• Editor’s note: As part of the DARE curriculum, each student this year was required to write a persuasive letter to a generic friend about not using drugs. This is the winning essay, written by a fifth-grader.

Dear Friend of Mine,

Do you remember in third grade when you said we would be friends forever? We would be partners and learn and play together? What happened? Because of your smoking and drug addiction, the dream has died. Or has it? Is there a little morsel of that still left in you? Your smoking and addiction has us all worried.

Do you know what you will miss if you keep smoking and doing drugs? You’ll miss some of the greatest moments in life. Everyone will miss you. Please stop. Just stop. However, believe me when I say there’s still hope. You can stop now. Your life can still be sunny. I hope by the end of this letter you will understand why you need to stop using drugs. You mean the world to me.

Maybe you’ve realized this, but I hope you think of it the same way I do. Drugs affect your body. When you smoke, your lungs are black as tar, literally, from tar! You will get cancer, a painful disease that kills you. Being a smoker is very harmful to others. About 30,000 people die of second-hand smoke each month. By smoking, you are victimizing people and making people who have made healthy choices just as sick. Advertisements make smoking seem fun and enjoyable, but cigarettes and cigars are harmful — more harmful than you think. On average, every cigarette you smoke takes away 7 minutes of your life. You spend so much money — you could have a new car by now!

When you take drugs, you have a huge negative impact on others. You should be caring for and worrying about your children, but instead, they are worrying about you. Unless you stop now, they could be scarred for life. But think, what are you really teaching your kids? To grow up, be selfish, do drugs and possibly go to jail? Even your friends and siblings will feel pressure to smoke and do drugs with you. When you leave this earth, the loved ones you leave behind will feel incredibly disappointed in the choices you made. Do you want your family’s memory of you to be disappointing? Stop now, and choose to make your family proud.

You can pay for some mistakes forever. When you take drugs, they destroy the cells in your brain, causing you to change. You might mess things up big time. Horrible mistakes happen, hearts break, dreams are crushed — I don’t want any of that to happen to you. I don’t want you to change for the worse, die, or go to jail. Because you pay for some mistakes forever, you’ll never forgive yourself.

And by far the worst one yet, you will die. All the loved ones you leave behind will mourn. Everyone who knew you took drugs will cry and wish life was a TV remote so they could press rewind and convince you never to take drugs. People will know that you died because you took drugs.

What will it feel like when you stop? What does success feel like? Just imagine the respect you’ll get. Other people will totally respect you. But the person who will give you the most respect is yourself. Self-respect tells you, “I’m done with those ugly drugs!” And the next time someone asks you how you’re doing, you’ll be able to truthfully say, “Better than ever!” Success feels extraordinary, looks awesome, sounds wonderful, smells fresh and tastes better than anything you’ve ever tasted and ever will.

So, please stop. I still want to be your friend, forever.

• Emily Forschen is a fifth-grader at Hirsch Elementary School in Tracy.