The Effects Of DRUGS: A Pawtionary Tale 🐾

When I was in middle school circa 1994, my health teacher assigned us a project. I don't remember the parameters -- whether it had to be about drugs & alcohol, or if I just chose that -- but while most of my peers made posters or wrote essays, I went straight for Cat Content.

Armed with my dad's camera, a roll of slide film, the family feline and a few props -- I created a cautionary tale. Or at least what I thought was a cautionary tale based on my limited knowledge of what drugs even were.  

I was a sheltered kid. The extent of my drug knowledge was limited to that one fried egg commercial, that other commercial with the kid who yells at his dad: "I learned it by watching YOU!", and a couple of school-sponsored puppet shows that stressed that whatever the peer pressure-ers tried to get me to do, I was to say No. 

But then came middle school, and we got a unit on drugs. So now I knew the names of some of them and that... um... well, I knew that they could cause you to get sick, go to jail, lose your loved ones, or even kill you. So with that information, I went for it. I created a story about a person (played by my cat) who got hooked on... well, something terrible.

Quick note: I'm not here to make light of what for many people is a serious subject. I'm here to share my 13-year-old self's school project, my cat's posing skills, and the absurdness of a naive kid presenting all this to her eighth grade class with a straight face. 

The effects of DRUGS: Marijuna (sic), Cocaine, Alcohol

(Because I had been led to believe those were all essentially the same.)

This is Darlyn... in his more innocent years. He may look grumpy, but he's had a great life. Look at all his friends!

But one day Darlyn went looking for trouble, and by gosh, he found it....

He sniffed some white powder, which as we all know can only be Drugs...

He used syringes and pills, which -- again -- Drugs.

Sometimes the Drugs would give Darlyn hangovers...

Sometimes the Drugs made him pass out cold...

He began stealing in order to get more money to buy Drugs...

Once he even ended up in jail...

He began hanging out in junkyards with his new Friends Who Liked Drugs. What did they do with each other in the junkyards? 

Drugs.

Sometimes the Drugs would make Darlyn really sick...

He sought medical help, but the doctors didn't have a cure.

Darlyn continued to self-medicate...

His lost many of his friends. They turned their backs on him.

He still had a few friends, but he'd lash out at them without warning.

What have I done with my life? he asked himself. I have ruined it with Drugs.

And then, because he drank too much alcohol and ate too much marijuna and cocaine, he, um, you know....

I told you I was a weird kid.