I will be 52 years old next June 5, I have 4 sons, three from my first marriage and one from my second. I first started smoking between 11 and 12 years old, I had my first drink between 12 and 13 and my first marijuana use at age 14. After this my life climbed into a pit of despair using amphetamines, peyote, LSD, cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms. I both free-based and injected my drugs.
I want to emphasize that my drug use began at such an early age. It is so important for parents to know what their kids are doing, where they are going and whom are they hanging out with. There are also the cases where the parents almost encourage drug use through not being involved and tolerating use by their children. When we start using so young we quickly need more and more of the drug to get as high as before.
]]>My chemical addiction started when I was in my early teens. My family had moved to the United States a few years earlier (when I was 10) from Portugal, as my father sought for political asylum for his family who had left Angola, Africa because of Civil War. I began to drink alcohol because of all the insecurities that I had faced as a young teenager trying to fit in a new culture with a new language. Once I began to see that there was a social acceptance and even admiration in some circles for drinking a lot alcohol, I began to pursue this avenue further. I not only started hanging out with the drinking crowd in high school, but began to enjoy the atmosphere.
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Smoking killed my mother at the early age of forty. I never got to know my grandfathers due to their smoking unfiltered Camels and Chesterfields. This didn't stop me from using marijuana. I first tried it at age twenty one and I loved the high. I had started smoking at age ten by finishing cigarette butts and by fifteen I had chain-smoked a pack of Marlboros while baby-sitting. I didn't believe that I was hooked until I was introduced to marijuana.]]>God brought me into his Kingdom in the summer of 2000, just as the Chemical Recovery ministry was being started in the Church in Los Angeles. I had first heard about this ministry from Mike Leatherwood and Willie Flores as they shared in meetings throughout the various regions in the church. My drug use started at an early age. At seven or eight years old, I was smoking cigarettes while stealing sips of wine and beer from unattended glasses. At age ten, I was getting drunk and by thirteen, was using inhalants. Cigarettes were a constant abuse for me, as was alcohol. I grew up in the sixties and LSD also became a drug of choice.]]>My life before the kingdom was a long endless road of misery with my addiction. Before I became a disciple I indulged in drinking almost constantly. I began drinking at the age of seven and continued through to my teenage years where I started smoking marijuana and tobacco. Each year I got worse, with my addiction separating me from my family and friends. I was failing at school and taking dangerous risks with the law just for the thrill of it.]]>