The Girl

Synthetic Drugs

I know that this has nothing to do with our motive, but I just had to talk about it.

Recently, at my school, a program called Side Effect came to talk about synthetic drugs. What they said was unbelievable.

Now, drugs are normally made with plants, by drying them and selling them. Synthetic drugs are not so the same.

You may have heard of Preston Bridge, a 16-year-old teenager, and his story. Preston was a friendly teenager, a great sportsman, and great at his studies. He was a role model, but he made one mistake.

On the night of his Year 12 ball, Preston and his friends decided to stay in a hotel in Scarborough, Perth, as a celebration. Everyone was having a great night, until, drugs were involved. One of his friends had bought synthetic drugs from a website called Silk Road. He offered Preston the drugs, and due to peer pressure, Preston accepted the drugs, we all today wish he hadn't.

We don't know how much he took, if he was also drinking, or if he had more than one type of drug. After the drug was in action, Preston thought that his friends weren't humans, that the door wasn't a door, and that he needed to escape. He escaped onto the balcony and did not want to come back inside.

The next day, the group were going to check out of the hotel. Preston's friends carried their luggage downstairs and left him alone, all alone. Preston jumped off the balcony. 6 meters, until he came crashing down. Apparently, he thought he could fly. Preston fractured his skull. His friends did not call the ambulance, they thought that they would get into trouble, that the police would be involved. The ambulance doesn't call the police as long as there is a threat to them. I don't know how the ambulance came, or who called them, but they did. Preston was put on life support, for three days, until his family finally decided to end the life support and let him go.

One of the founders of the Side Effect campaign was none other than Rob Bridge, Preston's father. He told us how the drugs were made. Acetone, something people use to remove nail polish from their nails, is sprayed onto any type of plant, and by that I mean, anything, they could spray acetone onto banana leaves and sell it to you as marijuana. Acetone is a strong chemical. It goes to your brain and strips it. There was a boy who was about to be valedictorian, but he took drugs, and after that, he couldn't even put two sentences together. Imagine the effect of these drugs on your brain.

Don't do drugs, stay safe, there are so many better things to do out there.