# 1 a.

This inaugural posting to this blog begins with a prayer and a promise:

The prayer:  May every reader find truth in these posts and also find a better way to speak effectively with those they love regarding the decisions they have made, are about to make and which they may someday make.  For those who are losing, or who have lost, a loved-one to substance abuse; may the Comforter join and accompany them on their journey.

The promise:  Having lost my brother in 1999 to prolonged Phencyclidine (PCP) abuse, and having observed certain members of the family immediately descend into denial, I promise to post only scientific truth and wisdom derived from my High School Football Coach and wisdom derived from the Bible, particularly Proverbs.

High School Football Coach Wisdom :

Men, in life, there are three decisions which are yours and yours alone which you can make:

1.  You can chose your faith.

2.  You can chose your friends.

3.  You can chose what you put into your bodies.

Provbs. 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

What qualifies Fatal Decisions to Blog on the topic of Substance Abuse?

• Seven years as a Narcotics and Juvenile Detective.

• Attendance at 30+ autopsies for which 100% ultimately produced toxicology reports indicating various forms of substance abuse; not necessarily the cause of death.

• A Masters Degree from George Washington University in Forensic Sciences including coursework in Drugs of Abuse, Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.