DrugAbuse
Ourcountry, the United States, struggles with this monster today, drugabuse. This is the habitual taking of drugs for a purpose notprescribed, which may or may not be legal. You need no rocket scienceto understand that our nation`s resources are being wasted trying tocurb drug abuse in hospitals, streets, and even in our neighborhoods.What pains more is that our sons, daughters, fathers and mothers arethe ones abusing drugs. And the satisfaction of that innocentcuriosity turns our loved ones into hopeless looking creatures. Everyday, we live wondering how such little curiosity turns people whowere once loving, into carelessly and dangerous beings. People whouse drugs have been known to do anything irrespective of how thesociety perceives it, to get drugs. If your son were an addict, youwould not be surprised to find your wallet missing or othervaluables. In my essay, I will discuss and show how the societysuffers, the reason why people are prone to be drug addicts and wayswhich can be used to curb them using Sheff’s book.
Sheff(2013) captures Jacqueline’s brother in his story to show to whatextent a person using drugs would do. Jacqueline’s brother wasaddicted to drugs, such that he could steal his father’s medicine,who was suffering from Alzheimer, imagine that. Furthermore, oncepeople become addicts they start alienating themselves with the restof the social groups this is well elaborated by Kevin, Jacqueline’sson who after becoming a user starts to have a private life. In hisprivate life, Kevin worries his mother so much. Kevin is arrestedtwice I can imagine what a mother would go through if her son wasarrested and she could not do anything to save him. The story showshow a mother struggles with a user, though Kevin went torehabilitation center, his reformation did not stick. He becomes auser until he died from it. That leaves Jacqueline, an anguishedmother who was not ready to say goodbye to her own. The story teachesus how a bright student was robbed from society by the drug menaceand the pains that such incidents leave in our society.
Inchapter 2 and 3, Sheff tries to show what an uphill task, our nationfaces in handling the drug menace. As many as there are variouscampaigns which advocate for the end of drug abuse, also there aresocial behaviors and circumstances that encourage drug abuse. We livein society were doing wrongs is advocated by some people as coolbehavior. This can be supported by most of hip hop or moviecelebrities. In some cases, where a movie star is featured usingdrugs, the result of such would be positive he/she would be featuredas a smart or funny character. The same society that advocates theuse of drugs in its movies also demonizes it. That leaves a thin linebetween what is truly right and our youths end up being confused bysuch ideologies. Also, hip hop artists, the most group thatinfluences our youths to advocate for the use of drugs as they depictthem as a normal way of live of cool people.
Theylive amazing lives and have the sweet things of life it becomesdifficult to convince the youth that drugs are bad when their rolemodels are using them, and they show no signs of side effects.Furthermore, there are risk factors associated with drug abuse andthe more likely you are exposed to those risks, the higher theprobability to start using. Poverty, disability, depression, pleasureand peer pressure among others are the likely causes of using drugs.Drugs give people a sense of satisfaction, and they feel aloof fromtheir problem that is why people take them repeatedly until theysuccumb. Sheff (2013) says that, the reason teenagers don’t controlthe drug use is because their brain is not developed enough tocontrol the use and as a result, they become hooked.
Hopeis not lost and as a society we can work together to change theoutcome of our youths’ behavior, is the lesson I learnt in chapterfour. The notion that the war against drug abuse cannot be won isunfounded. People see them as hopeless arrogant and susceptible tocontinuous drug use, but with proper care and attention, our nationcan turn around the odds. Chapter four approaches the fight againstdrug abuse by dealing with the risk that draws people to start usingthem. As a society, we have multi-responsibility towards ending thedrug abuse menace, and it begins in our homes. Parents have theresponsibility of bonding with their children to enable them to beopen about the curiosities of the world. Approaches that eliminaterisk factors such as depression should be encouraged both in schoolsand homes. Also, parents should have values that promote abstinence.Also, schools should offer education that provides our youth withmore reason, why we should shun drug abuse and help those entrapped.Furthermore, for the war to be won, the society should avoidpromotions or activities that seem to depict drug use as a cool orcharming thing to do.
Thereis no doubt that our society today faces immense challenges as aresult of drug abuse and the causes are within our reach. But we havea solution today, and it starts with eliminating the risk factorsthat make people susceptible to drug abuse.
References
Sheff, D.(2013). Clean:Overcoming addiction and ending America`s greatest tragedy.New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.