Background Information on  Drugs

These days, drugs can be found everywhere, and it may seem like everyone's doing them. Many teens are tempted by the excitement or escape that drugs seem to offer. But learning the facts about drugs can help you see the risks of chasing this excitement or escape. Read on to learn more.

The Deal on Substances

Thanks to medical and drug research, there are thousands of drugs that help people. Antibiotics and vaccines have revolutionized the treatment of infections. There are medicines to lower blood pressure, treat diabetes, and reduce the body's rejection of new organs. Medicines can cure, slow, or prevent disease, helping us to lead healthier and happier lives. But there are also lots of illegal, harmful drugs that people take to help them feel good or have a good time.

How do drugs work? Drugs are chemicals or substances that change the way our bodies work. When you put them into your body (often by swallowing, inhaling, or injecting them), drugs find their way into your bloodstream and are transported to parts of your body, such as your brain. In the brain, drugs may either intensify or dull your senses, alter your sense of alertness, and sometimes decrease physical pain. A drug may be helpful or harmful. The effects of drugs can vary depending upon the kind of drug taken, how much is taken, how often it is used, how quickly it gets to the brain, and what other drugs, food, or substances are taken at the same time. Effects can also vary based on the differences in body size, shape, and chemistry.

Although substances can feel good at first, they can ultimately do a lot of harm to the body and brain. Drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, taking illegal drugs, and sniffing glue can all cause serious damage to the human body. Some drugs severely impair a person's ability to make healthy choices and decisions. Teens who drink, for example, are more likely to get involved in dangerous situations, such as driving under the influence or having unprotected sex.

And just as there are many kinds of drugs available, there are as many reasons for trying drugs or starting to use drugs regularly. People take drugs just for the pleasure they believe they can bring. Often it's because someone tried to convince them that drugs would make them feel good or that they'd have a better time if they took them.

Some teens believe drugs will help them think better, be more popular, stay more active, or become better athletes. Others are simply curious and figure one try won't hurt. Others want to fit in. A few use drugs to gain attention from their parents. Many teens use drugs because they are depressed or think drugs will help them escape their problems. The truth is, drugs don't solve problems. Drugs simply hide feelings and problems. When a drug wears off, the feelings and problems remain - or become worse. Drugs can ruin every aspect of a person's life.

"Legal" drugs

Alcohol and Nicotine are just as problematic as illegal drugs and cause more recorded deaths than illegal narcotics: this is what is being expressed, but it is an empty and illogical as well as unrealistic expression. The reason why there are records of how many deaths and illnesses are caused by alcohol and nicotine is simply because it is legal therefore open to study and data records, and the reason why we can not make comparisons of the same regarding illegal substances is because they are illegal and unmonitored. Does this make legal drugs such as alcohol and nicotine  worse than illegal narcotics? The truth is, they are all harmful substances that cause illnesses and can lead to death. Hence the warnings on packaging.

Unlike most things that enter our society that most often compliment our everyday lives, drugs have the opposite effect. They destroy our lives, most often without us noticing the detrimental effects till its to late. Drug users live by the illusion that they are in control. This is the false psychological, emotional and physical feeling the user gets and lives by. The reality is, the drug user justifies his actions and learns to accept and live by them simply because of his or her abandonment of self respect, self worth, values, culture, religion and morality. With the absence of these things, there is no longer a conscious or logic to guide you, just a need to continue to self destruct without being aware of ones actions. Drug users always believe they are in control. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Drugs are slowly poisoning our societies. Governments and Police are desperately trying to fight a battle against drug trafficking and use. Their problems are far wider than those I mentioned above. They know that drugs lead to crime, people-trafficking, prostitution, money-laundering, arms and terrorism. Drugs feed the very organisations that aim to destroy our governments and lives.