As a young teen in a new town, Gina Snider gave into peer pressure and tried pot and acid in order to be accepted. After losing three friends to suicide, Gina used drugs to numb the pain and eventually ran away from home. She soon developed a full-blown meth addiction. For the next 10 years, she stole pills, forged checks, worked in meth labs, was in-and-out of jail and lost custody of her three children. Then one Mother's Day something happened and she realized she had to turn her life around.

Growing up in Minnesota
I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota in a single-parent family. My brother Donald was a lot older, so I felt like an only child. My mom became sober from an alcohol addiction when I was 10. She did the best she could, often working full-time at night and going to school during the day. But I didn't have a lot of supervision. While she was trying to get back on track, I was climbing out my window at age 12, going out all night until she got home from work in the morning.

I was a good kid for the most part. I was a high-school diver in seventh grade and a gymnast. I never thought I would use drugs, but I met some kids at school who were stealing money from their parents and doing drugs. Some of their parents were even doing drugs - it wasn't a good scene.

In the spring of seventh grade, my diving coach caught me smoking pot at school and I was suspended.

The Big Move
I grew up on welfare and my mom had gotten a rural development loan. We moved from St. Paul to Wyoming, Minnesota. I was 13, completely unsure of myself and I didn't have a friend in the world. I didn't get along with my mother and I felt so alone. I started riding my bike around to get a feel for my new town. Doing this, I met some kids.

My new friends smoked weed and took acid. I became who they wanted me to be - I lied to them and myself.

By the time I was in ninth grade, I was selling and taking acid on a regular basis. When I was 15, three of my friends committed suicide - one had lived across the street from my house. At this point, my whole world fell apart. I felt abandoned again, and didn't understand why bad things seemed to come my way. I continued to use drugs to numb the pain and to forget.

When I was going into tenth grade, my mom found a sheet of acid wrapped in tin foil in an Advil bottle in my purse. She told me to go to school in the morning, and come home right afterwards. I never came home that day - or ever.

My Life as an Addict
I hung out with older people, shooting coke and using a lot of meth, not to mention stealing to support my habit and sleeping with men who were twice my age. I was a runaway, and my mother had the cops looking for me. Scott Dexter, a Wyoming, MN. cop, found and arrested me. When he picked me up, I was strung out on cocaine - and I was only 15. I went to juvie, then treatment and was placed in a foster home for chemically-dependent girls. I was sober for about a year and a half, but once I got out, I starting living with a girlfriend and soon started drinking and using drugs again. I got a job at a pharmacy and I stole prescription pills. I never got caught, but I quit my job anyway because I was too messed up to work. This is also when I became pregnant with my daughter.

I had my baby when I was 19 - and I had smoked pot when I was pregnant with her. After she was born, I smoked crack and went to prison for forgery. Once I was released, the people I used to hang out with weren't smoking crack anymore - they were using meth. I was 21 at the time and fell right back into the old lifestyle.

For five months I hung out with a crew who cooked meth. My job was to write bad checks to get the ingredients to make it. This was my life. My house was a mess and I couldn't take care of anyone - including myself. I weighed 100 pounds and stayed up for weeks at a time because I never really ran out of drugs. If I did go to sleep, I made sure I had drugs next to me when I woke up. I also used to pick my eye for no reason, until it would get so swollen and red it would stay shut for days.

I had my first son when I was 26 and later gave up my second son for adoption because I was such a mess. Both of them were born positive for meth. I lost custody and my parental rights were terminated for my daughter and my oldest son. My mother had called social services and made sure that I was not allowed to take care of my children.

Meth was my life. I would get picked up by the cops - run for a while and then get picked up again. I always came out of prison and continued to use. I thought I was going to die a drug addict - I thought this was my destiny.

My Recovery
During one of my stints in jail I realized I had to make a change in my life. I called my mother on Mother's Day and she told me that the foster family who was taking care of my children didn't want them anymore, and the kids were sent to live with her. It was at that point I realized that God had a plan for me. My mom adopted my daughter and son - and I had to be there with them too.

In jail, I met a liaison for the Minnesota Teen Challenge. They told me about their 12-month program. The said it was a very intense program - and I knew that's what I needed. I spent a year at the Teen Challenge and came out a different person.

This program runs on faith-based treatment, so I learned to develop a relationship with God and Jesus. We were kept busy all day with chapel, Bible classes and anger-management training. We learned how to interact with people again and manage our emotions. We even took financial-management courses, and learned how to balance a checkbook, complete a resume and interview for a job. We had work study in the afternoon - cleaning, repairs and lawn work. They gave us every tool they possibly could so that we could change our lives around. It was very strict, but it's what I needed.

Reflections
Looking back, I know that I will use every experience in my life to better myself. I have an understanding for drug users and people in prison that others don't have. I am currently working for Minnesota Teen Challenge, developing a drug prevention program for high schools and look forward to teaching people everything that I've learned.

Today I am so much happier. I am able to see my children almost daily. My mom adopted them while I was in jail, and they live nearby. My son and I are struggling to bond but that is to be expected because I didn't see him from the time he was 8 months old until he was 3 ½ . My youngest son was adopted by a wonderful couple right when he was born. We have family outings about four times a year - and we get together on birthdays and Christmas. We have an open adoption and it is a blessing.

I want people to know that life is all about choices. It may not seem like the little choices to try alcohol or pot mean anything - but they can. My experimentation quickly escalated into addiction. It happens before you realize it - and sometimes it's too late. Meth seems like its fun for a minute, but then you're a slave to it. It's just not worth the consequences you'll have to live with later.