Not long ago, early in the morning, a friend knocked at my front door. He had his sixteen year old brother with him. The boy was on LSD. In his eyes were terror and confusion. The corners of his mouth quivered as we began talking, and there were times in which he seemed to drift away, distracted by a memory fresh with distorted impressions. He had spent the night alone on the streets of a city forty miles from his home. Under the influence of the drug he had experienced many things that he had on other trips, but also something new—an overwhelming fear that something was trying to destroy him, that someone wanted to take his life. The pressure of it grew until he could no longer control himself and hysterically he cried out: “What’s happening?! What’s going on?! Won’t somebody help me? Somebody, please, save me!”
This young man is not a hippie. He is not an extremist. Clean cut and quiet in nature, he lives in a small farming community in Central Utah. He holds the Aaronic priesthood. His father was recently a bishop. He believes the gospel is true and has a deep and abiding confidence in the existence of his Father in Heaven.
The striking fact is that he is not unusual from many, many other people, both young and not so young, living right here in our own communities. I have, in the last few months, come to know a great many of them, some very intimately. I have seen amazing things happen. I have observed experiences that seem beyond the wildest imagination. I want to share those observations with you, particularly as they have related to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As we come to understand together the spiritual forces and implications playing behind the scenes, we will begin to recognize why the involvement of members of the Church in drugs is the frightening and growing phenomenon that it is. But we will see, too, that without a doubt the gospel of Jesus Christ holds the keys that will unlock the prison of drug abuse and set the victims free.
You will read within these pages the personal accounts of many people, nearly all of them Latter-day Saints, who have either used drugs in the past or who are still presently so involved. In some cases names and places have been changed for reasons that are obvious, and in other places names are authentic. But this is not important. The important thing is that we learn the truth about drugs, how they affect the lives of those who use them, and what is all has to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you know someone who is using drugs, a member of your family, or a friend, I hope that you will read these pages in an effort to understand him.
If you are using drugs yourself, it is my greatest hope that your heart will be open to these pages and not consider them an intrusion. Regardless of what others may think of you, or what they may have said about you, regardless of what you may be thinking of yourself, in the eyes of your Father in Heaven you are still holy ground. What I offer here is in deep regard for that sanctity.
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