Essay on Drug Abuse a Threat to Society
Drug abuse is when you use legal or illegal substances in ways you do not recommend. Drug abuse can be taking more than the regular dose of pills, to, to feel good, ease stress, or avoid reality Drugs are taking too many lives, especially young lives, we need to make a change in our society. Drug overdoses are a leading cause of death for people under 50.
People from all over can experience problems with drug use, regardless of age, race, or background. People start using drugs for many reasons. Some experiment with drugs out of curiosity, because friends are doing it, or to ease problems. Famous people are also a big impact on the role of drug abuse. Celebrities nowadays are drug addicts almost every week a celebrity dies being addicted to drugs. However, it’s not only illegal drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, that can lead to abuse and addiction. Prescription medications such as painkillers, and sleeping pills, can cause the same problems. Prescription painkillers are the most abused drugs in North America and more people die from overdosing opioid painkillers each day than car accidents and gun deaths combined.
The abuse of drugs can affect not only you but your loved ones. Drug addiction impacts a family’s finances, physical health, and psychological well being. Different drugs have different types of effects. And while some side effects are relatively small, many abused substances lead to severe and life-threatening outcomes. Drug abuse can impact the brain’s ability to function as well as to prevent proper growth and development for later in life.
Drugs can also have an effect on babies that can really harm or kill the child or even an infant. Women who are pregnant who use substances regularly may have children who are born dependent on those substances, or, or Babies born to mothers who used drugs while pregnant also might be born small, have problems eating and sleeping have problems seeing, hearing, and moving and can be slow to develop. Drug abuse also has a big effect on society. the costs due to, drug and alcohol use total nearly $600 billion in lost revenue, health care, legal fees, and damages each year. Drug abuse also creates higher rates of children placed in foster care.
Drug abuse needs to be under control. The war on drugs had been going on for years and there had been very little change it has gotten worse from my point of view and from statistics. “Every 25 seconds, someone in America is arrested for possession of drugs.”(Betsy Pearl), and “Every 16 minutes, a person in America dies from an opioid overdose”. (Betsy Pearl). The two following facts should be enough to realize that drug abuse has come too far. As a society, we should join together and try to stop drug abuse in the younger generations by teaching them young on how dangerous drugs can be especially prescription drugs. Teaching kids about drugs and peer pressure aren't enough.
Schools should also talk about drugs and peer pressure at an older age when children are getting old enough to do more with peers so they can be aware of what is going on, and they can make a good decision from there. When children get to middle school they may forget what drugs are and how bad they can impact lives. Studies show that early use of drugs increases a person's chance of being addicted. Which means that drug prevention programs should be taught the end of elementary before summer break and refreshed the start of middle school. This can be a big impact on stopping drug abuse and saving a lot of lives because a lot of drug abusers started at a young age.
In conclusion, I feel that we should try harder in stopping the younger generation from experimenting with drugs in the preteen age and not so young as in 9 years old. I say this because I feel that learning at about drugs and such a young age is very useless because by the time children get to middle school they will forget. Also, the war on drugs will never move forward because new drugs can be made at any time, so the government will have a difficult time finding out what should they make legal and illegal. I also feel that drug abuse and drug prevention isn't taken seriously in America.
