The dangers of marijuana were not visible to the naïve girl who effortlessly walked into a world of drugs and to her, tranquility. Like the flyers that sucked the soldiers into joining the world war, promising great things and promoting heroism; like a young child handed a lollipop from a complete stranger; and like the magicians we see on the street; Joanna was conned. I remember smelling the stench of weed, heavily covered with lemon airfreshner and perfume, when she floated by me in the hallways. Her body was so light, and her head bobbled about like the jack in the box figurine you see in commercials. Stoned, ripped

In memory of my dear friend, Joanna, who passed away in the year 2000. I still get teary when I see propagandistic slogans such as "users are losers" or "drug use is life abuse", but I have finally come to realize that I cannot blame myself, there is nothing that I could’ve done to stop her.

, cracked out, tripper, high, blazed and smoked up is the terminology used to describer her state of condition almost 24 hours a day. Red-eyed and carrying chocolate cookies she would stumble into class 10 minutes before the bell rang. Until one day she was expelled. An unknown student reported that her chocolate cookies were actually baked with marijuana inside. I was bawling when I heard this news, not because she was leaving my school, but because I knew I was going to lose my best friend.

At 16, she was considerably young and immature, but this was no excuse for her actions. She had goals of being a teacher, a poet, a song writer, a mother and a role model to society. The head of student council, our junior class president, and a friend to so many. How could she just throw it all away? In the end she did not lose her life to marijuana, but to a little yellow tab marked with a superman symbol on the front, ecstasy. It was a Friday night an

Some topics in this essay:
Puff Death, Plaza Nations, chocolate cookies,