- I was nine years old when I first smoked marijuana.
- What?
- Yeah.
- Nine years old?
- Nine years old.
(cheerful music)
(laughter)
- Hi, I'm Forrest.
- Hey, I'm Telletian.
What's your name?
- Briana.
- Nice to meet you.
So, what do you know about drugs?
- Basically, it makes you drunk.
- What do you know about drugs?
- Uh, I don't know.
- They can be pills.
- I know that sometimes people do them
because they're upset or angry about something.
- Have you ever had experience with drugs and alcohol?
- No, no, no, no, not at all.
- So, you guys think kids don't do drugs or alcohol.
- No.
- Do you think I ever did drugs or alcohol?
- What do you think?
- No.
- Wow.
(laughter)
- Well, I have drank alcohol and done drugs and I am a kid.
- But how old are you?
- I am 16 right now.
I was nine years old when I first smoked marijuana.
- What?
- Yeah.
- Nine years old?
- Nine years old.
- I never saw a young kid like me do that.
I would never ever in my life of seven years,
I've never saw that.
- Yeah.
(laughter)
- What made you want to take drugs?
Did someone tell you like,
Bro, this is sic you should take some
and then you got addicted to it?
Or was it like?
- So, I grew up with a drug addict dad
and two older brothers that were
kind of like experimenting with drugs and stuff.
And so I guess I kind of just like grew up to think
that it was normal to do drugs and drink.
- Oh my God, okay.
- What does alcohol taste like?
- Alcohols like, they taste different.
They don't taste really that good though.
- If it doesn't taste good why does people even drink it?
- For the effect that it gives,
Like, the way it makes people feel.
Are any of your friends experimenting?
- Yeah, I have a few friends
that started to go down the wrong path.
- And how old are you?
I didn't ask you.
- I'm 15.
- 15, okay, yeah.
- Did you like take a drug and then
go higher and higher up the?
- Yes, I started with weed and drinking.
Then started eating mushrooms and doing acid
and then got into the powders like ecstasy and all that.
- Did you feel good when you did it?
- Yeah, to be honest I did.
It started out very fun.
Just getting high and drunk with friends.
At times, it made me feel very giggly.
It made me laugh a lot.
(laughter)
made me I guess like, comfortable and relaxed.
- Were you ever put in any dangerous situations?
- Um, some.
I mean, I was going to parties
and there were some dangerous people there and stuff.
Like people were getting stabbed and threatened.
I got threatened to get shot a few times.
And like, I did stupid stuff like
I climbed this school roof and jumped off of it.
I like almost broke my back.
- What made you decide to become sober?
- Um, life became unmanageable.
I even dropped out of school for a while.
I like punched my best friend in the face
and gave him a black eye.
And I felt terrible when I realized what I had done.
And it's like I looked at myself in the mirror
and I looked at someone I didn't even really recognize.
So that hit me so.
- When you stopped were you like
Hooray, I stopped!
- The first time I stopped yeah.
And they call it like the pink cloud
where you're like life is great
and you don't need alcohol.
But then I fell back into drinking alcohol again.
I tried to get sober again
and it was a lot harder the second time.
Are you guys addicted to anything?
Is there anything that you feel like you can't live without?
- Toys, candy, oh no, don't take that.
- Um, my stuffie dog.
- Stuffie dog?
- Yeah, for some reason I can't sleep without it.
So, it's kind of addiction.
- It doesn't sound so bad.
- Yeah.
(laughter)
- What do you recommend for like people
that their friends are maybe going down the wrong path?
- I recommend not being judgmental.
The people who stood out to me the most during my use
were people that like genuinely cared about me.
And weren't like don't do drugs
but were more like I care about you
and I see you going down this path
and it doesn't look like a good one.
- Who was your biggest supporter?
- I'm gonna say my dad.
Yeah, cause he also got sober
right around a little before I did too, so.
A big thing is this recovery high school I'm going to
so it's a high school
- Where they help you recover.
- Where they help you recover, yeah.
- Instead of like math, science,
- Well, no, so it's actually a school
and we still have all the subjects, right?
But all the students that go there
are sober and in recovery.
And at the end of each day we talk about sobriety is going.
And how recovery is going.
- Cool.
- Yeah, it's helpful.
- I've never heard of that.
Did you recover or did you?
- Um, I'm recovering.
Definitely not recovered.
- So, you're still recovering?
- Yeah, I mean, I'll be recovering for the rest of my life.
I remind myself every day that
I'm a drug addict and alcoholic
just so I know that I can't use or drink
normally like other people.
Yeah, so I have to put myself in check a lot.
- Will you help other people stay sober?
- Yeah, I will.
- Just like they did to you.
- Yeah, exactly, I'm going to try to pass it on.
- That's very kind.
- Yeah, yeah.
(laughter)
- Thank you.
- Yeah, thank you guys for listening.
- Thank you for sharing the story of drugs-land.
(laughter)
- You're welcome.
- And have a good life in college, good-bye.
- Bye!
- Alright, you guys have a good life too.
(laughter)
Hey I'm Telletian, thanks for watching Kids Meet.
If you want to learn more about my recovery high school
check for a link below.
(smooth music)