Drug Effects on the Community

Do people ever think about the consequences about drug abuse? Not many of us do but we all know what it does to us. Drugs are harmful to the brain and the body system itself; they affect the heart in many ways and because of that people become unconscious as to what their actions are. They do not realize how badly they can harm the community around them. Drugs are normally used by those who are not involved in activities such as, religious clubs, sports, etc. The users are normally stressed out with life and at times they just need something to set their minds aside from problems which occur in their everyday life. There are many reasons as to why and how drugs affect the community around the drug user however; there are also reasons as to why a person may use or get involved with drug usage such as being poor or even the lack of socializing.

The main reason as to why people use drugs is because they don’t socialize much with the people around them. They believe that the further away they are from the rest of the world the better therefore when a person separates himself/herself they are actually leaving socializing and will sooner or later become lonely and feel left out leaving them with no self confidence as to having friends or any loved ones. As time goes by, these people who have no one to socialize with believe that they can set their minds off of it by smoking or sniffing drugs. Moreover, they believe that the more drugs they buy from others, the more friends they make, the more they are socializing but in the wrong way. It is not only the drugs affecting the community but it is the community affecting itself.

The community has so much racism involved between all cultures and ethnicities that people try to ignore the fact about who and what they are. The racist’s acts and comments cause all types of hatred such as the Caucasians wanting to be Black and/or the Blacks wanting to be Caucasian. The blacks and whites aren’t the only type of people who are at times racist against each other but there are other groups such as the Indians verses the Pakistani’s who are racist at times also. Racism causes self consciousness and that leads to drug abuse because they believe that it will take the thoughts out of their minds. Not all types of drugs are as harmful such as marijuana which is at times used for medical reasoning’s.

There is also the harm about giving birth to a child when abusing drugs. When a pregnant woman uses drugs she affects the fetus. Scientist have studied facts about the babies born from marijuana users were shorter, weighed less, and had smaller head sizes than those born from the mothers who did not use the drug. When a baby is smaller than its average size the health of the baby has more of a risk to it than an average sized baby. Drug abuse has negative effects on the fetus because they are transferred from the placenta to the fetus which harms the birth of the baby. If a pregnant woman is taking in drugs she is making it harder for the unborn to breath and most of the drugs can cause a miscarriage. If the mother is smoking heroine while having a child, the child can become immune to that drug and become dependent

on it. PCP and LSD can lead to various problems for the child such as, low birth weight, poor muscle control, brain damage, and withdrawal syndrome if they are used frequently.

When someone is using drugs it is easy to tell by their physical signs; when a person uses marijuana they may have a chronic cough and/or asthma conditions. Marijuana weakens the immune system which leads to pneumonia and other infections. Stimulants cause an increase in the heart rate and the blood pressure whereas the other types of drugs like heroine cause the heart rate to drop and slow down. Researches show that the cost of drugs is very high. In America itself it was estimated that two thousand illegal drugs cost us 161 billion dollars. Because of these costs and usage of the drugs, the healthcare prices have also increased to 12.9 billion dollars.

Teenagers on the other hand, especially in the adolescent age are very curious about such matters. They believe in taking risks and trying new things because they are interested in what it does to them and how. Teenagers aren’t aware at all times about the drug and how it can affect the body but they are aware of the fact that it is harmful. Adolescents try things because they think that since their friends are doing it, it is cool to be like them because they assume that drugs make us feel good about ourselves. They believe it reduces stress however it is hard to keep a teenager away from testing such things because this is the time where they ask for their independence.

Teenagers are likely to get involved with drugs if they have a history of drug abuse, if they are depressed, if they have a low self-esteem, and if they are left out of groups or