I am very close to someone who uses and abuses drugs. I will not use their name, say their relation to me or even so much as reveal their gender. Who this person is is not important, but what they had to say is life-changing. This drug abuser will not be identified as an addict because they are not addicted to drugs. They are addicted to the feeling and the security that they feel when using.

Over the Easter holiday weekend, I had a conversation with this person. They most likely have no idea that I was taking notes on what they were saying under the table. They also probably had no idea that what they were saying could possibly change someone's mind, open someone's eyes or even save someone's life.

Here are a few things that this drug abuser said to me during this discussion:

"If I could go back to the first time anyone ever offered me drugs, I would slap them in the face."

Not many drug abusers in this world are thankful for the person who got them hooked. All it takes is one person to convince someone to take one hit, and that is it. The easiest way to avoid a lifestyle of abusing drugs is just saying no, but I understand that it isn't as easy as it sounds.

"I was in a vulnerable state, and they knew they could get me."

Most drug dealers or pushers know exactly who to market to. Depressed, impressionable teens are at the top of this list. They look for people who are looking for a way out of their minds, and they run with it.

"Say I was at a party and a sexy guy/girl came up to me and my girlfriend/boyfriend wasn't around — that would be a temptation. That's what drugs are like. You take it and get a consequence. You don't take it, and life keeps going."

Again, all it would have taken for the person I am speaking of is to just say no, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Saying no to a physical temptation and saying no to drugs are virtually the same level of difficulty. Hence sex addicts, food addicts, etc.

"People do all kinds of things when they are going through times like I was. People eat, people have sex, people do this, people do that — but I chose this."

Drug abuse is not only the type of mental escape out there. There are many different types of activities that are being abused every single day just because someone doesn't have the power to say no.

Here are a few words that were used during our discussion:

"Numb."

"Detached."

"Vulnerable."

"Temporary."

"Impulse."

Which one of these words has a positive connotation?

None of them.

From the eyes and the mind of a drug abuser, all they had to do was just say no to that one person who offered them their first gateway. At the time that they took this first hit, they were most likely in a vulnerable state because if they weren't, they would have said no. Everyone knows that drugs are bad — end of story. Addiction is not the word for what is going on in the lives of many, many teenagers and young adults. The word for this is dependence. Some people feel as if they have nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and drugs are that temporary detachment from all of their problems. These drugs make them feel numb but only until the high is gone. This is when reality sets back in.