Drugs
Marijuana: Deciding to quit

Do you believe the warnings about marijuana?
Oronde didn’t. He hopes you can learn from his experience.

The earlier a young person uses marijuana the greater the risk for mental health problems later in life. This is proven in a survey of medical research.

But young people who’ve used marijuana say they already have noticed the drug’s negative affects.

Oronde noticed that marijuana affected his ability to focus in school. “I was too high to do anything,” He says. “I wasn’t into studying.”

Gradually, he started to think there might be a link between how he felt, and his use of marijuana. “It takes away your drive for life,” he says.

Oronde hung out on the streets with a group of guys that used drugs, were fighting and getting into trouble.

“My whole life just went horrible at that point,” he says. “I remember getting chased through parks by police. I got stripped search at the basketball court once.”

One night Oronde was leaving a party. They guy who walked out the door in front of him was shot and killed.

“Shots were fired and he just drops to the front porch bleeding,” he says. “If I had been the first one out that door I doubt I'd be here talking to you right now.”

That was Oronde’s wake up call. He had ignored his mother and dad’s pleas to talk with them and to stop running the streets. Now he knew he needed them.

“I thought they would just be tearing me down, yelling at me and screaming,” he says. “That's the main thing I pictured. But they just wanted to help me.”

Oronde and his parents talked about what it would take for Oronde to turn his life around. It wasn’t easy, but he quit using marijuana. He admitted that just to quit using marijuana wasn’t enough. He needed a plan.

“I made a list of all the things that I definitely had to change in order to make myself a better person,” he says. “For one thing, I definitely had to stop running with the wrong crowd. I had to try to leave the drinking and the drugs alone and try to do something with my life. I wasn't currently doing anything. I had no idea I was headed.”

With his parent’s support and guidance, Oronde enrolled in a training and education program called Job Corp.

“I'm currently taking computer technology,” he says. “ I know how to put a computer together by bits and pieces. My instructors love me. I've got plenty of friends. I'm doing well in all my classes. I never felt that I had options for my life before ‘til now.”

Oronde urges others who think marijuana is a harmless drug to look at the facts and remember his story.