A teen who adopted a drug-free lifestyle has returned from a conference in the United States that reaffirmed he is not alone in his decision.

Keishon Ming, 15, joined PRIDE Bermuda's youth to youth group five years ago after being influenced by a friend to get involved. He continued to come to meetings and found himself taking on more responsibilities and participating in the performance team and step group.

PRIDE Bermuda educates students from kindergarten to college about the dangers of drug use through fun activities and performing arts and also offers programmes to educate parents.

As a dedicated member, Keishon and six other PRIDE members travelled to Rhode Island for a four-day conference ? from July 18-21 ? where they did fun activities, heard motivational speeches and made friends from all over the eastern states.

The conference allowed them to strengthen their drug-free decision and gave them new information to bring back to their communities.

"I went away to the conference (and) it showed me more ways to have fun without the use of drugs and alcohol and it also puts me around people who have made the same decision as me so I know that I am not the only one, I am not by myself," said Keishon.

While at the conference, he was impacted by speaker Bobby Petrocelli who lost his wife to an impaired driver.

Mr. Petrocelli spoke of how 10 seconds changed his life and Keishon said "it has helped me think before I act basically. And make sure I know what I am doing and take control (and) don't just go out and do something stupid".

The conference allowed him to do two things he loves ? socialise and meet new people, and he said: "I always have fun and probably the thing I enjoyed the most was meeting new people. You never know what you should expect because they are not from here. They are from completely different places, completely different cultures. There is always something different in every person I meet."

Keishon also had a chance to laugh through the motivational speeches of comedians Colin Perkins and Tei Street, who used jokes to stress the importance of self confidence.

As soon as the conference was over, Keishon went straight to Dover, New Hampshire where he participated in an exchange programme and stayed with the family of youth to youth member, Steven.

Keishon spent 11 days in Dover to learn about their youth to youth programme, attend meetings and help to plan upcoming events. While the programmes were similar to those on the Island he said they played different drug-free games and energisers.

Just like every other teenager who has to deal with negative peer pressure, Keishon is no exception, however, when those occasions arise he tries to spread PRIDE's drug free message.

He said: "Most of the time I try to tell them it is not good for them, I try to educate them, try to do the same thing PRIDE has done for me.

"I try to tell them they can get into a lot of trouble with the law ? but if they don't want to listen I can't force them to do something they don't want to.

"When you are around certain people you tend to act differently (but) when I am with my friends (those) who tend to drink sometimes I just say 'I am not going to go with you guys because it is just not what I do.'"

Keishon believes it is important for his peers to receive drug-free messages because drugs have negative effects on the mind and body and sometimes even more serious consequences.

He said: "It would be important they listen because right now they are just poisoning their bodies ? they don't know that one day they could be out there partying and get alcohol poisoning and wake up in the hospital almost dead.

"I don't want them to go through those experiences. I have heard about it a million times ? I am really just trying to protect them from further hurting themselves."

Keishon remains involved with PRIDE because "it keeps me in a positive environment because there are a lot of violent things going on in Bermuda, a lot of dangerous things. So this is really a place where I can get away from all of that and still have fun".