to me ended up going to federal prison directly (or indirectly?) because of drug use. This would ultimately change their lives and indirectly lead to the death of one of them.

Some of my friends had to go to rehab for their additions. However, no matter the degree of their drug use, everyone that I knew that played around with drugs ultimately had the course of their lives changed in some fashion.

For some it was a minor change, but it changed their lives nonetheless. For whatever reason, it was during this period that I started to look evermore to academics. I think the primary reason was I wanted a "way out." I wanted to escape from my surroundings and those around me, and I kind of knew that if I just worked very hard (and put blinders on) that I might find a better more supporting life. And you know what, I did, but I was lucky. Really lucky.

And let me tell you that the availability of drugs did not go away in college or even law school. Especially law school. Man there were a lot of "pot" heads at UCLA. And some used harder drugs to either pass the time or help them stay up to study. But in Los Angeles drugs are everywhere. Cocaine is everywhere. Methamphetamines are everywhere. And really most middle class parents just don't realize it.

Bottom line, because the federal government has failed to do the simplest task of securing our border, I think our government officials are to be blamed for the ongoing drug problems many or our kids face. And when I see these two-faced officials cross examine a professional athlete and accuse him of being a bad influence, it becomes apparent that we either have the dumbest officials ever representing us, or these officials are basically corrupt to the point where the interests of our kids are not any of their true concern; they are just using this professional athlete as smoke and cover for their own indiscretions.