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 rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. 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.