1 Karla Campos Prof. Camille Pack English 2010 January 28, 2015 Drug Abuse in America Drugs are a major problem in American life, but not a new problem. Drugs have been a part of American history, humans have used drugs of one sort of another for many years. The problems of addiction were recognized gradually. Legal measures were established against drug abuse in the United States in 1875. Now days there is a lot of help to prevent drug use, like anti drug education in schools, drug abuse centers and sometime parents involvement can help. These are some types of drugs that teenagers are using, and the effects of them. Marijuana: Marijuana comes from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. It has an active ingredient called THC that makes you feel high. THC and other compounds in marijuana can also affect the way your body works. Most people smoke the plant dried leaves, but it could also be mixed into food (like cookies and lollipops), brewed as a tea, or inhaled with a vaporizer. No matter how it gets to
your system, it affects almost every organ in you body, and your nervous system and immune system too. Smoking pot can increase your heart rate by as much as two times for up to 3 hours. That s why some people have a heart attack right after they use marijuana. It can increase bleeding, lower blood pressure, and affect your blood sugar, too. Inhalants: Inhalant use can cause damage to the heart, kidneys, brain, liver, bone marrow and other organs. They starve the body of oxygen and force the heart to beat irregularly and more rapidly. Users can experience nausea and nosebleeds and lose their sense of hearing or smell. Chronic use can lead to muscle wasting and reduced muscle tone, and the poisonous chemicals gradually damage the lungs and the immune system. An inhalant user risks Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome. Death can occur the first time or the hundredth time an inhalant is used. Cough Medicine: the medicine contains DXM. the risks of DXM abuse are real. At high doses, DXM can cause: impaired vision, fever, rapid breathing, irregular heart rate and blood pressure, memory loss, coma, hallucinations and dissociative effects. High amounts can shut down the central nervous system.
Tranquilizers:Long-term effects of tranquilizers can include irritability, inability to sleep well, and even aggressiveness. This happens as your tolerance, as well as your dependency, grows. Tranquilizer side effects also include respiratory distress, respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, and death, particularly if tranquilizer is combined with other drugs, such as cold medicine, other depressants, or alcohol. Hallucinogens: High doses of hallucinogens can increase the negative immediate effects. Death from an overdose of LSD, magic mushrooms and mescaline are extremely rare. A high dose of hallucinogen can cause a person to overdose. This means that a person has taken more hallucinogen than their body can cope with. Not knowing the strength or purity of the hallucinogen increases the risk of overdose. Deaths generally occur due to suicide, accidents and dangerous behavior, or due to the person inadvertently eating poisonous plant material. An overdose of PCP or ketamine can result in depressed breathing, coma, convulsions, seizures and death. Cocaine: Cocaine is a purified extract from the leaves of the erythoroxylum coca bush. This plant grows in the Andes region of South America. Cocaine is responsible for more U.S. emergency room visits than any other illegal drug.
Cocaine harms the brain, heart, blood vessels, and lungs -- and can even cause sudden death. Here's what happens in the body: Hear attack, can constrict blood vessels in the brain causing strokes, damages the nose and sinuses, can cause ulcers, high blood pressure and kidney failure. Ecstasy (MDMA):The side effects of ecstasy overdose are more extreme. These symptoms merit immediate medical treatment, they are High blood pressure, lightheadedness, panic attacks, seizures, loss of consciousness, extreme increase in body temperature. At its most extreme, ecstasy may cause death by heat stroke and heart failure. National Overdose Deaths Number of Deaths from Prescription Drugs. The figures above is a bar chart showing the total number of US overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers and prescription drugs.
5 The drug overdose death rate has more than double from 1999 through 2013. Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2012. In 2011, drug misuse and abuse caused about 2.5 million emergency department visits. There is a lot of teens who experiment with drugs, when they do this they put their health and safety at risk. You can help prevent drug abuse by talking to your teen about the consequences of using drugs and the importance of making healthy choices. It can be hard to talk to you teen about drug abuse, you can start by asking your teen s views about the subject, discuss reasons not to use drugs, you can emphasize on how drug could affect important thing that they like to do such as sports. Know your teen s activities and friends, keep on eye on prescription drugs, set a good example, don t abuse drugs yourself. Another thing that you can do to prevent drug abuse is being aware of possible red flags, such as: loss of interest in hobbies or family activities, sleeping patterns, physical appearance, school performance, stealing money, uncooperative attitude.