Lee's life was a total mess. He had been using drugs and alcohol for about four years now and it's really messed up his life. His parents weren't aware of his problem and they thought he was living a normal life. But Lee has been skipping school, and the times he attended he showed up high and never studied. A lot of his friends pressured him to come to school, but he never listened to them.

Before he started using drugs, he lived a normal life like any 17 year old. He used to get good grades in school and had a lot of friends. He always made time to make new friends and help other people out. His best friend, Mike would always help him out with problems he needed help on.

As with other teens, it was peer pressure that led him to drugs and alcohol. It started off one day when Lee was late for school. Then he was absent from school. At first, Mike thought he was just sick. But when he tried to ask Lee what was going on Lee said nothing was happening.

Meanwhile, Lee became more dependent on drugs, especially heroin and crack. Sometimes in class he would have really bad withdrawals. By then Mike and some of Lee's other friends knew he was hooked, and they tried to get him to talk to a counsellor about his problem. But he denied he was into drugs that bad. Then he started experimenting with alcohol on weekends, and he would get so wasted that he wouldn't be able to walk. Most of his old friends didn't want to be around him when he was stoned or drunk because he was real mean.

One weekend he really overdid it on both drugs and alcohol and he fell down on the floor and started convulsing. His friends didn't know what to do, so Mike called 911. Lee was transported to the hospital where the alcohol and drugs were pumped out of his system. It was then his parents found out about the problem, and they sent him to a rehab center after he recovered from the overdose.

After six months Mike finally recovered from his drug and alcohol addiction. But it was pretty hard for him to get over it. After that he went back to his normal life and finished high school. He wasn't the same, though, and had to struggle to maintain good grades. Later he went off to college and lived a good life.

Fred Alstrom