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Top 10 Reasons Why I'm Drug-Free

I am a child of the crack epidemic. I mean I wasn't really old enough to have contributed, but it was these years, 1985-1990, that I became aware of my existence. I learned how to read, to write, to lie, to play sports and just about everything else you learn how to do when you're a kid. These were some seriously productive years for me. But in a way, it was nice to be a kid in New York City during these years because while I had some idea that drugs were out there and older people liked them, my age sheltered me from the harsh realities of crack addiction. I was so young that I thought crackheads were just "crazy people" and I would laugh them off with an eye-roll or a cuckoo gesture. While the "War on Drugs" is often considered a failure, I think, as someone who sprouted during this era, that this government initiative actually worked. Well, for me at least. I mean from what I know now, I grew up with crack-cocaine all around me and look at me. I'm totally drug-free. Something must have set me on the right path and now, as an adult, I think I know what it was. When I was a kid, sitting on the floor watching TV, unbeknownst to me, my government was fighting me in a psychological war...and winning. Before my eyes each day was the scariest, slimiest imagery imaginable for a small child--those sleazy anti-drug commercials. As graphic and frightening as these ads were, maybe they saved my life. After all, these commercials showed me there's an alternative to drugs. They showed me that the streets are no place for a kid like me. They showed me that if I tried drugs, I'd might just end up a black dude who turns into a snake.

These are the Top 10 Reasons Why I'm Drug-Free