I haven't done drugs in 18 years because I took too many drugs for 14 consecutive years.

I haven't done drugs in 18 years because I took too many drugs for 14 consecutive years.<br><br>I'm now a 42 year old man of reasonable wealth. I have a flawless record with the law and I'm in good physical shape. I have a beautiful wife who is always on my case about something. I have 2 kids that I love more than life itself. But all of that success came at a price.<br><br>I'm a child of the 80s. When I was 7 years old, motown legend Rick James was at the height of his powers. While wholesome kids were watching He-Man and the Thundercats, I was watching public service announcements telling me to just say no to crack cocaine. I often wondered, what is this magical powder that is capable of ruining lives? <br><br>Well, I soon found out. I snorted my first line of coke at age 8, and from that point on, I knew that drugs would be my passion. I would do anything to get my hands on them. I would do anything while I was on them.<br><br>Coke, crack, xanax, acid, mushrooms, ritalin, adderall, codeine syrup (known today as "lean"), pot, heroin, PCP, Vicodin, fishscale, Oxycontin, and lots and lots of nitrous oxide. I would do drugs for days at a time. I would dance in the middle of the highway for hours. I would hallucinate and talk to animals. I would rob stores. I would steal my dad's car and crash it into a cemetery fence. I would buy drugs with my friend's dad's credit card. I would shoot heroin with a syringe filled with my own piss in an effort to get high. I would drink and smoke all night and then take xanax in the morning so that I could sleep through the day.<br><br>I was a mess.<br><br>When I got clean, I didn't just stop doing drugs. I completely changed my environment. I moved, deleted drug dealers' phone numbers, stopped going to clubs, and I completely cut out people I used to get high with. I didn't go to rehab, I just quit. Well, I quit after 2 months of non-stop heroin benders, but I eventually quit.<br><br>I didn't realize it then, but when I was a kid, doing drugs was like joining a gang. When I got clean, I was a former gang member. You have to leave your entire life behind in order to leave the "gang". Imagine being told that in order to leave the crips, you must not only stop selling crack, you have to change your clothes, move to a different neighborhood, and stop hanging out with your childhood friends. When you're a drug addict, it's empowering to know that you can walk away from anything at any time.<br><br>People always ask me "Don't you miss being high?" No, I don't. The last time I got high, I did so much GHB that I couldn't feel my limbs or my heartbeat. At that point, it's not fun. It's scary and uncomfortable. And it was expensive.<br><br>I don't miss being high because my life is better without drugs. I'm a completely different person now than I was when I was using drugs. I still like to have fun, but now I can go a whole day without thinking about drugs. And the best part is, the more I stay away from drugs, the less I think about them.