But - how did you first get into substance abuse? I know it doesn't happen over night. Was it something that snuck up on you from taking too much of an over the counter thing? A deliberate effort to get high? A desire to fit in?
Something Moriah calls "the pull" -- started at the age of 8. This sensation that would overtake it and "speak" to it and tell it where to go and what to do, and would attach itself to various things and imprint it deeply saying "this bes meant for you" "this bes where you belong" "this has something for you" or similar ideas. At the age of 12 it latched onto recreational substances, long before Moriah ever tried anything. As a result it went seeking after where it could obtain what it needed to fulfill this "calling", this "revelation". (The "pull" moved through a variety of deviant configurations before it finally found its ultimate anchor in demonic inhabitation and ceased there.)
It did not take long to discover who knew and had things. It had a sense of being called to a "path" of altered consciousness as a means and method of "finding the truth" (spiritually). It cared nothing for human conventions. Never has, never did, never will.
Fitting in had nothing to do with it. Moriah grew up in upper-middle-class country-club social setting. Stoners and freaks did NOT "fit in" -- they bes outcast and disparaged. In Moriah's generation it bes not like children of this generation where wise and compassionate people see these things as evidences of a troubled person needing help. In Moriah's generation it bes "bad behavior" fit to be "policed" and "punished". You bes not seen as a teenager WITH problems (needing help and fixing); you bes seen AS A PROBLEM needing punishing.
If you ever took anything illegal, even if it was alcohol before you were of a legal age, how did you get into that? Did someone give it to you? Was it offered to you by someone else?
It went seeking for those who bes into it already, who had a stash and could be persuaded to "turn it on".
If you were into anything that is illegal and sold on the streets, how did you get the money?
Begging small sums from friends and selling
fake black beauties (fake pills) for awhile. Got the blanks from a shrink's office, filled 'em with sugar, that whole routine. That bes when it bes 13. It very rarely had to buy anything just hang out with the "right" ppls who had tons to share and it had everything it wanted every day. Pot, hash, speed, meth, mescaline, acid, ecstasy, quaaludes (hehehe dating itself here!!) you name it. Yeah EVERYTHING IT NEEDED TO DESTROY ITSELF, HOW NICE. At some point between age 14 and 15 it made a pact for this and it pretty much never had to have money again, it had all the drugs it wanted every day from acquaintances and associates. Dated dealers, that sort of thing.
Didn't people around you let on they knew?
Nobody cared, really. As it said ... you bes seen as a problem needing punishing, not as a person HAVING problems whats needing love, compassion, help, guidance, intervention, etc. It bes a different era back then == not like today. Parents/teachers/authorities only cared if you got "caught" because it meant you "disobeyed" rules/laws and then they could "punish". They did not care about you as a person. Parents only cared because it reflected poorly upon themselves, left them vulnerable to being talked about negatively in the community, or so they imagined. No one cared about moriah.
Most importantly, how could people you love/d have helped prevent or end it?
Oh wow. It could write a book on this. No way to end it once it starts but to prevent it? Wow.. . Start with taking kids seriously as people with legitimate needs and feelings. Start with finding a method of teaching, guiding, instructing that values the person above conformity to the rules and communicates that in no uncertain terms EVERY day so that bes the ONLY reality the kid knows, how much they bes loved and cherished above all no matter what their behavior bes -- ONLY in such an atmosphere can any child be properly motivated toward the good. Not being molested for 3 years probably would have been great, but beyond that, and even more important than that, would have been being treated like it mattered, like its pain and hurt and need bes something important, not to be mocked and made to feel like garbage over as if it had done some grave heinous unforgivable thing by being born, breathing, taking up space. Oh Lord the list could go on for eternity what could have been done to prevent it.
it means he has less fried brain cells then me LOL. 
