A story.  Once upon a time, 20 years ago to be exact, my wonderful son was sitting in the back seat of his friend’s car. It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and he had already been drinking for a couple of hours to celebrate a high school football victory.  Two police officers pulled up to the vehicle and one stuck his head into the driver’s window. 

“We stopped you guys because your back light is busted.”  “It smells like alcohol in this car, how old is everybody?”  They were seventeen.  “We’re going to have to search the vehicle and everybody inside.”

David had a marijuana pipe in his backpack.  He was handcuffed and put in the back seat of the squad car.  He was under arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia – believe it or not: a felony.

The judge explained on his court date that he was required to take a drug test.  Upon passing the drug test there would be no further repercussions.  We walked in with big smiles one week later, assuming the situation was over. 

“What are you smiling for son? You tested positive for cocaine after your court date.”  David told me he had never even seen cocaine much less used it.  There had to be a mistake.  “Nope, there’s no mistake.  People don’t test positive for cocaine unless they are actually using.”

Here’s the point: After his arrest, David enrolled at PEER Services and started seeing a counselor.  The counselor told his court supervisor that she had been working with David ever since, periodically testing him for evidence of drug use.  He was clean with every test.  She demanded that the court retest his sample (like cycling, they divide the sample into an A & B portion for just this purpose). Ultimately this proved David’s innocence.

Since that frightening time, my fabulous son went to college, served in a special forces unit of the Israeli Army that gave medical treatment to over 2000 Syrians wounded in their horrific civil war, and founded a nonprofit in Israel named for his beloved ETHS baseball coach Ross Freeland.

So, I’m asking you to make a contribution to PEER Services.  It is a great organization – serving those with substance abuse issues, addictions, and cases like my son’s: getting a kid out of the back seat of the wrong car.  And they need the money so they can serve youth and adults rebuilding and stabilizing their lives.

Please join me in supporting substance use prevention and affordable treatment by attending PEER Services' Step Up for Recovery on October 4th, or donating to support the cause!