For a month I had been thinking about smoking weed. I 
had smoked it many times before, but this time I had 
been clean and sober for about three months. So I 
figured that it’s not a big deal to do it again. 
Besides, during the three months of being sober things 
were not working out in my life. I was having trouble 
in school and at home with my family. I felt like I 
needed to escape from everything that was going on and 
the only way I knew how was through smoking weed.
One day I mentioned to my friend that I wanted to 
smoke weed. She discouraged me from smoking and didn’t 
like that I was thinking about it. She told me she 
cared for me and that she was there to help me make 
good decisions and that there were other things that I 
could do besides smoking. She tried to help me make 
the right decision, but ultimately it is always up to 
me. 
A day finally came when I just couldn’t take it 
anymore and I needed to escape. I felt like 
everything, including my life, was a mess. I was tired 
of everybody B.S.ing me for no good reason and I was 
tired of everything that was going on. So I decided to 
smoke some weed. I was home alone with no one around 
to tell me what to do and I wasn’t thinking about 
anybody or anything. I thought only about escaping 
this nonsense. 
When I got high I laid on the floor in my room. 
Everything was quiet and no one was around that I 
could hear, inside or outside. It was just me alone in 
my own little world, which was a great relief from 
everything that was going on outside my life. It felt 
so good while it lasted. But eventually I came back to 
reality, back to all the B.S. 
Besides the B.S. came the consequences. I knew I 
couldn’t keep this away from my friend who didn’t want 
me to smoke. I knew I had to tell her. I couldn’t lie 
to her and tell her that I handled the situation 
differently. Lying would have felt wrong. 
At first I was afraid to tell her what I had done 
because I didn’t know how she was going to react or 
how she was going to feel after all she had done for 
me. I didn’t want to face the consequences of my 
wrongdoing and how it might affect our friendship. I 
feared that she would be mad and her trust in our 
friendship might be ruined. 
When I told her I was nervous and afraid. I wrote her 
a note saying that I needed to tell her something but 
that I didn’t want to tell her because it was going to 
change our friendship. After reading the note she 
assured me that it wasn’t going to change anything. I 
guessed she thought I was going to say something 
positive. But as the day progressed she started 
figuring out that what I needed to tell her was not a 
good thing. 
In the end I didn’t have to tell her what I had done, 
she already knew. She still wanted me to tell her 
myself, but I couldn’t. I’m not sure why I couldn’t 
say what I had done. I guess I thought, “you already 
know so why do I have to say it?” But I finally told 
her myself. 
After I told her that I smoked pot again she asked me 
why I did it, what was I thinking and when did I 
smoke. I remember her telling me that at the moment 
she didn’t know what to think or how to feel because 
she didn’t know why I had done it. At that moment I 
couldn’t look her straight in the face because I was 
disappointed in myself that I had let down a person 
that cared for me. At times when I would look at her, 
she looked sad, mad, and disappointed. Looking at her 
made me feel worse inside. 
The next day I gave her a written explanation of when 
I smoked weed, why I did it and what I was thinking. 
Later on that day she told me that our friendship 
wasn’t really ruined, but that the trust she had for 
me was. She said she still trusted me, but not as much 
as before and that I had to gain her trust back. She 
also told me she still cared for me and that I had a 
second chance. To me it was a big surprise that I got 
a second chance because some people rarely do that. I 
really appreciated that. 
Up to this day I’m still working on gaining her trust 
back, which isn’t easy. I learned that doing drugs 
doesn’t solve problems, but makes them worse. The high 
that you get from smoking weed only lasts a certain 
amount of time, but your problems will remain. I also 
learned to not put a really good friendship on the 
line for drugs. 
If you are considering smoking, please consider the 
following: Marijuana could lead to many different 
consequences like short-term memory loss and a 
difficult time thinking. The long-term effects are 
cancer and problems with lungs and airways. Also, you 
could lose a good friend.