I have a bit of a different take.
You got to see first hand what the effect we have on people is when we use. We convince ourselves that we're only hurting ourselves, and this simply isn't the case. Eventually the disease kills us (no matter what drug we use), leaving the people who love us behind. On the way there we still manage to cause a good deal of damage. I'll never forget meeting with my brother's wife when I had about 10 months clean. He was (and is) drinking himself to death and even though she was divorcing him, I could see the pain and fear in her eyes. For some reason this made it much clearer to me what I had been doing to those around me not so long before that.
When we stop using, we have an opportunity to make a dramatic change in how we affect those around us. Today it has become important to me to consider what condition I leave the souls around me in as a result of having had contact with me. You and I get a second chance at our impact on the world. Those who have succumbed to the disease do not. Let us not squander this gift.