Prescription drug rehab probably doesn’t rank high on your list of fun things to do. Why would it be? You’re a party animal. You love the night life and being with your friends. You love loud music, drinking, and dancing. You’re an active person, not someone happy to be locked away in a rehab center.

However, you might want to consider the outcome of your prescription drug addiction. Prescription drug abuse can lead you to jail just as easily as illicit drugs, though it might sneak up on you with more ferocity. Take, for instance, the mixture of alcohol and prescription drugs and the possible side effects: users frequently suffer breathing and heart problems, as well as contracting HIV or hepatitis B or C. The side effects can be devastating and unpredictable. Maybe you’ll end up in a ditch on the side of the road after driving your friend’s car through an intersection and killing someone who was crossing the road.

Consider your life goals. If you are addicted to prescription drugs, attaining those worthwhile life goals is going to be increasingly difficult. Drug rehab doesn’t sound like fun, but neither does going to jail for using drugs without a prescription, or ending up in the hospital at age 17 with breathing problems or heart failure. Or dying.

Do you have friends who use prescription drugs? Do they think it’s cool and completely legal and safe? If they do, you are hanging out with fools. You might be able to communicate to them the dangers of their actions. Do you like the lifestyle they are helping you acquire? And do you think they are going to step forward and take your place in the hospital bed when you are alone and suffering from AIDS?

They probably won’t. Neither will they stand up and do the right thing in front of you. They are more likely to leave you swinging in the wind. Perhaps you should beat them to the punch and do the right thing first. Quit.