How do you see yourself?

Are you a leader or a follower?

YOU are smart and YOU are capable of determining your own future. No one, not even your parents of friends, can make make the decision to be drug free for you. Here is some advice and things to consider to help you on your quest to be drug free:

• It is a personal choice, not a group decision whether or not to try drugs.

• You will make more money in your lifetime and be more successful at school, your career, and your personal life if you don't take drugs.

• Know the slang terms and nicknames for durgs so you can't be fooled. Some drug names sound fun and exciting (Holiday) - even harmless - and some are disguised to look and sound like candy (Stawberry Quik).

• Certain drugs contain things like rat poison, nail polish remover, paint thinner, and battery acid. These products and others are cheap to use and readily available. They produce a deadly high. Do you want these things in your body? Would you take them if they weren't mixed with other things? Does this sound like a good snack or lunch? Anytime someone offers you a drug, you don't know what ingredients have been cut into the mixture to make it cheap for drug dealers. The person you are buying it from is low on the totem pole and doesn't typically know what that particular concoction contains either. Don't risk it. 

• Taking a drug even one time is too many. There are inconsistencies in the ingredients and potency of drugs, even more now than ever. You don't know if that one time is going to kill you. It happens. Is your life worth risking? You can die or be seriously injured from just one try.

• Practice your responses to peer pressure ahead of time in a mirror so you are prepared if and when you are approached by someone and asked to try something.

"Hey, I'm just not into that."

"Look, I don't know what's really in it and neither do you, so I'm gonna pass."

"No thanks, I don't need it."

"No, I'm good."

"I've pledged to be drug free. That's my thing."

"I'm in this program called Test Yourself and I could be randomly drug tested so I can't."

"I am trying really hard to get enough points for (name an item) from the Test Yourself online store, so I don't want to blow it."

"Look, you are a really good friend so I hope you understand that I don't want to try it."

"If I don't know exactly what's in something, I'm not taking it."

The stronger you are about your statement, the more they will accept your answer and leave you alone about the subject. If you are firm, it is doubtful they will ask again. If you are not committed to a strong answer of "No" than they will try harder to pressure you. 

Keep you answers firm and simple with no room for negotiation. If they continue or if it is a stranger, simply walk away from the situation, leave the party or sleepover, and/or call someone you trust for help.