In a world where drugs are heavily marketed, addictive, and come with heaping doses of abuse, it is hard for people to see whether or not it’s worth the risk. What if I were to tell you I could show you how to avoid that addictive cycle by having someone else take the risks? How to pass a saliva drug test yahoo answers?
This blog post will explore whether or not drug addiction is really worth the investment. Plus, we’ll have a chart of most recently abused illicit drugs and a brief discussion on what would happen if one were to stop taking them cold-turkey!
1. Introduction
The first topic we’re going to tackle is the potential repercussions of drug use. This can be a bit scary, but a little fear is good— it will keep you conscious. Before I start, I am going to lay out the most commonly abused illicit drugs list from least to most addictive: marijuana, alcohol, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines (meth or ice), and painkillers (pain pills; oxycodone, hydrocodone).
2. The Dangers of Drug Use and Abuse
Marijuana:
I’m sure you’re all familiar with marijuana; just about every college kid smokes it. This has been my personal experience as well, and I have heard of many others who have experienced the same.
Marijuana is extremely addictive; it makes you feel very lethargic and is also a gateway drug to harder drugs. It also harms your lung capacity and creates inflammation in brain cells; thus resulting in many other health issues.
Heroin:
Heroin is another popular drug for recreational use, especially among the youth. It is easily smokable and gets people high fast. This, of course, brings with it the all-too-familiar feeling of euphoria within only seconds. But, it also comes with many detrimental side effects. Heroin is extremely addictive and leads to many overdoses. In fact, you can overdose after only trying heroin the first time. When you use it over and over again, your body becomes dependent on the drug and you can’t stop even when you want to (without professional help).
Since heroin is injected into the veins, there are risks of infections such as Hepatitis C/HIV. These are very contagious diseases that can harm not just your body but also your brain (which is one of the most important organs!)
Cocaine:
Cocaine is yet another popular drug, especially in wealthier communities where it’s considered “Sophisticated. ” It comes in many different forms, such as powder and crack. Crack is more popular than powder cocaine, but both are addictive and harmful to the user’s health. Crack is smoked (hence the “crack”), whereas powder cocaine is snorted.
Cocaine causes the immune system to weaken and builds up a tolerance to the drug, so you have to use it much more frequently than you’d like. It also leads to addiction over time because your body becomes used to the high that comes with it and it becomes difficult for you to live without it (and you may even start craving cocaine when you don’t take it).
Methamphetamines:
Meth is a popular recreational drug made from ingredients such as pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, or acetyl phenylpropanolamine. I’ve heard of college kids making homemade methamphetamines from easy-to-access ingredients such as rubbing alcohol and acetone nail polish remover. The short-term effects of meth are similar to cocaine: it gives you a quick high followed by hours of energy; which makes for some crazy late nights. But the long term effects are much different: meth causes hallucinations and paranoia, which can ruin you socially and ruin your relationships with your friends and family. The drug causes people to lose their appetite, overeat, and gain a lot of weight.
Methamphetamine can also harm your immune system by causing it to weaken. This makes me think of the scary movie “Fight Club.” Meth is said to cause irreversible brain damage, which is dangerous because this occurs YEARS after your last use!
If the risks weren’t enough to scare people away from meth, I have to throw in an addiction risk into the mix, too. Meth addiction causes you to feel like giving up everyday activities, even if they aren’t important.
3. Investing in Drug Addiction
Now that we know the risks of drugs, we can look at how much it costs to be addicted. This can be tricky to determine because the length of time it takes to become dependent on each drug differs. For example, you may be able to smoke marijuana on a daily basis just fine, but you may have a harder time trying heroin or methamphetamines once a week.
So I compared two different methods of using each drug: chronic abuse (using everyday) and casual use (using once or twice). For example, if one were to use methamphetamine once a week for 5 years, they would probably become dependent on it (and their brain would suffer irreversible damage).
Summary:
To sum up, drug addiction is not worth the investment because the benefits of using drugs only ward off withdrawal symptoms. However, if you are lucky enough to have someone who cares about you to assist you through withdrawal, then maybe drug use is worth your time.
I’m sure that any parent would agree that their child’s health and safety is worth more than $100. Plus, there are many treatment centers out there that will help you quit drugs for free; they don’t want your money! You may want to consider their help because of the risks of drug abuse and dependence (which includes social and physical).
