When she was in her teens, Shannon R. began searching for “something magical to help me be happy every day.” Marijuana, though enjoyable, wasn’t enough. Ecstasy was “tons of fun, but I never felt like, ‘Oh my God, I want to do this every day.’” And mushrooms and other psychedelics unnerved her. Then when she …
Finding a Different Kind of Magic in Life After Meth Read More »
About the fifth morning of his stay at addiction rehab, an unusual thing happened to Basim H. He awoke with a smile on his face. “A kind of happiness had returned to me,” he remembered, “and that’s when I started realizing that all the drinking and drugs I’d been using for so long — I …
When Paul* traces the history of his troubled relationship with marijuana, he points to a moment from early childhood. “It was 1976 and we were at a lake we went to every weekend, and I remember someone was smoking pot on a different boat and the smell wafted across and I said, ‘What is that?’ …
After 30 Years of Marijuana Use, the Smoke Clears Read More »
Becky R. believes in miracles. How else can she explain the change in her life from two years ago when she heard a judge say these words after her arrest for selling ecstasy to an undercover agent: “You will spend a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 45 in the Illinois Department of …
Movies and TV portray alcohol and drug use as synonymous with college. Little wonder then that incoming students often expect (and their parents fear) that their educational experience will be one big party.