Quinten, 15, was taking some hits with a few of his older friends, from the pot they had scored from a local dealer.

He first started doing dope when he was fourteen. Peer pressure from the rest of the homies in his neighborhood gang had gotten to him. He and the other guys would skip classes and hang out in each other's houses if their parents weren't home. Since they lived in the ghetto, someone would always have some dope because it was so easy to get.

After taking a third hit, it started to kick in. Everyone was having a good time until someone hollered, "Five 0, Run!" Everyone split, scrambling in every direction trying to get away from the police. Quinten didn't get far because he was caught by one of the officers.

The next thing he knew he was down at the police station where they asked him some questions, and wrote him up in the criminal record book. Now he had a record. But he wasn't cooperating with the police, so they called his parents to come and pick him up.

Quinten's mom came walking into the station, mad. She stared at him hard as she walked past the counter and asked for officer Mitchell. After his mom had talked to officer Mitchell, they both came walking towards Quinten. Then they entered a room where they all could talk about his situation. Officer Mitchell told her that he might be given one more chance but he'd have to see. Before Quinten and his mother left, officer Mitchell told him that he would have to appear in court.

The next day Quinten's mom brought him to the court house and sat with him for his hearing. The judge said he would be given one more chance under one condition, that he would go into treatment for his marijuana problem. He agreed so he could get out of there quickly.

After Quinten was taken to the institute he remained by himself and at first didn't hang out with anybody. While he was there he saw some boys he knew when they were kids, and he made friends with them again. After he put in some theropy time at the institute he soon was out on the streets again.

It wasn't long till he was back into marijuana, though, and as the days went by he started using it more and more often. It became a thing he needed, or so he thought. He started stealing money from his parents, brothers and sisters just so that he could have a hit of marijuana. Soon he became so dependent upon it that he used up what little money he had for it. Then he borrowed so much money from people some of them were threatening to take his life if he didn't return the money.

It was too late when Quinten finally realized that he'd gotten into so much trouble it was now impossible to get out. Too many people were looking for him and he didn't have a way to pay them back. He was finally murdered at the age of only sixteen years old, just a couple of days before his seventeenth birthday.

by: Matthew Shorty