Drug this person used or died from: Alcohol This story is about my best friend Keith and how alcohol and prescription medications took his life. In 12th grade Keith started a work-study program and landed a very good job as a machinist, he held on to that job for seventeen years, he bought his own home without help from anyone, he was proud of that fact. He purchased two new cars along the way. Keith started drinking a couple of beers here and there, usually after work or on the weekends with friends, he was a great guy, funny, smart and easygoing. His drinking started to escalate, he would be drinking everyday after work, getting very drunk and passing out. The couple of beers changed to a 12 pack and a bottle of whisky. Keith started going to doctors and getting prescriptions for the drug Klonapin. He would take a few each morning to calm his shaking hands so he could go to work. He would lie and tell his doctors he was trying to quit drinking or that he had panic attacks. Keith totaled both his cars while drinking and driving. He lost his license and was ordered to attend AA meetings, but he never went. He had "friends" sign his paper he needed for court saying he went. Keith was asked not to come back to work unless he went to detox and stopped drinking. Keith chose drinking instead of the job he worked hard at for 17 years. Keith stopped doing laundry and stopped cleaning his house. He had bags and bags of trash in his living room that he never took outside, his bathroom was dirty and falling apart and even the board of health came knocking at his door and ordered him to clean it up. Family and friends helped get his home in order and Keith agreed to detox. When he came home from two weeks at detox, he never went to AA meetings like he promised as part of his outpatient program. Within a month, Keith was drinking again. Keith stopped paying his bills, his phone and cable were shut off and his house was in foreclosure. Keith had a piece of cardboard covering his living room window through the coldest winter in years, Keith didn’t seem to mind as long as he could keep drinking. Keith was living on his unemployment check, which was $800 every other week, and every dime went to booze or money to his friends for their booze, drugs and fast food – that is if he could remember to take the time and eat. Keith’s health was failing, he would throw up blood every couple of weeks and would need to be taken by ambulance to the hospital’s intensive care unit for 5-6 days a month. Keith would start drinking as soon as he was released. In desperation, his family had him sectioned into a hospital for 30 days. On the train ride home the day he got out, he got drunk. In June 2001, the judge ordered Keith out of his home in 2 weeks, it would go up for auction, the same house he had worked so hard to buy and of which he was so proud. In June 2001, Keith took his last trip by ambulance to the hospital. For two weeks he was in and out of comas and then finally Keith died. He was 34 years old and he had nothing left. Keith, not a day goes by I don’t think of you, I miss you always -- forever you will be in my heart. Come visit me in my dreams, okay? I LOVE U.