What's up with drugs?

There is a stigma on the word drugs. The term carries such a grave connotation, often being the object of addiction and abuse. Drug addiction is a prevalent problem in society; often attacking more than one branch of being. Drug addiction/abuse can lead to negative effects in a person’s health, social life, and mentality. On top of that, depending on the substance abused, addiction could be punishable by law. Like most social problems, the key to eradicating it lies in the knowledge of what it is, what causes it, what effects can it have, and what can we do to prevent/contain it.

When most of us think of substance abuse, we think of illegal substances like marijuana, cocaine,shabu, etc. While there are those who abuse these substances, these are not the only dangerous things that one can be addicted to. It is very common for one to get addicted to legal substances. This includes alcohol, cigarettes, and even prescribed medicine. These are all substances that are considered legal but when one develops an unhealthy addiction to these substances, the consequences can be just as bad as when one gets addicted to the illegal substances.

Addiction contains numerous detrimental effects to our body’s physiological functions. Substances like opiates, depressants, and hallucinogens disrupt brain activity, often messing with our critical thinking abilities and skewing our perception what would benefit us. Aside from this, these substances could disturb one’s metabolism. Appetites are lost and one gets less sleep then what is necessary. One is even more prone to problems when one suffers from withdrawal, often going through paranoia, rashes, restlessness, and erratic behavior.

Social problems also arise from addiction. As one grows addicted to a harmful substance, one finds that this substance becomes the most important thing in his/her life. It completely overshadows the other aspects of life. It becomes more important that family, friends, and loved ones. It disables a person’s ability to work and as a result, one cannot contribute to society any longer.

We can all agree with the fact that addiction is a prevalent issue that will be around for a long time. We must, however, be optimistic in our pursuit to eradicate addiction. Rehabilitation works and people are becoming more aware of the dangers of substance abuse. We must strive for this ideal and work hard to make it true. We must also show addicts that their current lifestyle is dangerous and that they should go through rehabilitation. They should not be ashamed and we should back their long and bumpy road to recovery.