Effects of Drug Abuse
COM/156
February 9, 2014
Amanda Yates
Effects of Drug Abuse
Drug abuse is a growing issue all over the world, and while the concentration on drug awareness has dramatically increased over the years, the number of families effected by drug use continues to rise at an alarming rate.
Drugs are defined as “: a substance that is used as a medicine: an illegal and often harmful substance (such as heroin, cocaine, LSD, or marijuana) that people take for pleasure.” ("Merriam-Webster", n.d). People that abuse drugs and the effects of this abuse can happen to anyone, in any walk of life and it happens all over the world every day. Drug abuse has happened to a great deal of people regardless of social status, financial stability, gender, or race. Drug abuse has been in in all societies for ages and it seems that the number of people effected by drug abuse continues to grow more each day. More and more people are becoming addicted to drugs and more and more families are being effected. Just as we start to learn about a one type of drug, another one is created. Drugs are imported into countries, exported out, smuggled in and out and some drugs are made at home and could be the house right next door. Drug abuse not only effects the person abusing the drugs but the people around them as well. The effects of drug abuse has many layers and sometimes can be a vicious cycle that lasts for generations.
I grew up as a child that was around drugs from the day I was born. There is not a time in my childhood that drugs were not involved at some point. I was around so many different things that I actually thought it was normal. As I got older I realized that it was not right, but it was what I had always known so I didn’t think it was a big deal. When I moved out of my mother’s house at the age of 15 it was then that I realized just how abnormal my childhood was. My mother abused heroin,