What Should I Do??

[S_V7]

What do you do when a friend is considering drug use?(marijuana, meth, pot etc.) I’m scared that they’ll commit a mortal sin and since my friend isn’t Catholic, confessing it might not be an option. I’m not sure if my friend is aware that it is seriously wrong, though it’s kinda hard not to know. I’m scared they’ll risk their soul just to ‘see what it’s like’.

Does anyone know what things to say in this kind of situation? I don’t want to seem preachy, I just want to help my friend.

Please pray for my friend and their family.

 

[MidnightSun02]

What is most important is that you remain a support for them…pray for them but also, as a friend, let them know about your fears and worries for their health and soul. Continue to set a good example for them as well and maybe they’ll take the first step towards what is right.

Pray pray pray for them every day!!

 

[Matt_Collins]

It is important to understand what is driving them to consider going down this path. Perhaps you can help them deal with the underlying issues. Talking with them is essential. Try to get them to discuss what’s driving them in this direction with their parents or some other adult who can help them.

But once (if) they decide to actually go down that road, your friendship will have to change. Not end, but change. You should no longer actively keep their company, especially if doing so brings you into an environment where other drug users will be around. Your friendship will have to take a more distant form, which is just as valuable. Your friendship will have to be one based on prayer.

This may seem like you’re abandoning your friend, but you’re not. You can do more for them by praying for them and offering up the pain of your separation than you can by following them into a group of “friends” who will lead him or her (and perhaps you) into a life of drugs.

My sister recently gave my 15-year-old daughter the book “Go Ask Alice”. I read it, too, and it is a real eye-opener if you’ve never seen it happen before. If you’re a teenager, I recommend asking your parents if you can read the book. It is a diary kept by a young 15 year girl who had a lot going for her, but felt very out of place because of normal adolescent feelings and some turmoil in her family. She was led into a life of drugs and sex by a “friend”, who clearly was no friend at all. It is a terribly sad story, but I’ve seen it happen so many times it’s hard to count.

I caution you very strongly against maintaining an active friendship with someone who has chosen to abandon true friendship with you by using drugs. You can still be their friend, but your prayers and sacrifices, your example of staying clean, and perhaps even the realization that you won’t spend time with them anymore, will do more to bring them around to the light than following them down that road.

Remember that God is their best friend, not you. He is able to help your friend far more than you can. If your friend chooses to use drugs, then have faith that God will use other instruments to help him/her, instruments that are better equipped than you to save him/her. His/her parents, or other adult family members. Counselors or teachers at school. Doctors. It really is out of your hands once they take that step. But they’re still God’s loving hands, and he will not abandon them.

 

[holly_potter]

I also endorse “Go Ask Alice”. It reads like a YA book, but sadly, it is true. Perhaps you can give a copy to your friend? (if finances allow it). That will hopefully send an unmistakable message.

 

[S_V7]

I also endorse “Go Ask Alice”. It reads like a YA book, but sadly, it is true. Perhaps you can give a copy to your friend? (if finances allow it). That will hopefully send an unmistakable message.

I could be wrong, but I believe my friend has already read this book and recommended it to me a few months ago.
I really hope the gravity of this situation sinks in before it’s too late.

 

[Greg27]

The best thing would be to gather evidence of the harm Marajuana can cause to the brain. There is in fact a lot of scientific evidence this drug can cause damage to the brain in various ways and possibly aggravate any tendencies toward mental illness, such as depression and schitzophrenia. You could discreetly suggest to your friend that they should not indulge in this because it could be very dangerous to their mental health, and use a couple of reports from scientists (which should be easy to find using google) without invoking the religious factor.

 

[Meggie]

I also endorse “Go Ask Alice”. It reads like a YA book, but sadly, it is true. Perhaps you can give a copy to your friend? (if finances allow it). That will hopefully send an unmistakable message.

Go Ask Alice is a work of fiction by a christian women bent on instilling fright-morals on a generation.

 

[holly_potter]

Go Ask Alice is a work of fiction by a christian women bent on instilling fright-morals on a generation.

It could be, though that’s still in dispute. However, libraries still consider it to be a work of non-fiction. They only change the status when the status is proven to be fiction. I mean, they relabeled all of Benedict’s books when he became Pope. So I know they change the status of books as new events arises. I should know, because I work at a library.

But is it so bad to teach people to avoid drugs? “Fright morals”, as you call them, have helped many to shape up their lives. Some fright morals have made pregnant women decide against abortions. Plenty of YA fiction books have that sort of goal of education, so does it really matter whether it’s fiction or non-fiction? What matters is that it gets its message across.