DR. WALLACE: My husband discovered a small pouch of marijuana in our 15-year-old son's bedroom. This shocked my husband and me to the core. We have punished our son and are working with a professional counselor to insure that the son we love so very much becomes drug-free forever.

I am a faithful reader of your column and appreciate your efforts to help teens and their parents. You once printed a letter from a teen who started using marijuana and advanced to more potent drugs, paying for them by stealing. Eventually, he spent time in a rehab and is now drug-free

Will you please reprint his message? I want our son to read it. It will also be a valuable message for all of your readers. — Mother, Youngstown, Ohio.

MOTHER: The following column is for you!

DR. WALLACE: I'm writing this letter hoping I can save teens from following in my footsteps. When I was 13, I started smoking marijuana. When I didn't have enough money to buy a joint I got high sniffing air freshener.

At 14, I was introduced to PCP by one of my friends. Wow, did it turn me on! It made me feel like I was walking on air and that I could feel no pain. I took so much of it one night that I passed out. When I awoke, I was in the hospital emergency room. The first thing I saw was my mother hovering over me with a worried look and crying. The doctor told me I was lucky to be alive. I promised myself I would never take drugs again.

I lived up to that promise for all of a month. Then I wound up going to a party and was unable to refuse a hit of PCP. I was hooked all over again. I knew enough not to overdose, but I used PCP frequently. Since drugs aren't cheap, I had to come up with money to support my habit. At first I would steal money from my mother's purse. When she found out I was ripping her off, she left her spare money at her office.

My next moneymaking venture was to break into houses that I knew had no one at home. I stole money, jewelry and other stuff I could sell. I even broke into my teacher's house because I knew she was away for the weekend.

My downfall came when I sold a camera to a buddy for $10 that turned out to be worth over $700. My buddy's mom asked him where he got it and he told her he bought it from me. This led to me being busted by the police and I was sent to a lockup facility for teens called The Boot Camp.

Once there I finally came to my senses and realized that my drug habit had taken away my freedom and destroyed my mother's trust and faith in me. My mother is a wonderful woman. She has raised me alone ever since I was 7 years old. That's when my father deserted us and we have never heard from him again.

I'm now 16, out of Boot Camp and I report to a probation officer regularly. It's a good thing, because he has helped me stay crime-free and drug-free. I've told my mother that from now on I'm going to make her proud of me. I'm back in school full-time (a different school) and I don't hang around with my former friends any more. I go to church regularly and pray to the Good Lord every night to keep me clean. I'll make it, but I wish I hadn't taken the first puff of marijuana or sniffed air freshener. I thought it was cool.

But Teens, please listen to me. DRUGS ARE NOT COOL; THEY RUIN LIVES! Don't ever get involved with drugs, and if you're experimenting — STOP! If you become addicted, it could be too late. I know from experience. — Nameless, Oakland, Calif.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.