To print
this article,
go to the
FILE menu
and choose
PRINT

I remember the temptation to take a performance-enhancing drug. I was in college on a football scholarship. I was small for my position but showed a lot of promise. A respected and revered upperclassman approached me and suggested that I do a cycle of steroids for strength
and size. I remember him saying, "Steve, you don't have to take them forever, just do one thirty-day cycle for strength and size." The pressure was on. I wanted to do well, play in the pros one day, but I believed my size was a handicap. After I thought for a moment, I soon realized that taking steroids would contradict all of my personal standards and beliefs. I resisted the temptation realizing that if I couldn't get my strength and size gains naturally, it was probably something I wasn't intended to have. And unexpectedly, I did gain the strength and size needed to compete in the National Football league (in fact now I wish the size part would slow down).

More importantly drugs, simply put, are an artificial attempt to accomplish a desired state. Whether it is a state of happiness, peace, joy, craziness or whatever, drug use is the loser's way of trying to measure up. Drug use is the quitter's way of pacifying the enemies of their dreams. The challenge is not to bore you with statistics of the damaging effects of drugs; most of us know they are dream-killers and heart-stoppers. The challenge is not to point fingers, threaten or belittle. The ultimate challenge is to convince the student who is considering first-time drugs that the best decision is simply not to try it. Choose to have a life!

It seems as though "weed" as it is sometimes called sneaks into the lives of our friends and classmates unannounced. We end up at a party or being at someone's house who fires up a blunt and before we know it we've compromised. My philosophy stays the same. It's not the statistics we need to know to make the right decisions. It's our dreams we need to know. What are your dreams for life? What are the visions in your mind for your ideal world one day. What does it look like for you? I had to ask myself those questions when confronted with the option of smoking weed. I had to eliminate weed as an option because I knew that I could not advance towards my heart's desires with the distraction of a hallucinating mind. My question became, "Why gamble with my dreams for the sake of momentary pleasure?" Marijuana is a drug. It is a hallucinogen. It distorts reality for a little while. Yet the real issues of life always remain. If there is ever a time that we need clear thinking, it's in our teenage years. Any daily newspaper can remind us of the tragedy of a teenager who faced the terrible consequences of unclear thinking. Keep your mind clear, dream your dreams, and please don't mess with the weed.

Since I travel throughout the country I can easily document the shameful testimonies of students who pledged only to experiment with drugs yet in the end they became sadly aware that even casual use could lead to catastrophic consequences. If you are using drugs, consider yourself asleep in your bedroom while no one is home. Unbeknownst to you, there is a fire in the kitchen. You can't smell smoke yet but it soon will choke away your oxygen. You can't feel the heat yet, but fire is destroying your house. You need a wake up call to get out of the house now! Ignore the wake up call, the house and all of your stuff will incinerate. If you are using drugs now, this is your wake up call, get out of the house now! Get help to save the house, your house, you! Ignore this wake up call and all of your "stuff" will be incinerated. What is your stuff? Your dreams, goals, hopes, gifts, talents, and even the generations that yet remain inside of you are at stake. It is your "stuff" that you are about to lose.