The Most Commonly Used Drugs in Iowa [GALLERY]

One of the first articles I wrote when I started with Townsquare Media was titled Meth: How it Gets All the Way to Iowa, and Why it Runs Rampant. I followed it up with Meth and Murder: The Drug Kingpin Who Executed 5 Iowans.

What can I say? I like to make a solid first impression.

Since then, I've written about weed five times. It's mostly been about legalizing the drug and how stupid some of our elected officials are for maintaining the ban. I've also written about how you can help in the legalization process.

Oh, and one time a guy was arrested for possessing 30 pounds of pot near Des Moines. You know, the usual Iowa stuff.

I'm not a stoner or a druggie, I promise.

This time, we're talking some more of the hard stuff, with more cold hard facts from YourLifeIowa.org and odcp.iowa.gov.  Let's do it (look at stats and stuff, not the soon-to-be-mentioned drugs).

There are a couple of quotes from my younger years that I remember when it comes to this topic. First, as I wrote in my initial meth article, "I still remember when I was in high school and my cross country coach wouldn't let us do sprints on the beach of a local pond because 'There are druggies in Ida County,' referencing the fact that there may be needles in the sand." Thanks, Coach Saunders.

He provided much more wisdom to me and my teammates, but that one will always stick out. Whenever Coach got really serious, it was time to take note.

The other comes from both of my parents.

When I was in my teenage years, running was life. I had no desire to drink, do drugs, or do anything that could result in an injury that would hamper my ability to run track and cross country.

However, my parents always made sure to let me know that if I ever went to a party and got drunk, they would come and pick me up 100% of the time if I needed it. They also affirmed that they wouldn't be mad.

I'm paraphrasing here, but the common sentiment was "We'd rather you be honest and safe than feel you have to lie and get hurt."

Good thing I was an angel back then and never ever did anything wrong ever.