Narrative

Narrative: Dirty
Prepared by Jack Butler

Peer pressure is corrupting teen culture from the inside out. Is it something that always happens but its no big deal? Is it a big deal when a teen has to leave school and enter a rehabilitation center because their drug problem is slowly killing them? One may be thinking what a rehabilitation center has to do with peer pressure. This is the end result of peer pressure for an alarming amount of teens in America. This is what happened to Mike, comes from a white working-class family who was sent him to Center Point (a drug rehabilitation center). Meredith Maran tells Mike’s story through the book Dirty. When Mike introduces himself to the drug rehabilitation group he explains his drugs of choice are “crank, alcohol, weed, whatever.”(Maran 165) Mike has been at Center Point for two months now and is motivated to get his life back together. He wants to do good ”get a good job, all that kind of good shit.”(Maran 165) life at center Point is not easy, there are a lot of rules. Some of the first rules that are explained to new patients are do not touch the tv, do not touch the VCR, do not touch the refrigerator, if one needs to go to the bathroom they must ask first. And all new patients will receive a big brother. He will tell the new patient everything they need to know about the program. And the patients have a few unwritten rules of their own. “Don’t tell nobody shut up. Don’t call nobody a bitch. Don’t call no one niggah.”(maran 165) Rafael, one of the other patients’ tells the new patients’ the first month here is real hard, you are going to get angry and irritated with the program. Whatever you put into the program you’re going to get out.
Being at Center Point is not fun. They have many rules that the patients are required to follow that can cause patients to get frustrated. One day reality sets in for mike and he realizes what a bad place center point is. “It’s hella hard for me to stick it through and stay here. I hope I don’t run, man. No one should have to deal with this place. Therapeutic fucking community bullshit. It’s worse than jail.” (Maran 171) Clearly mike is not happy with his situation of staying at center point. He is sick of all the rules he has to follow, sick of jumping through hoops. Mike is now beginning to experience the consequences of peer pressure. The Experience mike had of being peer pressured at first did not negatively affect him. The negative side of the peer pressure he experienced is just now starting to set in. this is why peer pressure is not a good thing to experience, the consequences people face down the road. Society and mikes environment is what is causing the harm. That is the reason he tried drugs in the first place. With all the stress and growing up that young teens are forced to endure many teens are left feeling like they don’t belong or with no way of identifying themselves. Doing drugs can look like something cool, something that can give one something to identify themselves with. The general public does not see this as a problem because everyone has had to go through the pressures of growing up. Some people come out of it a mature adult, and others cant handle it. But that is just the way life is, the laws of life natural selection. There is no other option, no way around growing up.
After committing to the program for a long time Mike feels he has maid significant progress. So much that he thinks he is ready to go home and is more than ready to leave Center Point. However one of the Center Point staffers, Tess forces Mike to stay an extra three months Against his will. When Mike is pleading his case to leave he sais “See how much I’ve changed? All that bad shit was in the past. Doing drugs, having a fucked-up mind, making stupid decisions. If you’re trying to be clean, you should have the shit hat goes along with that. You should be acting normal.”(Maran 173) Clearly Mike is ready to leave Center Point. However he is being held at Center Point against his own will. The injustice he is suffering from is this rehab center messing with his free will. Mike believes that the reason they want him to stay is so they can take more of his money. The general public doesn’t see this as a problem because the view kids like Mike as just a bunch of screw ups who are probably better off in rehab. The rehab center is disguised as a good place that can be beneficial to the people who need it. However the motive that is fueling the center is money. If they were not making 5,000 dollars a month for each kid there would be no Center Point.
All drugs that people use recreationally just to get high is bad. Some drugs are worse than others and some are more addicting. Being addicted to a drug is extremely strenuous and a great injustice. One of the dugs Mike came to Center Point for was Crank. One of the most addicting destructive drugs there is. Once a person tries crank once they have almost reached the point of no return. “I felt like shit. It’s not cool. It’s not cool. Crank is the devil’s drug.” (Maran 175) mike may be thinking crack is the devils drug because of the way crank effects people. The first time you take crank all of your positive emotions are stimulated. After a few uses a person louses his ability to feel positive emotions naturally. The only way they can feel good feelings is by using the drug. This is how crank cripples people and they become a slave to the drug. Mike is suffering the injustice from this drug. This drug is true evil it sucks out all positive emotions from people. It may seem like a good thing at first because it makes you feel good, however that is just to get you sucked in an before you know it you’re a slave to the drug. That is what happened to mike. The general public does not recognize this as a problem because crank is thought to be a low end of the social spectrum drug. Meaning that it is only used by low life’s. What does society care if a bunch of low life’s are wasting there life’s away doing drugs.
Although Mike is suffering great injustices he is for the most part benefitting from being at Center Point. At first he was in an environment that was not healthy for him. He had accesses to whatever drugs he wanted. Now with the environment of a rehab center Mike is being given a second chance to get clean. Being at center point may be what mike needs to stay clean but it is not a fun place to live. There are many rules and after a while all the rules and regulations he is being forced to follow can get to a person. But he has to suffer through this all because at one point he was peer pressured. The negative affects of peer pressure are not apparent at first. You try a drug you don’t want to try, so what? It is not until later when mike becomes addicted and enters a rehab center when we see the injustice of peer pressure. After being at the rehab center for a long time Mike feels that his time to move on from Center Point has come. However the staffers at Center Point think otherwise. After mike demands, begs and pleads to leave they still decide to keep him at the rehab center against his will for an extra three months. This is an injustice because the rehab center is crossing the line by mussing with Mikes free will. Mike is able to make divisions for himself and if he wants to go home and see his family he has the right to do so. One of the dugs Mike lost his habit of using was crank. Mike refers to his drug as the devils drug because of its crippling ability. The drug took him to the point where he could no longer feel positive emotions. This is just awful and an injustice no one should have to encounter. It is rare that a person recovers from crank addiction but it just shows you how determined and strong Mike is. However mike owes his success to Center Point. They created a healthy environment for him. All of these things are injustices. But the one thing behind it all the source of the problem peer pressure. Without peer pressure none of this would have happened. Peer pressure is a serous problem that changes people’s life’s forever. In some cases peer pressure ends people life’s.