Drugs

DRUGS AND THE EFFECT THEY HAVE ON OUR CHILDREN’S LIVES

Good health allows us to be strong, happy, smart and skillful as we can possibly be. The worst thing about illegal drugs is that they damage people from the inside. Our minds and bodies run like fine tuned machines when we take care of ourselves. Doctors prescribe medicines (which are legal drugs) to heal our bodies when we are sick, but dangerous drugs are not recommended by medical professionals.

The largest problem with use of illegal drugs, as well as cigarettes and alcohol, is among our young adults. Products like wine, beer, liquor are very harmful for our children because their bodies and especially their nervous system are still developing. It is stated that cigarettes and alcohol kill more people than cancer and car accidents caused by drunk drivers than all other drugs.

Illegal drugs can cause brain damage. These drugs are “psychoactive,” which means that they change our personality and the way we feel. While under the influence of these drugs we are more likely to endanger our life as well as somebody else’s. These illegal drugs are very addictive and they are very difficult to stop. An addict’s body craves the drug and becomes dependent upon it. The drug-user may even become sick if the drug is discontinued and this is why so many people, children and adults, become a slave to these drugs.

More than 100,000 people die every year because of drinking. Children are twice as likely as adults to become involved in fatal drunk-driving car crashes. Half of all assaults against girls or women involve alcohol. Drinking is illegal if you are under the age of 21 and could be arrested for this crime.

Nicotine is also very addictive. Once we start smoking it is very difficult to stop and smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer and other diseases. Statistics indicate that tobacco and nicotine related diseases kill more than 400,000 people every year. Each day more than 3,000 kids begin smoking and one-third of them will probably have their lives shortened because of tobacco use. Children who smoke cigarettes are almost six times more likely to use other illegal drugs than kids who don’t smoke.

Another common problem among our youngsters today is inhalants. Some documented incidents include a 13 year-old boy inhaled fumes from cleaning fluid and became very ill within a few minutes. The boy’s friends told his parents, who then took him to the hospital and was put on life-support systems immediately, but his condition didn’t improve. The doctors did everything possible for the boy, but he died within 24 hours. Another incident is an 11 year-old girl collapsed in a public bathroom because in inhaled a container of butane from a plastic bag. Other people in the bathroom tried to revive her but she never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead. Some other products, that our found in our own homes, that children inhale to get high include gas from the propane tanks that are attached to our grills in our backyards (they put in a bag), glue, spray paint, correction fluid, markers, furniture polish, gasoline, hair spray, nail polish remover, shoe polish, turpentine, degreasers and the list goes on. Inhalants damage the brain and other organs and they can be just as dangerous as illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, and sometimes even more dangerous.

We as adults and parents should make our children aware of the risks they are taking with their health and with their lives. But I believe our body’s best friend is to guard our mental and physical health by staying away from these drugs and inhalants and making sure that our children understand by taking drugs and inhalants is a very foolish thing to do.

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