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Massachusetts Teen Alcohol Abuse
Prescription Drug Abuse Connecticut
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Do you have a teen
or pre-teen loved one that suffers from drug and/or alcohol abuse?
"Underage drinking presents an enormous public health issue. Alcohol
is the drug of choice among children and adolescents. Annually, about 5,000
youth under age 21 die from motor vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries,
and homicides and suicides that involve underage drinking."
"In 2006, 1.4 million youth ages 12 to 17 needed treatment for an alcohol
problem. Of this group, only 101,000 of them received any treatment at a
specialty facility."
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism |
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ECSTASY - REAL STORIES OF TEENS LIKE YOU
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California
Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse Facts
A real story from a kid not so different from you who have
struggled with drug addictions. Read about how this teen life
changed because of his involvement with drugs of abuse and
the challenges he faced turning his life around.
"E" is for Empty: Daniel's Story
By Laura D'Angelo
Adapted from Heads
Up: Real News About Drugs and Your Body, Scholastic, Inc.,
2003.
Daniel, 17, of San Clarita Valley, California, wanted prom
night to be special. So, he reached into his tuxedo pocket
and took out pills stamped with images of Tweety Bird and
Buddha. Ecstasy (also called E, X, XTC, Adam, hug, love drug,
and beans) looked harmless enough. But Daniel found out the
hard way how dangerous it can be.
"My heart was racing so fast. I thought I was having a heart
attack," Daniel said. A friend helped him into the prom because
his legs wouldn't stop trembling. The dance floor was located
on a Hollywood movie set. Daniel tingled from head to toe.
"Then I hit a peak," he said. "I felt like a movie star."
Later at a friend's house, Daniel crashed into gloom and confusion.
He swallowed two more "E" pills. Taking multiple doses within
a relatively short time multiplies the toxic risks of any
drug. With ecstasy, "stacking," or doubling the dose, carries
especially high risk. The level of ecstasy builds and the
user's body can't keep up with the amount of drug in his or
her blood. That's what happened to Daniel.
"I lay down and couldn't lift my head," he said. "My legs
were rocking back and forth."
The following weekend, Daniel dropped "E" at a rave where
some 200 kids danced on a dirt clearing. Before long Daniel
was selling ecstasy. "I'd walk into raves and yell E and people
would crowd around. I felt a sense of power." With the profits,
he bought more ecstasy which he took often, always with other
kids. "I did drugs so I didn't have to feel alone," he said.
When Daniel's father worked nights, friends flocked to his
house. Adorned with glow-in-the-dark shirts and beads, they
danced to trance music and chewed pacifiers to keep their
teeth from grinding.
Lives Destroyed
Soon Daniel was dropping up to five "E" pills a day. Desperate
to feed his habit, he started selling cocaine and Methamphetamine
as well as ecstasy. "I was skinny. My skin was the color of
paper. My teeth were rotting out," Daniel said. "I would steal
anything I could get my hands on. I stole valuables from my
dad. I didn't see anything wrong with the way I was acting."
Once, a friend's mother wanted to buy drugs from Daniel. When
he delivered the bag of speed to the house, Daniel watched
his friend's face crumple in sadness. "I felt really bad.
I saw lives being destroyed because of what I was doing,"
he said.
On New Year's Eve, Daniel's girlfriend called him a "drug
addict" and a "lowlife." He jumped out of her car. "Staring
at the city hotels and gas stations, I thought I'm going to
be living alone in the streets and that scared the daylights
out of me," Daniel recalled.
The next morning, he went to his father and said, "Dad, I
need help."
New Year/New Beginning
A resident of a drug-treatment center in Lake View Terrace,
California, Daniel has been clean for six months. He's gained
weight, and he cares about himself again. But he worries about
ecstasy's effects. "I feel like I've suffered brain damage,"
he said. "Sometimes I get stuck in conversations, because
I can't find a word." Other times he walks the unit and stops
in horror, forgetting where he's going.
Daniel is trying to understand his past and piece his life
back together. "I got into drugs because I felt like no one
liked me. Then nobody wanted to be around me because of the
drugs, and I ended up completely alone," he said. "I feel
like a new person now."
On how he felt when he was on ecstasy:
"I didn't care about anyone or anything. I just cared about
doing my own thing, selling and partying. I'd take out anyone
who got in my way."
"Ecstasy is a roller coaster. It brings you up so high that
you feel like you're on top of the world. When you come down
you feel like a complete outsider, like you don't belong anywhere."
On how he saw ecstasy affect others:
"I'd see people get real bad with E. They'd sell the shirt
off their backs. This guy once offered me his dirt bike for
40 pills. People tried to give me watches and stuff that I
knew they stole from their families. Another guy wanted to
give me a bunch of women's jewelry and a 40-speed bike for
a couple pills of E."
On what he'd tell other kids:
"I'd like to join an N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous) panel and
talk to kids who are using. I'd tell them, Get out while you
can. It starts out as all fun, games and parties but it leads
to real nasty things. You become your own worst enemy."
From Scholastic,
Inc and the Scientists of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services
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