Drug Abuse | Teen Ink

Drug Abuse

January 18, 2011
By Anonymous

Homeless on the streets, no where to go. All of your money has been spent on something useless; you didn’t care to think about your future. Each day you try get some extra money, you have no job and the only way to survive is to scrounge off of people. The one and only thing that you live for is that next fix, the feeling of content and nothing else in the world matters because you got what you wanted. Those people will do absolutely anything to get their hands on their choice of drugs, whether it range from prescription to illegal. These people don’t realize how much they lose. Your family: abandoned you. Your friends: got married and lived happily ever after. Your house: taken away. Your children: foster care. Your car: repossessed. Your education: ended before you ever graduated high school. Your life: gone.
Drug abuse is getting out of control these days. Children of the age 13 are getting ahold of these and ruining their lives. Why isn’t someone taking control to put a stop to the production of drugs? There are the undercover police officers that try finding the dealers and lock them up, but only so many officers can do so much. The government or even possibly the president should become more involved with trying to eliminate the use of illegal and harmful drugs.

Although there are drugs that are known as “illegal” there are people everywhere that still manage to have them. It seems as if there has been nothing done to punish those that have those substances. These drugs spread like wildfire, going from one innocent teenager to the next. Sometimes teens are slipped a drug at a party and from that point on, it’s like their life is over, they are hooked forever and it wasn’t even their choice. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) is currently involved, trying to minimize drug use, but it just doesn’t seem like enough. It’s encouraging to know that they have the DEA has put a stop to thousands of drug cases, but there still are thousands of other cases that have not been put to a stop. If there were more rules and harsher punishment, the amount of drug users could decrease.

The legal age to drink is 21. If anything there should be a higher age limit to be able to purchase tobacco. Those that are getting cigarettes or chewing tobacco at the age of 18 are just too young and immature. The age limit is allowing teenagers to buy substances that they should not have in the first place. A higher age limit would create more boundaries. According to scientist, the nicotine in tobacco kills brain cells. Having the age limit at 18 is like telling those teens “you are 18, now you can go out there and kill some brain cells”. That can be prevented. Of course it is your choice whether you get to buy something or not, but these substances should not even be in reach of teenagers. They are harmful to everyone around them. For example, second hand smoke is very common. The worst part about second hand smoke is that it’s not even your choice to get it or not. There are cases where the child lives with a parent that has smoked around them since they were born and they never had a choice to leave or not be exposed to those toxins. Creating a stop to everything would solve all the problems.

Stopping the production of these products could solve basically all the problems. No more drugs, no more deaths. In the process of stopping the production, those who operated will become jobless and lose money, but isn’t it better that those people who makes a living of “killing people” pay the price. In addition, access to prescription drugs should be monitored heavily. There are people getting ahold of these drugs and using them improperly, hurting themselves because of an addiction that is uncontrollable. Imagine if all tobacco companies went out of business, illegal substances were put to the grave and the amount of people losing their lives every year would decrease.

How will lives be saved if not enough force is being implied. 465,000 people a year have died from the use of drugs. Tobacco is the number one killer out of all the drugs, killing 400,000 people where combined illegal drugs have killed 20,000. Although this number might not seem like millions, it is still a large number. It’s the one girl that decided to go to her first party ever to have fun, but ended up losing her life to an unexpected overdose to an unknown substance that could have her life saved if these drugs where not roaming around in the streets, in the hands of those that should not obtain them.

Each day there is a new case, someone gets hooked and there is no going back. Everyone has a choice to live their life the way that they want to live, but they affect everyone around them. Those that are afraid to live in their neighborhood because down the street is a drug house are affected, sometimes a family has no other choice other than to live where they are because it is the only option. If there were to be more laws created, more boundaries set, there would be a decrease in drug use. Less people would be losing their lives. The neighborhoods we live in would become safe once again. We would no longer be dragged into situations we didn’t wish to be a part of in the first place. Life would continue without the worries and concerns of your own child getting ahold of a substance that could end their life.


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