"I want to stop myself from doing drugs before it's too late. I want to get clean and turn my life around before I start taking harder drugs."

Mia-louise

"I don't miss the fact that now when my lips move it is more than likely I am actually telling the truth."

Jane S

"I don't miss the fear that arose when I'm driving my car every time a police car hovers into view."

Steven

"My lowest point was when I realised I was stealing money from my daughters Christmas presents to fund my habit."

P. Gomez

"That's what made me think of stopping my drug habits - My Blood pressure spiked at 200/110 last week during a Panic Attack."

Maria

"Anyone being faced with the reality that their addiction needs to be conquered and their life will change is going to be scared."

Fatima

"You need to realize that the little voice in your head telling you to use is your own."

Maya

"Find out why you use, find out your triggers, and take it day by day. Any day clean is better than any day you’ve been high."

Ivan

"My goal in life wasn't living...it was getting high. I was falling in a downward spiral towards a point of no return"

John

"I ended up homeless and on the streets, living and sleeping in a cardboard box, begging and struggling to find ways to get my next meal."

Ben

"Now I see how important it is for me to be in control of every part of me. Today my body is being controlled by me. I am in the driver’s seat, and I’m driving with happiness."

Nathan

"Little did I know that my mom was upstairs crying every night that I came home late, crying because she was scared for my survival."

Nick

"When I use Ecstasy, the higher I got, the deeper then I sank into a dark, lonely place."

Lynn Smith

"Using drugs? It's all your own decision. If you choose the path you're on, you're going to end up where you're headed."

Christine

"Doing drugs is correlated to cool, but being drug-free is so much more than cool; it’s self assurance, pride, ambition and whatever it means to be you."

Tauny Ventura

"I finally got hold of my drug addiction and learned that life isn't something to be avoided - it's something to be embraced."

Adam

"The reason I started using drugs is because for some reason I just always felt different."

Brian

"Now I don’t do drugs ever. No matter how tempting it might be, it’s the hardest addiction to quit, no matter how old you are."

Michael

"Once you start you don't stop, and once you get into that crowd that uses drugs you don't want to."

Ashley

"At one point I was spending $300 a week on drugs. I used to steal money from my parents. I would sell anything I could get my hands on."

Meaghan

"At my worst, I partied for twenty hours straight, did ecstasy, special K, weed, and GHB, and ended up in a house full of complete strangers, totally wasted."

Julio

"I used drugs to cover my feelings of guilt, of embarrassment, of not being good enough."

Chantel

"Without my parents, I may have relapsed."

Nicole

"Doing drugs often correlates with "being cool", but being drug-free is so much more than cool; it's self assurance, pride, focus, ambition and whatever!"

Tauny

"The real insidiousness of addiction is that the sufferer’s ability to make rational decisions regarding what’s in his or her best interest is severely impaired."

Sandy

"The drugs got to be too weak so I would double doses. I tried many new things all together. I was on a quest to get so high I didn't have to think or until my heart stopped whichever happened first."

Laura

"Just remember that you have your friends and family there to help you quit."

Sarah

"On October 4th, my life flipped upside down, my parents found out all of the things I was doing. I figured this day would be the worst day of my life, yet now that I look back at it, it was more like the best."

Christina

"That was a major problem for me – any time there was a problem, I thought if I got high it would go away."

Megan

"If there is any advice I could give parents to help keep their kid safe from drugs is don’t assume that just because your kid is an A student, involved in sports and extracurricular activities, that they are exempt from becoming a druggie."

Amy

"My recovery has been about making some changes in my thinking, which has led to changes in my feelings and behavior."

Regina

"No matter how long I've been clean, I know that I'm only a day away from using again."

Lorrain

"For some [krokodil addiction] led to pneumonia, some got blood poisoning, some had an artery burst in their heart, some got meningitis, others simply rot"

Pavlova

"The high lasts about an hour and a half, and it takes about an hour to cook it. So I was basically cooking and shooting 24 hours a day"

Pavlova

"I can't go back to that. I was beautiful when I started out, but what happened ...It was like living in a horrible swamp.""

Pavlova

"There were opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new"

Oscar Wilde

"Victorian Britain had been awash with opium but you wouldn't smoke it in a den, you'd get it from the chemist as a gloopy liquid. The opium dens were largely fictional constructs encouraged by stories like Sherlock Holmes and the writings of Oscar Wilde"

Dr Jay

"The baby boomers were the first generation in history to become real global consumers. People were suddenly going to Morocco to smoke hash, or hitching with lorry drivers who were using amphetamines"

Dr Jay

"When you quit Adderall, you quickly realize why energy drinks like Red Bull are a multi billion-dollar market."

Annie Edison

"Once you start a task on Adderall — however trivial — you have to keep going. You have to make it perfect. You have to make it epic. You will binge yourself on the task at hand"

Annie Edison

"It’s 5 o’clock and everybody else is going home? Good; that’s less distractions for you. The janitors are finished with their rounds and locking up the office? No big deal; you have your own key. It’s getting really late? No matter; you’ll pop another dos"

Annie Edison

"For you on Adderall, work is very enjoyable. To most sober people, work is between bearable and pleasant. When you quit Adderall, work can be agonizing."

Annie Edison

"You learn to kill whole weeks with this “slack + minimum effort” routine…and then you start killing whole months. And then you’ve killed a year. And then you have a new problem."

Annie Edison

"When you quit Adderall, your relationship with the clock changes… you’re tortured by how excruciatingly slow it moves."

Annie Edison

"Just because [Annihilation] is legal, doesn't mean it's safe. No one can predict the risks involved. Those who have taken the drug have experienced adverse health effects"

DI Jim Bradley

"While my son was actively using drugs, my activity concerning this subject irritated him. It made him uncomfortable and angry. "

Neil

"When I told my son I was going to speak he asked if he could go with me and speak to them first-hand about what drugs have done to him. This is a HUGE step for anyone in recovery."

Neil

"Let’s face it, I’m just another old guy telling these kids not to use drugs, but when someone in their age group stands there and tells a personal story with all the graphic details — that is called bringing out the heavy artillery."

Neil

"We are also increasingly concerned about the number of users buying medicines online, where they face the very real risk of buying counterfeit products that may be dangerous"

Dr Brian Iddon MP

"The misuse of prescription and over-the-counter medicines is a problem that has been affecting the UK for many years"

Dr Brian Iddon MP

"The drugs have worn off and you feel like crashing out. Now what? It's time to replenish your battered body"

Baz

"Buying drugs is illegal, so your consumer rights fly out the window, and you're at the mercy of criminals"

Baz

"You might not think selling on a few pills or baggies to your close mates makes you a drug dealer, but in the eyes of the law it does."

Baz

"People define drug misuse in different ways. It's the point at which the use of legal or illegal drugs becomes a problem by negatively impacting on a person's life."

Andy McNicoll

"Drug misuse is when the drugs use you, rather than you use them."

Colin Stewart

"Talk to friends with problems and let them know you miss the real them. Tell them they aren't fun when they're off their head, and point out gently what they are becoming."

Colin Stewart

"As long as tobacco's legal, so are skins. However, what you choose to mix with the inside of your Marlboros, well you know the score with that."

DrugScope

"A British cocaine wholesaler said he was buying and selling 60kg of cocaine a week. He would buy from Colombian suppliers in Spain for £18,000 a kilo, and sell it in the United Kingdom for £22,000 a kilo."

Tom Feiling, author

"Most of the world's heroin - over 90% -  is produced in Afghanistan. Its production is controlled by the Taliban and other organised crime gangs"

Clayton Ewing

"These days getting your hands on real MDMA is increasingly difficult. The EU has got much stricter on regulating the chemicals used to produce it - and ecstasy factories are struggling as a result."

Albert Johan

"The law aside, it's a highly personal decision whether or not to take drugs. Avoid the peer pressure and media hype and make your own mind up."

Danny Street

"Ambulance and hospital staff aren't the police. They aren't bothered what you mate has taken or done; they simply want to make sure they stay alive and get better."

Frank

"We're about to tell you something so astonishing your brain may fall out of your eyeballs with shock. Illegal drug use, particularly cannabis use, among young people is down."

Danny Street

"Despite declining use, cannabis continues to be a popular with young people. Findings from our street drug trends survey also suggest that alcohol is increasingly a problem"

Martin Barnes, DrugScope CEO

"The dark horse is the once-legal mephedrone. It was banned in 2010, but Mixmag's 2011 survey found 51% of respondents have used it in the last year"

TheSite.org

"Adderall, in a way, is like an anesthetic for work-related pain. On Adderall you will never think “this work sucks”. You will never think “I don’t like this job.""

Annie Edison

"In time, he will be noticeably better, and his decision to quit Adderall will be seen in a more positive light by his peers, who didn’t realize what he was doing until it was done."

Annie Edison

"If you want to make an ex Adderall user reach for her pills, make her feel like you’re disappointed in her for not getting any work done."

Annie Edison

"For the love of God, and the sake of your relationship, warn your girlfriend or boyfriend. Tell them that you’re about to quit Adderall and let them know what they can expect"

Annie Edison

"If you asked me “What is the safest, healthiest, least-traumatic way to quit Adderall? Step-down or cold-turkey?”, I would say “Step-down, of course.”"

Annie Edison

"Stepping down is for people who’ve never stepped up to feel better"

Laura

"The question of whether a teenager is using controlled substances is a complicated one that many parents must face at some stage of their lives"

Dr Darren Netanyahu

"Some more relaxed parents may be of a mindset that drug use is a rite of passage for teenagers, or just a phase, and they’ll pass through it harmlessly enough. It’s not"

Dr Darren Netanyahu

"Warning signs include marks falling in school, mood swings, irregular sleeping patterns, as well as drug-specific symptoms"

Dr Darren Netanyahu

"Julie first used drugs when she was 13. It was only cannabis; no one ever gets any problems with cannabis. Do they?"

Dr Dick Knubbler

"I know this will sound strange, but cocaine doesn’t get me high any more and still I can’t stop."

Miles

"So what explains compulsive drug use, especially when it brings the user to the brink of personal ruin? I got a clue from my patient’s recent relapse."

Dr Raj Dhoni

"In short, recreational drugs like cocaine don’t just usurp the brain’s reward circuit; they have powerful effects on learning and memory."

Dr Raj Dhoni

"We do not yet know whether the loss of dopamine transporters is permanent or eventually reversible. But why take the chance and endure a dulled life? The plain truth is that drug-induced pleasure is a cruel illusion: it never lasts."

Dr Raj Dhoni

"Laughing gas should not be experimented with and any suggestion of abuse, particularly by young people, is of concern."

Jeremy Brown

"If you feel that you’re having – or are going to have – a bad trip, let your friends know and get their help. Go to a nice quiet spot where you feel safe and can relax."

Danny Street

"If you have eaten poisonous mushrooms you’ll soon know it. If this happens to you or a friend it’s really important to get medical help as soon as possible."

Danny Street

"The synthetically manufactured mephedrone appears to have first emerged in Israeli clubs during the Noughties under the name 'hagigat'"

Bryan McKenzie

"The first time it felt great - like a cross between good coke and good MDMA and completely lucid. But by the third time the high was much harder to get and I had to take a lot more. I can also honestly say that it gave me the worst comedown I have ever ha"

Svetlana

"People are better off taking ecstasy or amphetamines than those we know nothing about... who knows what's in [mephedrone] when you buy it? We don't have a testing system. These chemicals have never been put into animals, let alone humans"

Professor David Nutt

"Mescaline has been used for thousands of years and is best known as a drug used by some Native Americans in Mexico as part of their religious ceremonies."

Dr Barry Steer

"MXE is being marketed as a replacement for ketamine, but without ketamine’s harmful effect on the bladder. "

Dr Barry Steer

"It may be tempting to turn to one drug as a way of softening the after effects of another, but ultimately this just stokes up your body with more toxins and complicates the comedown"

Dr Dick Knubbler

"As a teenager, I vowed to never drink the way my dad did.   Little did I know that I had a genetic predisposition to become an alcoholic and an addict just like he was"

Graeme

"If my family had not intervened when they did, I don’t think I would have lived to see my eighteenth birthday. "

Graeme

"I felt like I had finally found the thing that was going to fix me."

Graeme

"Fighting an addiction can seem like you’re climbing a mountain that never plateaus, which is why it is so important for parents to gain an understanding of exactly what they are up against. "

Graeme

"Everyone just wanted to sweep everything under the rug and put on a happy face."

Graeme

"This is one of the biggest misconceptions about legal highs. Just because they are technically legal, doesn't mean they are safe."

Danny Street

"Mostly, you have heard “DON’T DO IT”!, and if you are like most concerned family members, you feel vaguely guilty for doing something you’re not even sure you are doing (but you must be, right?)."

Jeffrey Foote, PhD

"But everything nice is not enabling! And that’s the quicksand we have developed in our culture. Staying connected, rewarding positive behaviors with positivity, being caring and loving; these things are critical to positive change."

Jeffrey Foote, PhD

""Enabling” actually means doing positive things that will end up supporting continued negative behavior, such as providing your child with money so they won’t “go hungry” during the day, knowing they use it to buy pot"

Jeffrey Foote, PhD

"I got very drunk one night and a guy in a pub said the wrong thing to me, so I glassed him in the face. I ended up spending 4 months in prison for ABH (actual bodily harm)."

Julie

"Once you are clean from drugs you soon realise that those people who you thought were friends were only intent on getting their next hit and couldn’t care less about you"

Julie

"In order to stop taking drugs completely and rebuild your life, you have got to want to."

Julie

"I once took ketamine and my whole body went absolutely numb. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t speak. It was one of the worst experiences of my life"

Julie

"I remember I used to come back home some days and find that the police had raided the house during the day. I would go in and everything would be all over the place; the wardrobes turned over and the cot upside down"

Julie

"You may think it’s harmless, but how do you think all drug addictions start? Do you think I wanted to be addicted?"

Julie

"You really have no idea what the drugs contain - take that from me as someone who used to add all sorts of stuff to it!"

Julie

"They used to ring me up threatening to hurt me, telling me “we want our £2,000 by tonight or we will be over.” That was obviously very traumatic."

Julie

"My boyfriend went to another drug dealer's flat and there were 2 of them in there. The drug dealers he owed money to went round, beat the living daylights out of him and then poured petrol all over him, all because he owed them money and they wanted it ba"

Julie

"The longer you spent in “Adderall world”, the more twisted and dependent your reality became, and the more weight this statement has with you: “effort requires Adderall”."

Annie Edison

"The number one reason most people fail in their first few attempts to quit is because they try to hold onto reins they grabbed on Adderall…They try to maintain their normal productivity level at work"

Annie Edison

"You close the pill bottle and put it away. You stare back at your work. You clinch and tell that little voice to shut up. You push ahead. It’s like holding your breath and trying to run long distance."

Annie Edison

"Coming off physically addictive drugs (withdrawing) can be very unpleasant. Basically your body has to get used to going without, and may react badly for the first few days."

John Barnes

"Predicting a bad trip is impossible, but the chances increase if the user feels anxious, unsafe or uncomfortable before and/or during the trip."

John Barnes

"Studies have found that accessible and effective community-based alcohol and drug treatment is essential to reducing societal costs and health care expenditures from problems associated with drug use."

Trevor Jones

"All the research suggests large anti-drugs campaigns don't work. They are not cost-effective"

Prof Harry Sumnall

"You’re not alone! It’s easy to think you’re the only one who has not experimented with drugs. The reality is that most people your age don’t take drugs and you’re in the majority."

Talk to Frank

"If you’re finding it hard to be yourself within your group, take a step back, and think about whether it’s time to find a new crowd to hang out with."

Talk to Frank

"It’s an all too familiar story. A young teen who was once loveable, happy, a reasonably successful student and all around good kid has become surly, disrespectful and defiant"

Marie Hartwell-Walker

"The entrance requirements for the drug clique are easy. Just use and buy drugs. Presto."

Marie Hartwell-Walker

"It’s simply not true that kids don’t develop a dependence on marijuana. Some do. It’s also possible that you don’t know what else your kid has been taking."

Marie Hartwell-Walker

"At my darkest hours, I certainly lacked all faith. I remember thinking the pain would never end. But it did."

Matt

"I felt burnt out and lacking motivation - like I had lost my ego which was keeping me going through my new life."

Anonymous

"I was serious in school and motivated, but, to be honest, I can't remember how I was before I started taking drugs."

Max

"I just want to start fresh without any drugs. I am turning 19 in a few months. Hopefully I will be the person I want to be and have control over my life."

Mayer

"I want to find a serious career. I also want to start a life with my boyfriend, but I know he won't consider marriage if I keep taking drugs."

Lanna

"What was fun in the beginning to do with friends now became the underlying reason for all the problems in my life and yet I used dope to make me feel better about it."

Tino

"I've lost myself and I want to find me again. I want my feelings and emotions back. My motivation and clearity back."

Dimitri

"There are so many great and fun opportunities right in front of me.. but drugs have caused me to avoid all of them."

Lloyd

"It's REALLY not worth it, they say its harmless but that's bullsh*t. I know I'll heal, though. Just going to take some time."

Edd

"I heard withdrawal lasts a few weeks. I hope I'll get better. I just want to feel normal again because nothing motivates me anymore. I don't do things because I feel good doing them .. I do them because I just feel like its the right thing to do."

Heather