Speak Up

I'm the youngest of 6 kids in my family, but I only have one brother who has the same biological mom and dad as me. My brother's name is Austin and we are best friends. Growing up we didn't like each other and we always fought. When Austin got older, he started smoking pot. The first person that got Austin high was our half brother, Tanner. It was all down hill from there.

Austin liked getting high because it made him fit in, so he tried anything he was offered. Austin spent a lot of time in group homes and juvie when he was younger. Every time Austin got locked up I would write him. I even took all of his clothes—I suppose I just wanted something to remember him by.

When I was 14, I started smoking pot too and that's when Austin and I became best friends. We did everything together.

Austin went to jail for about a month on some minor charges and when he got out he went to Gillette to live with our dad. He was working at the local Perkins restaurant and bakery, which was where he met a guy named Brian. They became good friends and one day they ran away to Las Vegas together. They started working for a man who was a Hells Angel. They were doing drugs, partying all night, and just living the life. One day, Austin bought a bag of cocaine and took it. A few days later he was going through withdrawals and he didn't know what was wrong with him. That was when someone told him the bag had been laced with meth. Austin felt awful because of the withdrawals, so he bought more meth. He was on meth in Las Vegas for about 4 months before he called my mom and told her he was scared and he hated the way meth made him feel, but he just couldn't stop. She told him to find a way home and she would help him. He came back in January of 2013 and hes been off of meth ever sense.

Almost a year ago, Austin was arrested on a federal warrant for a conspiracy to attempt to possess an illegal firearm. While he was still on meth in Las Vegas, there was a guy who paid Brian off with a gun. The transaction was legal, there were papers signed and the gun was transferred into Brian's name. A few weeks later, Brian said he had to get some more guns from this guy and Austin went with him. They knew where everything was and when they got back to Brian's, Austin helped them unload the stolen guns into the garage. Please keep in mind that this wouldn't seem weird to Austin, there have always been guns in our lives. Our step dad owns probably thirty guns just because he can. He used to teach hunters gun safety and he taught us how to shoot. Our uncle is a gun dealer, goes on safaris every other year, and has probably 300 guns. Our grandpa is also a gunsmith who makes custom guns for a living. To Austin it was completely normal to go pick up a bunch of guns and bring them somewhere else. Brian got caught later with stolen guns and he named names, saying that Austin had helped him take them. Austin was sentenced to 33 months in a federal penitentiary in April and was given the privilege of self reporting on the 18th of July.

My brothers meth use is going to haunt him for a minimum of three years and he only used for a couple of months.