How getting high almost killed me.

• Author: Miele, Allegra
• Position: Voices

BEDFORD HILLS, NEW YORK -- Last year, my life was turned upside down by drugs. Before I started getting high, I had always been the girl who knew right from wrong, and when to say no. But when I went away to boarding school as a freshman, that all changed.

Maybe it was leaving my childhood friends and my small town in the suburbs and being tossed into a new situation. I wasn't with my parents, lived around mostly older kids and badly wanted to fit in.

I started out doing marijuana, then began using more-serious drugs like ecstasy. I would go to dances on Saturday nights under the influence, trying to be like my new friends.

My drug use escalated. A day didn't go by when I didn't use at least one mood-altering substance, including alcohol. I thought this was the good life, but soon my grades deteriorated, my enthusiasm for life all but disappeared, and I couldn't conceive of a day without drugs.

One night, I was "robo-tripping"--drinking Robitussin cough syrup to get high. I drank nearly two bottles. I didn't realize what this could do. I threw up twice, couldn't walk, and could barely speak for an entire night. I came close to going into shock or worse. It might have killed me.

My parents came to see me the next day and realized something was very wrong when I still could not walk. They had me drug-tested. I tested positive for amphetamines and PCP, which had been mixed with other drugs I had done. I was...