Lessons of a convict

To the editor:
My name is Dustan Slade, and I’m a convicted cocaine dealer.
I was sentenced to 20 years in the Indiana Department of Correction in 2010.
At that time, I was a young punk who didn’t realize the seriousness of my actions and the effects it had on others who were around me.
I was just like every other drug dealer when it came to me having a victim in my crime. “I don’t have a victim” or “It’s a victimless crime.”
How untrue those two statements are.
In my court hearings, there was a courtroom full of crying people. Only in my case, it wasn’t someone else’s family and friends crying. It was my family and friends in that courtroom crying.
I thought I was having the time of my life. Making a lot of money, not having to go to work every day, hanging out with friends and girls, partying all day and night, and so on. I never once thought of the people’s lives I was ruining: The community around me and the people whose drug habits I was supporting while their health, families, and lives deteriorated.
Then one day, with a knock at the door, my life and my family’s lives deteriorated.
Now my life is completely different. In this life there aren’t any pretty girls or any parties or any friends you grew up with. The friends you thought you had don’t write. A lot won’t even answer the phone.
All I am now is a burden to my family that they worry about every day.
All those “I know what I’m doing, Mom,” and “Mom, you’re just trippin’.” I didn’t know what I was doing, and Mom wasn’t just trippin’.
I was destroying my life, my family’s lives, and my community.
Portland used to be a nice little small town, a good place to raise your kids. I’ve come to realize that I once contributed to the negative influences in Portland.
That’s my victim: My small hometown of Portland, my family, and my daughter. Now, because of my actions, for my daughter Daddy is just a man she goes to play with for a couple of hours every couple of weeks.
My point is, it’s not all fun and games and there are repercussions for your actions. They affect more than just you. They affect your loved ones way more.
My family members are the ones out there struggling to pay bills. My struggle is all mental. Theirs is a mental and physical struggle every day.
So look at all your so-called friends sitting around you and know they’ll be the first ones to turn their backs on you or forget about you.
Your mom you haven’t visited in a couple months, your kid you’ve only seen a couple times in his or her life, your grandma or grandpa you take advantage of. Those will be the people that will be right there the second things go down the drain, at the knock at the door.
That is, if you’re lucky enough to have them there. My grandfather died since I got locked up. A man I loved more than anyone in the world.
Don’t wait for the knock at the door.
Go see your loved ones and get your life together.
Dustan Slade
Miami Correctional Facility
Bunker Hill[[In-content Ad]]