But it wasn’t just marijuana,

(For privacy purposes I will not be revealing any information about the people I mention in this blog. Everyone will simply be referred to as a friend.)

I think it’s a pretty widely accepted fact that high school students come into contact with marijuana, and yes, most of them try it. But how do you feel about fourth graders being exposed to it? That’s how old I was the first time I saw drugs at school. My classmate had a stash in his crayon box, which he showed me when the teacher wasn’t paying attention.

Growing up in a border town exposes youth to a drug culture that I have come to understand is not the norm. Drugs flow up from Mexico to be distributed throughout the United States and border towns are the first stop. On the surface Bisbee may appear charming and quaint, but if you look a little deeper, you’ll find a different story.

My reputation in Bisbee was that of a “good kid.” I was always on the honor roll, I was an athlete, I was in student council, yearbook, national honor society… Yet, this culture even found its way to me. I was in the eighth grade the first time I came across a drug other than Marijuana. One of my friends showed up to a slumber party with “Angel Dust”. The rest of us didn’t really know what to think, and most of us didn’t try it, but some did… we were only 13.

And then came high school. I think what marijuana is to most high schools, cocaine is to Bisbee High School. It didn’t take long before I saw friends sniffing the white lines up their nostrils. Coke was a common thing. Most often I would see it at parties, but in reality is was everywhere. It was in people’s cars, it was in people’s wallets, it was in people’s lockers, everywhere. Usually I saw people sniffing it, but once or twice I walking in on a lighter heating up a spoonful to be smoked. If a Bisbee High School student wanted to buy a baggie of coke during lunch hour it wouldn’t have been hard. And the teachers and administration all seemed oblivious. One time, during my first period English class, the subject of drugs came up. We let on to the fact that drugs were very prominent at school and our teacher was absolutely shocked, so was I. I was shocked he didn’t know.

But the students didn’t just use, they dealt too. Someone very close to me got caught up in it and it destroyed our relationship. First he sold only weed, but then he moved on to coke and things got bad. He had access to such large amounts of drugs, that he got hooked. I continually struggled with him over it, but my words fell on deaf ears.

One night, at about 1 a.m., he called me crying and I could tell that he was completely coked up. He quickly ended our conversation and left me on the other end worrying. I decided to drive to his house. When I got there the house was silent, and I peered into his room, but it was empty. Then I heard him crying in the bathroom. I opened the door and a wave of shock ran over me. There was blood everywhere; smeared across the walls, on the bathtub, on the toilet, in the sink, on the floor, and worst of all, all over my friend. I began to panic, but calmed down a little when I figured out it was all coming from his nose. He was shaking, and crying, and talking incoherently. He was terrified that his parents were going to find out so I went to work cleaning up the mess. After I had everything in order, I moved him to his bed and held him in my arms for hours, hoping he would be okay, until he finally calmed down. I’m not going to tell of all of my troubling stories because I could go on and on, but I will say that as a young teenager I dealt with situations like this one far too often.

To make matters worse, some got involved beyond personal use and small time dealing. One of my friends made quite a bit of money driving pounds of marijuana from Bisbee to Tucson. Dealers in Mexico would hook up with dealers in Bisbee, who would pass the drugs on to my friend for transportation to Tucson. Having a young teenage face made it easier to get through Border Patrol stops without being searched.

The heavy drug culture that circulates around Bisbee’s youth is detrimental and undiscriminating. It can find its way to even the “good kids” without much effort. But at that time it didn’t really strike me as unusual. I’d been dealing with it since fourth grade and didn’t know anything different. Now that I’m out of Bisbee, even though I’m much older, I come across drugs far less often. I’ve talked with friends from other areas of the country and when I tell my stories they’re amazed. As far as I can tell, most high school students didn’t face the influence of drugs nearly as much as those of us who attended a border town high school.

Now I worry that the effects are becoming even more harmful. After I graduated and moved away, the meth craze began. Stories from Bisbee about high school students destroying their lives make it to me every so often. Meth is such an addictive drug that even students who plan on trying it once, end up completely ruining their futures.

Honestly, I’m just glad I made it out.