LETTERS: CHS GRAD TALKS ABOUT METH WOES

To the editor:

I want to speak about the meth problem to all of our youths. I graduated from Central High School in 1987. I remember how plentiful weed was in my high school days, so I can imagine what the meth is like in our high schools.

The day I graduated, I decided to stay away from drugs. But as the years passed, a devil drug came into our community. I didn't miss the opportunity to try something once. I liked it at first, but I always though it was controllable. Before I could turn around, the devil drug had me, and I didnt even know it.

At first I was buying the drug for recreation, but after six months I saw I was in the middle of something I couldnt control. I went from buying the drug to selling possessions of mine and my familys to dealing the drug to support my habit. One day I was doing OK in life. The next I was in something I had no control over.

My world became nonsense. My life became a nightmare. To forget it all, I did meth, which made me feel like I could do anything. After a while, I couldn't look people in the face because of the shame I felt inside. So I would isolate myself from the world like most meth users do.

I wish I could explain to the younger crowd about the way drugs will take your life. You don't have to be a violent person or a criminal to be in the drug web. I always thought that I was only hurting myself. But now I know that I hurt a lot of people, including my family.

I want to say this for the parents of the younger people: Don't ignore the thought of your kid being on drugs, because while you're ignoring it, the problem is getting to be uncontrollable. Your boy or girl could be failing in life before your very eyes, and you might not even know it.

I sit in a 6-by-9-foot cell in a Wisconsin federal prison. I haven't seen my family in seven months. I'm not due to see the outside of these fences until 2014. I work for $15 a month. I see activities every day that are not normal to the world. I walk with eyes in back of my head everywhere I go.

For you Central High School kids, ask your teachers about Mark Abbott. I was a normal student. It goes to show you that meth will take your life one way or another, no matter what you do. So please don't let meth take your life. I beg you.

MARK ABBOTT

Oxford, Wis.