Hostess: Hello Everyone, Thank you for watching “Whispers of Life.” Joining us today are two young men who had just broken free from a big obstacle in life-drug addiction. Drugs- don’t touch it, don’t try it. A false step could ruin your life. Trying drugs is like jumping off a cliff to test the depth. Today, Steve and Williem will share with us their personal experiences. Hello, Steve, Williem.
Steve and Williem: Hello.
Hostess: Williem, you’ve been studying film production, right?
Williem: Video Imaging.
Hostess: I heard you’re pretty good with photography. Maybe you can show us your work someday.
Williem: Yes.
Hostess: Steve, you’ve been working for a while. What are your hobbies?
Steve: I like to do Qigong exercises.
Hostess: It’s hard to imagine your past, when you look so healthy now. People all want to look ahead, to not touch the painful memories. However, to help more adolescents reject drugs, could you please recall what it was like being addicted?
Williem: Yeah, I started using drugs when I was 11 years old. At that time, you know, I really didn’t have any purpose. I didn’t feel like I had a purpose in life. Also, a lot of kids think to be bad is cool. So at that time I started using drugs. I used drugs for five years.
Steve: I think that most people who use drugs have pretty much the same reasons. So naturally, I had some of the reasons that Williem said are similar to why I used drugs. Also I felt that there was always emptiness and void that I tried to fill by using drugs.
Hostess: There seems to be two common reasons. The first is that you feel cool. The other is to fill the emptiness inside. That was how you got addicted. Did you have to take it everyday?
Williem: Well, you know, at first it’s just kind of like going out and using drugs with your friends. For me, it just progresses and it gets worse and worse. Eventually you’re using drugs everyday. Your whole day is filled with that thought of.. that it’s very selfish.
Hostess: Did you take it with your friends?
Williem: Yeah, basically all my friends use drugs. I haven’t friends who don’t use drugs.
Hostess: You must be drowsy all day long. Didn’t it effect your grades?
Williem: Yeah, actually, I failed my first year of high school. Then, I was repeating it and halfway through that year, I was going to fail again. I just decided I was going to quit school. So at that time I quit school. I continued to do drugs.
Hostess: What about you, Steve?
Steve: Like most people, they stopped to experiment with drugs, and start off with the social events with friends. And then gradually, it becomes worse, it becomes daily occurrence. Towards the end, that’s the way it went.
Hostess: I’m curious. Didn’t your parents know you were addicted?
Steve: In the beginning, I tried to hide it from them, but gradually they realized something wasn’t right. They definitely knew something was wrong, that I was probably using drugs and alcohol.
Hostess: At the beginning, you just lied to your parents.
Williem: At the time when you’re using drugs, your days are filled with lies, you’re lying all the time. You are not just lying, you are living lies. So it’s like you’re using a lie to cover up another lie. You are just living lies. When you are coming home, you’re acting like a good kid, etc, etc, etc. And, your mom, I guess, either doesn’t know or doesn’t want to know.
Hostess: I am just wondering, you used drugs everyday, How did you get them?
Williem: Well, at first, it was kind of like , I always wanted to make friends or have friends who do drugs. I was using their drugs. Later, when I got worse, I was stealing money from my mother to buy drugs from kids I knew. For a little while, I was actually selling drugs.
Hostess: So you can get them easily. So, Steve, how much did you spend everyday?
Steve: I would work. All the money I got from my job was used for drugs. Also, I would steal and lie to get the money.
Hostess: You used drugs at fourteen, how did you get money at such a young age?
Steve: I started working when I was 15. I had money. At fourteen, the drug habit wasn’t that bad at such a young age. You don’t need so much money. And your friends could supply you. They would give you stuff like that. It’s not difficult for young people to get drugs. There are just a lot of them around.
Hostess: How much did you spend on drugs each day?
Steve: If you have a moderate drug habit, then you would spend 100 to 200 dollars everyday, very consuming.
Hostess: 100 to 200 dollars each day. About tens of thousands dollars in a year.
Steve: Yeah, it took up a lot of money.
Hostess: You lived like that everyday. Hadn’t you thought of quitting?
Williem: The thought kind of passed my mind, but it wasn’t really about quitting drugs. I still had no purpose. I felt drugs wouldn’t really do anything. I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t stop doing drugs. I tried, but I wasn’t able. I didn’t have any will power.
Hostess: You used drugs for 5 years, it must have harmed your body. How was your health then?
Williem: By later time, my sleeping habit was upside down. Instead of sleeping during the night, I would wake up when the sun was going down, and then I would go to sleep when the sun came up. Would sleep for 12 to 13 hours. I had very sharp pains in my lower abdominal area. I felt like someone was constantly stabbing it with a knife. So it definitely harmed my body.
****** CARTOON ***********
One day, in the park, John and Tommy were looking at two teenagers using drugs.
“Awesome! Rich people are using these things, it’s so cool!”
As they were watching in awe, a strange man came up to them.
” Children, would you like to try some of these? You can lose weight.”
John looked at the things in his hands.
” You can lose weight? Cool!”
He ate one.
” I’m poisoned!” he fell to the ground.
” Kid, would you like some?” he asked Tommy.
” No!”
***************************************
Hostess: As the Chinese saying goes: Mothers all care about their children. Your parents must be heartbroken.
Steve: Oh, absolutely, they were very upset the whole time. When they finally knew that I was doing drugs, it felt as if there was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was no hope, it was very bad.
Hostess: Especially you, Williem, you are from a single parent. Your mother took care of you, wasn’t it hard for her to worry about you?
Williem: Well, it certainly crossed my mind. But you know, my mother, at the time, was also using drugs. She cared about me, she didn’t want me to use drugs. She was using it herself, so at that time I didn’t feel anything, I didn’t care.
Hostess: So you just went on like that. Did you ever think about quitting?
Steve: I had tried to quit drugs for a period of time, by going to AA meetings.
Hostess: What methods did you use?
Steve: Yeah, I went to AA meetings, abbreviation for Alcoholic Anonymous. It’s a place where people with alcoholic and drug problems go. They try and get sober. There was no hope for me there. To help me quit drugs and alcohol. It takes a lot more than AA.
People say that drug addiction takes you from jail to hell, and you can never be free of it. The two young men in today’s program were also lost in the quicksand of drug abuse. So, how did they get rid of it?
Hostess: You look so healthy , energetic, and handsome now. It’s hard to imagine what happened in your life. I trust that everyone is curious of how you got rid of it.
Williem: Yeah, I had been using drugs for five years, I was over at my grandmother’s house, my brother just came up to me. He started telling me about cultivation and Falun Gong. When he mentioned this, my eyes just lit up. I was so excited. I didn’t know why I was so excited, but it was like, what I was looking for.
Hostess: Does your brother practice Falun Gong?
Williem: No, In 1999 he was searching on the internet and came across it, and got to know about the persecution in China. At that time, I was obviously very excited. I started to read the book, China Falun Gong. At that time I just, using drugs seemed inconceivable, after reading just the first day. Since that day, I never used drugs again. The thought didn’t even cross my mind.
Hostess: Amazing!
Williem: Yes. I have a little brother who followed my footsteps when I started doing drugs. He was worse than I was. Eventually, he got arrested because the police found out he was using drugs, and he was on parole, so he was arrested and put in jail. To try to get him off drugs, my mom bought the book he wanted. She then bought the Falun Gong book. At that time he chose the Falun Gong book. Ever since then, my brother changed. Before he was always angry. If he was upset a little bit, he would shout at you, hate you. It was totally changed when I see my brother now.He’s always smiling, not cursing. Now he’s a sweet kid.
Williem, whose parents divorced when he was young, lived with his younger brother and his mother. Suffering from pain and sorrow, his mother became addicted to drugs. However, she still hoped that her children could stay pure and healthy. Unfortunately, both Williem and his brother, also fell in the curse of drug abuse.Williem’s brother was even arrested and put in jail.
Williem’s Brother: I was a very mean person. I used to push people. If anyone mean started talking to me, if they talked about bad things, I would just say it back. I got to the point I was using drugs. I was smoking cigarettes, I was doing pretty much whatever I wanted to do, not listening to anybody, even if they gave me good advice. I got to the point where I was jailed, where I was locked up. So they sent me to rehab. I had a choice between two books. One was Falun Gong, I picked that, I started reading it, and it talked about the principles Zhen ,Shan, Ren. Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. I didn’t see anything wrong with those things. They go with every situation, we use them everyday. I stopped cursing, I haven’t been using drugs for nine months now. I want to do something with my life now. I’m not here to be evil, I’m here to be good.
Hostess: Can you tell us about this miracle? It’s a miracle that you got rid of drugs. The first day you read the book of Falun Gong, As for Steve, it only took one week. Tell us more about it.
Steve: Sure, I was the type of person that, in order for me to believe something, I have to experience it myself. Master Li, in the book, he also talks about energy, mechanism, that will form while practicing Falun Gong. He mentions that after you read this book, your heart is really determined to practice cultivation. You will form a very powerful mechanism, in your lower abdomen. Sure enough, I was determined to quit drugs, alcohol, and upgrade my moral Xingxing. I felt a very powerful mechanism, that was really shocking to me, that something like this could be true.
Williem: When I started to practice Falun Gong, I felt really.. It tells me why I should be a good person, why I should have a good life. I feel like this is my purpose. It fills that void. If I still have that void, I would have still been using drugs, doing this, doing that, because I don’t have any guidance. Now I have a purpose. I know where I’m going in life. I know what I’m doing, I felt like, I was starting over. This is the starting point. It’s almost like growing up, inside growing up.
Steve: It’s an indescribable feeling, like you changed your life 180 degrees. I can give you an example of my previous doings. Master Li describes that children are taught at a young age to pick money off the ground if they see it. I was one of those children who were taught that way. Every time I see money on the ground, I pick it up without any thought. As i was practicing Falun Gong, I was on the train, I found some change on the bench. I picked up the change and put it in my pocket, not even thinking about my previous .. my practicing of Falun Gong. I got off at the next stop, and I remembered my practice of Falun gong. At a bench, I took out the money from my pocket and put it there. I should have not picked it up. Eventually I came across money another day. As soon as I saw the money on the ground, I remembered Falun Gong. It’s not my money, so I didn’t do what I did last time.
To be continued, 5:50
两个年轻人的故事：为了那些还在毒瘾迷海中挣扎的孩子们。
青少年吸毒是严重的社会问题，吸毒贩毒，瘟神般的侵蚀般动摇着社会的基石，甚至会成为人类自我毁灭的灾难，为了我们的孩子，为了挽救那些还在毒瘾迷海中挣扎的青少年朋友们，我们特将此节目介绍给观众朋友。
