Pubdate: Fri, 02 Dec 2016
Source: Kamloops This Week (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Kamloops This Week
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1271
Author: John Noakes

THIS WAS A HOME BEFORE RECREATIONAL DRUGS

Editor:

A great teaching tool is an object lesson and one photo is often more
meaningful than 1,000 words.

Look at the attached photograph and try to envision the house that was
once there.

It was a gorgeous place, a house where a family lived and children
played.

The photo shows how it looked after it was on drugs.

I picture a young person having trouble coping with life and facing
peer pressure to get involved with recreational drugs.

Look in the mirror. You might only be 15 years old. Look at your long
beautiful hair, encasing brown eyes and a smile that would stop people
on the street. You have your whole life in front of you.

Instead of getting ready to go to school with your friends, you find
yourself early one morning looking at a place that scares you. You go
inside to find you know of animals that live better than this.

Maybe you had a fight with your parents or your mom is the caregiver
and she's given up.

You can't talk to her.

Maybe there are alcohol-related problems at home and you think
anything would be better than living like this. There are others who
will listen and care about you. Grandparents, an elder or the parent
of a friend could be the ones to whom you confide.

A long time ago, a wise man wrote these words: "There is a way that
seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

Make no mistake - such is the way of so-called recreational
drugs.

John Noakes

Kamloops
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MAP posted-by: Matt