It’s difficult to understand the ultimate power of a substance whether it be a feeling of infinite power or a mix of chemicals that cause euphoria or powerful daydreams. Sometimes a person can cause either of these, powerful happiness or a chemical solution such as pheromones. Drugs are scary in their violent deconstruction of stability. They tear you down to the person you really are, no matter how many walls you set up against them. Very beautiful at times, the hallucinations some drugs cause are more addicting than the drug itself. No one can control themselves, we are all helpless in the face of our dreams.


And that’s why Jake was frightened by his friend Max’s powerful obsession with drugs. Sitting on his red plush couch located in an awkward little corner of a large room on the upper story of his family’s beautiful wooden house his mind wandered through Max and his friendship from the age of twelve when they met shyly during the first lunch of sixth grade. Jake began tossing a little basketball against his wall, each thud echoing recklessly in his mind. Max had moved to Eugene from Portland, Jake had no friends that went to this particular school. Jake had been sitting alone next to a trash can in the stone courtyard located in the middle of the school. Max had asked if he could sit by him. They hit it off just like that and they had been inseparable ever since.


FAST FORWARD: Max had new friends who did things that inspired Max to do things. Jake had tried these things and found them a frightening and powerful experience that people of their age could not control. These things were drugs. Weed, acid, shrooms, coke, angel dust, speed, smack, crack, ecstasy, all the way to house hold inhalants and prescription pills. Some were more dangerous than others, Jake had only tried a couple while Max did most of them on a daily basis, skipping class to smoke and popping pills during lunch. It took away the Max Jake knew. His mind just wasn’t all there anymore. Jake would sleep over and Max would thrash about in his sleep, nightmarish hallucinations raping his mind to the point he’d wake up crying. But Max wasn’t an addict of the drugs; he was an addict of attention and the feeling of belonging. He needed to feel accepted, everyone does, but Max thrived on it like no other Jake had ever seen.


Time ticked by to fast for Jake to really comprehend its beautiful meaning. Max would be coming over here and Jake was going to confront him for the final time. Their friendship was on the line and all the pieces were set, the board was ready. He knew Max would struggle and fight and beg, like he did with everyone else. Jake was ready though, his courage and resolve his left and right fists. His heart was in his gut thumping viciously.


There will always be drugs. There will always be addicts. We can’t blame the drugs for their affects because we are all given a choice. Yes or no? Give or take a few outside circumstances such as peer pressure, family stability, and mental issues, we are all born with it. Max was given a choice and he said yes to something he shouldn’t have and it took him to a place out of his control. In a few moments Jake was going to try and save his life. And every life is worth a chance at saving.