DRUGS ROBBED FRIENDS OF THEIR GIFTS

'Why I Won't Do Drugs'

It would be a mistake to try to lump all young people together as a "type,"
to try to identify them and the reasons they do drugs or don't do them in
neat categories. Their reasons are myriad, though healthy self-esteem comes
close to the top of the list of reasons why some are able to say "no."

Any young person with the humor and self-possession of Victor Jones, a
member of Pascagoula High School's class of 2003, is a step ahead of any
drug-temptation game going around.

"The greatest reason why I do not do drugs is extremely simple," Jones
wrote via e-mail from New Orleans, where he is in his freshman year in
biology/pre-med at Xavier University. "It has nothing to do with (not
disappointing) my mother or anyone else. It has everything to do with me."

Indeed, Victor was an outspoken participant in Sun Herald Drug Task Force
discussions of the drug problems among youths. He talked candidly about the
presence and prevalence of drugs among his peers, though he was an honors
student and senior class president.

He knows where he's going and he knows drugs will derail his train.

"I have personally seen the negative effects of drugs," he wrote. "I had
talented friends who were smart and athletic, and drugs took all of that
away from them; it robbed them of their gifts."

He goes on to say that wasting thousands of dollars to support a habit is
idiotic ("I am sure you know how poor I am as a college student," he wrote).

"Putting your life as well as all of those close to you on the line for an
hour of euphoria is wasteful. And besides, I have seen so many physical
effects of drugs.

"You lose weight, you get pale, you always look tired. Firstly, I cannot
afford to lose any weight, seeing as how I am 20 pounds under size for my
height. Secondly, I am a handsome guy, and I would love to stay that way
(he qualified that statement with Web shorthand for "laugh out loud," LOL)."

When all is said and done in Victor's world, common sense and self-worth
are enough to steer him on the right path.

"So my decision to not do drugs is not profound or either enlightening -
it's really pretty simple," simple only for someone who thinks as much of
himself and his future as Victor does.