Expressing what remains unspoken. - Lynbrook Aletheia

4
Controlled Substances March 2012
“Alcohol is a very patient drug. It will wait
for the alcoholic to pick it up one more
time..”
- Mercedes McCambridge
am not, nor will I ever will be, involved in using
I controlled substances, but I grew up in around
moderate use of alcohol and tobacco. I cannot recall
a single moment when I have seen someone from my
mom's side of the family take a single sip of an alcohol
beverage or smoke a cigarette, but my dad's side of the
family is very alcohol-oriented. Even when I do something
as simple as going out to dinner with my dad's
side of the family, we would all go to one of my uncle's
house where the adults would down at least two bottles
of Tsing Tao beer. I dislike the bitter, unpleasant smell
of alcohol, but due to the typical enjoyment of drinking
among my family, I was forced to get used to the
smell.
As little as two years ago, my dad still had his drinking
under control; however, within the past year or so,
my dad has dramatically increased his alcohol intake.
His increase of alcohol first started when my dad
would lose a significant amount of money when doing
online business trading. He would be stressed throughout
the day, and he would come home after work and
drink a very small amount from the new 1 liter bottle
of Asian rice wine he bought. As time went on, my dad
drank when he earned money while drinking twice as
much when he lost money. Eventually, my dad would
come home with random bottles of beer or wine, and
he could finish 1 liter bottles within one to one and a
half weeks. My mom and I were very displeased and
worried about my dad's drinking, so we would sometimes
hide his beer or wine bottles as an attempt to
make my dad stop drinking. Even if my mom and I
begged my dad to take some responsibility and control
his mindless drinking, he would still have at least 1-2
drinks per day. Whenever I talk to my dad, the bitter
smell of alcohol lingers in my dad's breath. His room
and clothes started to accumulate a stronger smell of
alcohol everyday, and sniffing the lung-burning odor
leaves a horrible idea in my mind that my dad is on the
edge of having a minor drinking problem.
Although I know that my dad drinks to relieve his
stress, it saddens me to think that my dad would rather
turns towards a controlled substance for comfort
rather than his own family.
“Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy
your memory and your self-respect and
everything that goes along with your self
esteem.”
- Kurt Cobain
It's 3am and my roommate is banging a jar of
dip as hard as he can on his mattress. I'm trying
to sleep, but he's eating chips so loud I can hear
them through both earplugs and noise cancelling
headphones. He gets high practically every night and
keeps me up by cramming his mouth full of food. He's
already been cited twice for possession by the police
here, and it's only been one semester. I have nothing
against the use of marijuana, as long as it's being used
far away from me. I'm very sensitive to strong odors,
so the first time I walked in on my roommate and his
friends smoking in our room, I couldn't breathe at all.
After exaggerating my suffering in front of them all, at
least now they don't use our room... but occasionally
he'll fart significantly louder than usual when leaving
the room and say something along the lines of, "I
hope you don't get nauseous," before closing the door.
He's walked over to me and breathed right in my face
without warning, afterwards asking if I could smell pot
on his breath. It made me feel sick. He didn't do it with
malicious intent, but he has horrible judgment skills
when he's high. He likes his alcohol too. I think he has
about twenty cans of beer in his refrigerator and occasionally
I see him stashing a huge jug of whiskey in
his backpack. He's come back drunk quite a few times
and each time it's been a catastrophe. He'll fall out of
bed and knock over anything in his way to the door,
and if I'm lucky he'll figure out how to open it before
he releases a torrent of urine in whatever direction he's
facing. Other times he'll throw up all over the sink, in
the recycling bin... or everywhere. I'm the one who has
to clean any sort of mess, since I don't trust him with
proper sanitation, and I really don't want urine saturating
and drying on my homework or clothing.
I don't care if you use them, just don't use them
carelessly.