David Parnell, a drug awareness speaker and author, came to the Buffalo High School to talk about his experiences with drugs, alcohol, and abuse last Friday night. He is an ex convict, a recovering alcoholic and previous meth addict.
He has been all over the world and to 33 states, speaking about what he experienced when he was using. David was first introduced to drugs by his father at the age of 13. His drug of choice was meth. He would it wrap it in a piece of toilet paper and drink it down with Pepsi. He moved to Texas and continued doing drugs where he encountered many run ins with the law causing him to be jailed numerous times.
“It robs a person of passion for love for one another when using meth,” said Parnell.
David has a big soft spot for child abuse. He said that meth addicts lose sense of what is happening around them, and don’t care what their surroundings are. Many times, when children are exposed to these circumstances, they experience the worst of their parents’ wrath. There were six million cases of child abuse reported last year, but only one-third of incidents are actually reported.
He talked about “The Angels in Black,” saying, “The police are angels, not only to the abused children but to the drug abusers themselves because it gets them out of the dangerous addictive lifestyle that they are living.”
On February 21, 2003 after being on drugs for so many years, depression set in, causing him to put his assault rifle under his chin and pull the trigger. It split his face in two, causing every bone in his face to be broken except his left eye socket. He also lost all his teeth, the tip of his tongue was blown off and the roof of his mouth disintegrated. It took him two to three months before he could talk again.
He has had over 30 surgeries and still has a few more left to go through. He continues to live a clean life of eight years; and still continues telling his story to millions of people every year throughout the world to inform of the dangers of drug abuse.
If you would want more information about David Parnell you can go to his website at http://www.facingthedragon.org/.
