Narcotic Consequences

I believe people should learn the consequences of doing drugs, rather than ruining their dreams and future over wrong choices. Many of my friends would come up to me at school and tell me my cousin was selling drugs. I knew my cousin so much more than that, and chose not to believe them.

My family all met at my grandmothers for Easter like every year. Except this time it was different. Someone was missing. My cousin. I began to question where he was, my Aunt said he never came home that night. She said he does it all the time. Later that night, he was put on house arrest for running away. But it didn’t stop there.

His life was just beginning to all go down the drain. He started hanging around the wrong crowd, doing things he’s never done before. This definitely wasn’t the cousin my family all knew and loved. He would get random pee tests and none of them ever came up negative. He always had drugs in his system. Something had to be done about this. He quit basketball, one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He was one of the top players for the school and could have gotten a good scholarship from it. His grades were slipping, and he was rejecting everyone who tried to help.

One morning at school, I got the text message of a new start. He texted me from his mothers phone telling me he loves me, and he’ll miss me, and he’ll never know when he’ll see me again. My eyes started to water as I could only imagine what he was talking about. Stress was lifted off my shoulders when he told me his parents were sending him away to a place in Cumberland where he could still get an education, rehab on drugs, and he could get his life back on track. Tears poured down my face. Part of me was happy, but another part was broken. He’s the closest family member I’ve ever been to, and he was leaving for who knew how long. Every week I wrote him a letter. When I got a reply, it was the happiest day of my life. He was telling me how he enjoyed it where he was. This was a sign that he was finally changing.

Two months later my cousin arrived home a new person. His family and mine saw a change in him. We couldn’t be happier to finally have our old family member back. I’ve learned a lot from him. Now I know what smart choices to make, and what choices not to make.

Just when I thought all worries were over, my best friend started getting into the same thing. He wasn’t doing drugs, but he was trying to sell them. We were walking up the steps one day and I happened to notice a pill lying on the ground. Without thinking, I stupidly pointed it out. He grabbed it and said he wanted to take it home and find out what it was. I knew he wouldn’t take the pill, but it’s still risky to hold on to it. I tried talking him out of it, but he pushed me aside. It hurt me to watch him talk to the one girl who was brain washing him into selling them to her during lunch. But every time I tried to talk to him about it, we would end up arguing and he would tell me I’m just jealous. But that wasn’t the case at all. Then suddenly out of nowhere, the one thing I dreaded, happened. A boy came up to me telling me by best friend had gotten caught with those pills. I didn’t believe him. “Stop playing with me,” I laughed.

“Lindsay I’m being serious, he really did get caught. He tried running to the bathroom but you know that did him no good.”

I didn’t know what to think. So many things were running through my mind at once. I texted him saying please tell me your okay. A few hours later, I got the reply saying nope. I cried, I didn’t know what would happen to him. They weren’t his pills; he wasn’t going to take them. How could this happen to him? It wasn’t fair at all. My best friend ended up getting suspended for ten days, and charged with possession of narcotics. We didn’t even have ten days left of school! I had so many questions that needed to be answered. He would miss the reviews, his finals, turning in his books, cleaning out his locker. Next year he would be suspended for four days at the beginning of the school year since it has to carry on. The last thing he needs is to fail. It’s so hard to believe that the one day he had a pill on him, he got caught with it. He wanted to join the navy, but now he won’t be able to. This will affect him from getting future jobs. His future and career have been ruined over a little mistake. I wish he would have listened to me, but hopefully he learned his lesson. My cousin and best friend learned the consequences of drugs the hard way, but now hopefully they’ll make smarter choices in their future.