From Joyce
For the first fourteen years of my life, I had never encountered anything related to drugs because I had always been well-protected by my parents. I didn't even get to think about drugs; the idea was really, really far-from-home to me. Yet as I grow up, inevitably I get to meet a more diverse crowd and within them, I got to know a girl who takes marijuana. She was my roommate at summer school last year. With no doubt, she's a brilliant teenager, with great debating skills and everything that she needs for her to succeed. Yet somehow, she came into touch with marijuana, and it changed her completely. It changed her dream from becoming a successful politician to becoming a marijuana farmer. She had made great speeches advocating the legalization of marijuana, yet whenever I hear her speak, I feel sorry for her. She is wasting her own talents. That's my only encounter with someone who uses drugs and it definitely gives me the strength to say a firmer “No” to all of them.

From Leah
I never used drugs as a teen, and I still do not use drugs as a young adult. I do know that at my high school, many students used drugs in the bathrooms. My school used to lock the bathrooms to prevent girls from smoking (not just cigarettes) in there, but that was not a good solution, since there would be only one bathroom on the entire campus that would be unlocked, it tended to be very unclean. Doing drugs might, in the short run, make you feel better, but will ultimately bring you down further than you were to begin with. Even doing drugs ONCE can kill you, it doesn't take much. The bottom line is that doing drugs can ruin your life. Let’s say you get caught at school. It may go on your permanent record and it'll be much harder to get into college or get a job if you have a history of drugs. If you have a "friend" who is pressuring you to do drugs, then they are not really your friend. Friends DO NOT hurt friends.