Real-Life Stories Warn of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Among Teens

The hall is booked, the tickets sold and the DJ scheduled. has ensured students at Friday’s prom will have it all–even the resolve to forgo drugs and alcohol.

LHN’s anti-drug/alcohol group, Example, hosted a town-hall assembly on Wednesday that brought prom-goers face-to-face with individuals who have directly experienced the effects and consequences of drug and alcohol use.

“We have invited a panel of experts–recovering addicts and emergency medical technicians, and others–to discuss the dangers, realities and alternatives to drug and alcohol use,” said John Brandt, LHN English department chair and Example adviser.

Panelists included Macomb Township Fire Chief Robert Phillips, Detective John Perry of the Macomb County Sheriff’s Youth Bureau, LHN alumnus the Rev. Josh Ball and two individuals who shared their own experiences with overcoming addiction.

“I was 14 when I started drinking,” said a teen panelist. “I think everyone at some point in time is going to have a drink or two–that’s American society–but it’s a matter of how far you want to take it. I took it to an extreme.”

The teen panelist, who introduced himself as Korey, said he is still dealing with the repercussions of his four minor in possession charges.

A second panelist, introduced to the audience as Alicia, shared her unique experience as a former alcoholic having to discuss the issue of underage drinking with her own children.  

“I started drinking when I was 13 and by time I was 16, I was a full-blown alcoholic,” she said. “I’ve been in recovery for many years. I had a false sense of security (for my children) that there would never be alcohol in my home. It’s a frightening thing knowing where (alcohol use) can go. As a parent, you’re walking a fine line between wanting to trust your kid and knowing about peer pressure.”

While panel members agreed not every individual who drinks or takes a drug will become an alcoholic or addict, they stressed to students that it is far easier to forgo use than to recover from overuse.   

“I think for everybody, it’s a matter of how far you’re willing to take it,” Korey said. “It was my choice to take it to the level I took it to. The situations I put myself in and people I surrounded myself with were conducive to that behavior. I made a choice.”

From his experience in the Youth Bureau, Perry said it is far more common that a friend offers a drink than a stranger.

“I’m just here to tell you, it’s not going to be a stranger that is going to come up to you and say, ‘Hey, I bought all this beer, let's have some beers together,’ it’s going to be your friends–your good friends,” Perry said.

Perry, Phillips and Ball discussed the more deadly consequences of alcohol use from their work in law, medical response and the church, respectively.

“It’s my God-given right to clean up the mess,” Ball said. “In a worldly way of looking at it, a drunk hits and kills somebody at the side of the road. Police come, fire come, EMS comes, someone is dead and someone is going to jail. The judge speaks and then clergyman has to come and clean up the mess and we hope and pray people will listen.”

Phillips shared his own experiences from the scene of accidents caused by drunk drivers.

“I have placed everyone from 5-day-old babies to 80-year-old grandparents in body bags due to drunk drivers,” he said. “I’ve been on the scene when family members show up to find out their family member has been killed due to drunken driving.”

LHN will host its prom on Friday at Cherry Creek Golf Course in Shelby Township.