DARE to keep the kids off drugs. It was a good idea, but did it work? I'm not sure yet. I could never have imagined that at my high school drugs would be a way of life, nothing out of the ordinary. Before this year, I thought that the only people who did drugs were losers who were not going anywhere, or people who had serious problems with their families. I never believed that I would be friends, let alone best friends, with people who did drugs. But almost all my new friends do it, almost all my friends whom I've grown up with are trying it, and I realize that drugs are so close to home, it's scary. I'm not even hanging out with the wrong crowd. It's the nicest people who do it - kids who are smart and popular and come from good homes. If someone asked me even last year if I would ever consider doing drugs, I would have been assertive in my "No," and probably swear it would always be that way.

All of a sudden what I held to be true and right for all of my life, doesn't seem so right anymore. If I'm the only one not doing it, then I must be wrong. It's not even the peer pressure, because my friends are pretty understanding, and even if they weren't, I could probably withstand the pressure. I want to do it for myself because everyone hypes it up - like it's such a great feeling, and you lose all your inhibitions, and it's harmless. It's also this whole new attitude of "I'll try anything once." Then I hear that once isn't enough, and sometimes not even twice. I'm scared that once it gets to be enough, I won't be able

to stop.

I haven't done anything yet, but with each new friend I make or party I go to, I'm faced with the question whether or not a good time is worth all the risks. I'm not going to end this by saying I've weighed the pros and cons, and have come to the realization that drugs can do no good, and I vow to stay as far away from them as I can. I really don't know what's going to happen in the future. I know I'm not the only one who is going through this. The answer - although some think it is an easy one - is still unknown to me. I really hope that I figure things out soon. ?