My daughter is on drugs

Dear Pastor,

I have a daughter who is only 17 years old, but she is fooling around with drugs. She has a boyfriend who takes drugs, and he got her to start using them. No matter what I say to her, she still hides and does drugs. She started out by smoking. She did not see her father smoke. We never smoked. We were always telling our children to keep away from drugs. I was told that drugs can cause different types of cancer.

I knew a girl who got into prostitution by taking drugs. We had an open conversation in our house concerning drugs. I knew when my daughter started to have sex. I could sense that something was wrong and she became very careless. She did not do well in school after she started taking drugs, and she used to come home late from school.

The first thing we saw with her boyfriend is that he had his pants under his bottom; and we could smell the strong ganja on him when he came by the house. Our daughter did not even clean her room or make up her bed when she started to smoke. She only wanted to be on the telephone, and her boyfriend always sent her pornographic videos.

I went into her room one night after hearing a video playing repeatedly and she was fast asleep on her back, only in her underwear, and the video kept going. I tried to get my daughter to go and see a counsellor. She said nothing is wrong with her and we must not pressure her.

I believe we have lost our daughter. I don't know what to do.

Unhappy Mother,

Dear Unhappy Mother,

I would hate to think that you have given up on your daughter. She got involved with the wrong guy.

The guy does not care. She thinks that he is a wonderful man, but he isn't. She does not know that she is on the path of destruction, but I believe that she can be rescued. I have seen many young people go to pieces by making wrong choices. The thing to keep in mind is this: unless this young lady sees that she needs help, she will not agree to go and see a doctor. She has to come to realise that she needs help. Ask different people to talk to her. The late evangelist Billy Graham told of a young lady who got into drugs and illicit sex, and what turned her around was that one day when she woke up, she found herself in the bed of a total stranger. How she got into that bed, she didn't know!

You see, she was high and the man took her somewhere and sexually abused her. She didn't even know what went on and how she went into that bed, but she was high and the man took her to that place while she was high, abused her, and left her. When she woke up, she promised herself that that was enough for her to turn her life around. She sought help and became a Christian.

I repeat, don't give up on your daughter. Seek all the help for her.

Pastor