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Kids and Drugs TodayOct 25 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line America's Youth is being swept away in drug use, and why?
When my father was my age, drugs were everywhere in America. However, when my father was my age he was also fighting for our country in Vietnam. Times were much different back then in the mid to late 1960’s, and while I’m not advocating that because of the turbulent times drugs were acceptable, I’m saying that a lot less was known about most drugs. The turbulence of the 1960s that fueled and in many ways overshadowed the youths of Americas’ drugs problems should have served as a learning tool for today’s generation of kids, instead it seems to act more as an excuse as to why it’s okay to use drugs. So many times I hear “well our parents did them (drugs), and they turned out all right”, my response to that is “of course you probably wouldn’t be here to say that if your parents didn’t happen to turn out all right”. The social issue of illegal drug use among America’s youth is a topic that is very near and important to me because of friends and loved ones who I see wasting and potentially ruining their lives with drug use. Where I was born and grew up was far from what you would think of as a community of troubled youth. I lived in a mostly upper-middle class suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. My childhood was pretty simple, went to camp and school and made friends. My friends and I grew up together, had great times, and grew closer. With the beginning of my teenage years, a divergence between my friends and I appeared. As we progressed through high school, the priority of my group of friends went from what movie to go to on Friday night, to if they should try marijuana or not. They (and I say ‘they’ because I was the lone friend who wanted nothing to do with drugs) went from thinking about whose house to hang out at in the upcoming weekend, to how, and more importantly when, the marijuana was going to be obtained that weekend. And finally, they went from what girl to ask to the formal dance, to what drug to do. Marijuana was definitely the drug that led to my friends’ delving into other drugs. I firmly believe that it is a “gateway” drug, if for no other reason that it gets certain kids in contact with drug dealers who can eventually get them other, more dangerous drugs. I still however, see the dangers in marijuana use. For some of the people I know who use it they seem the same as they were previous to using the drug, every bit as fun loving and outgoing as they had used to be. But for every one of those types of people I know, there are at least fifty others I know who use marijuana and become for lack of a better word “zombie-like”. I can’t tell you how many of my friends now spend the weekends (and more and more weekdays) locked in someone’s basement stoned for hours on end. They have no aspiration to do anything at all, whether that be going out somewhere, or even just having a conversation about something. All they talk about is smoking more pot, and ask who wants to smoke more with them. What really makes me angry is when one of my friends tries to peer-pressure another into smoking marijuana. One particular instance that sticks out in my mind is when a group of my friends once tried to coax my girlfriend into smoking pot with them. I wasn’t around at the time, and she was very hesitant to do it, but eventually did. I was so angry when I found out. Just the thought of it really tears me apart inside. Maybe that’s because I think of her as someone better then a person who would give into peer-pressure, or maybe it’s the thought of another loved one smoking marijuana all the time and becoming lifeless, or maybe it’s that if they can talk her into trying marijuana, what else can they talk her into trying? The time came when one of my friends “graduated” from marijuana use into trying 'shrooms (hallucinogenic mushrooms). One of the people whom my friend had bought marijuana from threw-in the 'shrooms as a gift for being such a “good” customer. After that friend had done it a few times, the idea spread like wildfire over my group of friends. Pretty soon, nearly half of them had tried 'shrooms. Another friend decided to try ecstasy and soon had others doing that with her. A few of my friends decided 'shrooms and ecstasy weren’t strong enough and so decided to buy some LSD. And by that point, it was far too late for them to turn back. So here I am today as other friends of mine seriously consider trying cocaine. You see, they feel their noses can handle it now after learning in college how to snort Ritalin for concentration purposes. All of my friends know how I feel about drug use, but I am literally the sole voice of opposition. So I sit back and hope that none of my friends end up hurt or dead as they take whatever drug they can find. I wish ‘hope’ was a drug.  |
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