Persuasive Essay About Drugs

The use of drugs and their classifications have been a world-renowned issue for many years. It was not until recent years that drug abuse prevention became so highly emphasized. Now questions are being asked about the effectiveness of intervention programs and who is to blame for its faults. With the increase of drug abuse, questions begin growing whether drug addicts can be helped. Drug abuse is highly ranked among the most severe problems countries now face. There are numerous types of drugs being abused today—both legal and illegal. The primary focus has shifted from the types of drugs abused and where these drugs are coming from to prevention and the detrimental effects of abuse.

A controversial subject many Americans are constantly at battle over is legalizing drugs. Some experts have the opinion that drugs should be legalized for medical treatment, and for help with severe illness. Other experts argue that this will have a bad effect due to overdosing and addiction, and also the adverse affect on teens. I do not think that drugs should be legalized but they should allow people with serious medical conditions to use these illegal drugs. Legalizing drugs would only create and even bigger drug abuse situation, and especially for juveniles. Legalizing drugs would also create the question of what to do with criminals who are already incarcerated for this offense. There are surveys, which give statistics on crime, and how crime rates are affected by the use of drugs. For example, there is one survey called the “National

Drug abuse affects not only the person abusing drugs, but the people around them as well, such as their family and friends. It has a damaging effect on the economy and public safety. I want to know what the best ways are to prevent drug abuse. If drug abuse has already begun with someone I want to know how end it for that person. This is important to me because it is personal. My family has dealt with drug abuse before and can empathize with the negative effects it has on society. By interviewing people who have used, and looking at past studies, I can learn

From 2001 to 2014 there has been a 42% increase in the number of deaths caused by prescription drug overdose. Moreover, the national survey conducted on drug use stated that 27 million people who are aged 12 and over have used an illegal drug. Year by year, drug addiction has been growing immensely among citizens and does not seem to stop. The sooner people start to take action, the sooner drug addiction in America will decrease. Whether it be directly or indirectly, the abuse of drugs has affected every family in every community and needs to be stopped.

Just like alcohol, marijuana also plays a big part in violent crime. Studies show “Continued use of cannabis causes violent behaviour as a direct result of changes in brain function that are caused by smoking weed over many years.” (BBC, 2016)

Drug addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the drug addict and those around them. Drug addiction is a brain disease because the abuse of drugs leads to changes in the structure and function of the brain. From prescription overdoses alone from 1999 to 2014 men are more likely to die from overdose, but the numbers on women is not too far behind. According to the CDC in 2014 there were almost 2 million Americans that were dependent on prescription opioids, 1 in 4 people struggle with addiction to prescribed painkillers. Ninety-one Americans die every day from an Opioid over dose. I believe that the problem relies with resources, we just don’t have enough of them. I am not just talking about treatment facilities I mean access to better jobs, and housing as well, society will chew you up and spit you out and where ever you land you are expected to gather up the pieces and make something out of it. As easy as this may seem, it can be an unobtainable goal for many in today’s society.

We aren’t born with a map of our future we make it with the choices and events that occur in our life. We can make our own choices, but we can’t change the events that happen to us. There will be good events that make us happy, however, we are also faced with bad events that change us. We all react differently the bad events that occur; like, we feel lost, lonely, depressed, pain, undesired, rejected, failure, anger, confusion, and other emotions. The way we react to these events varies, but people commonly use methods to help forget about the pain, ease the pain, replace the pain and to feel better. The methods they use affects their life’s in negative ways, and some of the effects are irreversible. They start to lose people close to them, they lose trust, money, career, their home, and forgot about who they are since only one thing is matter anymore. Once they use these methods they can never return to their old life or who they were in the past, and the mistakes they made will follow them their entire life. Some of the best ways to prevent adults from abusing drugs is to educate them when they are children about the negative impact of drugs on their life, provide programs that help them with the problems that turn them to drugs and cut of their access/supply to drugs, all of which will prevent a society full of adult using drugs as a getaway and drugs from dictating their choices.

Addiction is a choice and we can all put our minds to it and stop when we want to stop the behavior. The statistic has been proven and there are many ways we use addiction from abusing alcohol and drugs, neglecting children, and some scientist and doctors think addiction could be a disease.

According to the National Institution on Drug Abuse, drug addiction is “a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences.” Drug abuse and addiction is an epidemic across the globe. It is the one of the worst health problems in the USA. It ruins the lives of individuals, tears apart families, and hurts children. According to results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an estimated 2.4 million Americans used prescription drugs nonmedically for the first time within the past year, which averages to approximately 6,600 initiates per day. “In 2013, an estimated 24.6 million Americans aged 12 or older—9.4 percent of the population—had used an illicit drug in the past month.” (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Drug abuse and addiction has become a monster that is continually growing, and ruining and even ending many lives each year. Even though there are many new treatment and therapy technologies, its currently not enough.

Over the last few decades, law enforcement and the government has focused on reducing and or eliminating drug use in the United States. The 1980” s fight against drugs saw the implementation of the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program and after school specials. While the two were supported largely by the communities, there has not been clear cut evidence of the programs succeeding due to a lack of a control group (Kochis, 1995). D.A.R.E. along with the afterschool programs are geared towards elementary and middle school aged children as a method of drug deterrence however do not address drug use issues with older teens and young adults. In recent years, teen and young adult drug use/abuse has increased. Also, the increase in drug use has led to an increase in crime (Hawaii Mobilizes, 2003). Those teens and adults caught with illegal substances or commit crimes due to drug use, can be sentenced to jail time which lead to an increase in jail and prison populations. The issue with imprisonment for drug charges is the court system is “warehousing people in jail, where we are in fact not curing the problem [drug use/abuse] but having temporary stops or suspensions” (Reid, 2004). All the while, people in our communities are asking for solutions to the drug and crime problems in their neighborhoods.

Haven’t you always been fascinated that something our government restricts and makes illegal could in fact save and help many people who suffer and are in need of help for medical reasons such as cancer patients, aids patients, and those who suffer from depression. How can something be illegal if it helps 7.6 million people who approximately die just from cancer on a yearly basis’s? 23.5 million Americans that are affected from an auto immune disease. Auto immune disease’s is when the body starts to destroy itself; it’s also the leading cause of death as well as disability. Along with all cancer patients and auto immune suffers there are 33.4 million Americans suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome or better known as aids and approximately 2 million people die a year to having aids or other related illnesses. These illness have become an epidemic and there increasing the pharmaceutical sales as well help keep insurance providers in business.

In 1972 the U.S classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that the government considers it to have no acceptable medical use, has a high potential for abuse, and lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision per DEA Drugs of Abuse. Marijuana is a mixture of the dried flowers of Cannabis sativa and grown in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Caribbean, and Asia. Additionally, people usually blend it will food, brewed as a tea, and smoked it. Additionally, since smokers inhale deeper when smoking marijuana that leads to four times the deposition of tar compared to cigarette smoking. Individuals who oppose legalizing marijuana might see the drug as a health/physical issue, gateway to alcohol, do not treat every health issue, and economic downfall. When it comes to health marijuana influence the brain, lungs, organs, I.Q level of young individuals, and harmful to a fetus brain in pregnant women. Meanwhile, when someone smokes marijuana tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) passes from the lungs and into the bloodstream that carries the chemical to the organs and throughout the body, including the brain. Furthermore, THC acts on the brain cell receptors and over activates parts to cause individuals to feel high, hallucinations, and changes in their mood. However, the body absorbs THC more slowly when a person eats or drink it. Per drug abuse, researchers believe that when people smoke marijuana as a teenager, it

A lady with a good life, has a family,and has friends throws it all away because she had too much stress so she goes for some cocaine. Next thing you know she is a drug addict on the streets and her kids pity for the actions taken. Many lives are taken as well as take millions of dollars from the addicts and government officials. The drug war a controversial topic that has many opinions on whether or not it works. Frankly I believe this is all a huge fail. Laws have been made but they don’t affect the decision of addicts, Presidents have dedicated all four years to solve the problem their wives have made organizations to help but it does not even tickle the topic, and thousands of lives gone every year. That to me sounds like a fail.

In NYC public schools gay and bisexual students are twice as likely to use illegal drugs than their heterosexual peers. The main cause for students turning to drugs, is that the majority of lgbt students are put into stressful situations. The stress of their lives consist on of being discriminated and frowned upon by certain people around certain environments.

When I hear the word Marijuana I think potheads, drugs, and the streets. Marijuana is something that is all around us without us even knowing. Me personally had not had much contact with Marijuana because I have never been really intrigued by this drug or any drug in general. I was raised in the sense that all drugs are bad and that we should keep our so clean and good. As an audience might think of this as a religious telling and it definitely was indeed. I come from a very religious background and have many morals. When in high school I would see friends and people close to me smoking marijuana as a normal and everyday thing. I would see them coming in late to class being really high and not completely focused in class. This was when a associated doing marijuana with not doing well in class and with school work. See these people go out of there way to hide and sneak around doing marijuana was not something I wanted to do. Let me remind you marijuana is an illegal drug in most states, but here is Colorado Marijuana is legal. I have many many questions and concerns about marijuana and THC as a whole: What is the effect on the brain in general?, what does it do to the adolescent brain?, and are there any positive effects to using marijuana? These are essential question for me because I want to know more on the topic to get an understanding on what happens in the brain when you smoke marijuana and focus that on the adolescent brain since their brain does not fully