by Casey Clay

Created on: August 02, 2007   Last Updated: July 31, 2008

To answer this particular question I have to go with my personal experience. When I was growing up I went through many different drug and alcohol prevention programs such as DARE while in school. So did all of my classmates. I took a lot away from those programs and made a decision early on to abstain from consuming alcohol and other drugs. However, many of my classmates chose a different path for themselves.

When I was in high school I experienced the loss of one of my good friends in a drug related car crash. I thought that my friends and classmates would learn an important lesson from this incident.

Unfortunately they did not.

Later that same year, two of my schoolmates were sent to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

A year later, one of my schoolmates was paralyzed from the neck down due to an alcohol related crash where she and the driver were both under the influence. The driver, an individual who I had worked with during a summer job, spent time in prison because of his role in the car crash.

Later that same year my hometown lost another young person due to an alcohol related crash.

Six months later the papers reported the loss of another young person whose name I knew.

In 2006 I lost another good friend who I had known since I was 4 years old. We attended the same daycare. We played on the same football team and wrestling team. His short 21 year life was ended one night as he drove home under the influence of alcohol.

All of these individuals went through the same program that I did. I was exposed to alcohol and drugs just as much as my friends were. I never drank any alcohol before I turned 21. I still don't drink any alcohol. While I think that there are many different reasons for my experience with drugs and alcohol when compared with my friends and classmates, I think that there is one that played a greater role than the others.

I think that my experiences can be traced back to my home. My parents did not have a no-tolerance policy when it comes to alcohol. Actually, I spent a lot of time at a bar when I was younger. My mom was a bartender at a time in my life when most of my friends were first experimenting with drugs and alcohol. My father drinks fairly often. My mother drinks occasionally. Because of this, there was always beer and alcohol available at my house. Yet, I never seemed to actually have any of it.

When in high school and junior high my parents told my sisters and me that if we wanted to drink that we could do it at home. I never took

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