Eating Disorders: The Effects Of Drugs On Teenagers

The Effects of Drugs on Teenagers Addiction is considered a brain disease that develops over time resulting from repeatedly using a drug, and for some becoming a lifestyle. Consequences may include the seeking of drugs, craving them and use that could potentially destroy a person’s function in their family and in society. Illegal drugs being mostly used by teens nowadays are marijuana, heroin, and cocaine. Considering these drugs are illegal in the United States, people cannot just go and buy them at a convenience store. Research has shown that almost every high school has one or more drug dealers that provide these illegal drugs to students who are willing to pay for them. The use of illegal drugs by teenagers such as marijuana, heroin, and …show more content…
When the addiction of heroin stopped being a problem with just any Americans it was the inner-city poor who would be the ones most affected. Heroin addiction did not just stay affected the inner-city poor, “during the 1960s and again in the 1990s, heroin abuse rose among the wealthy and the middle class...served as a reminder to American society that heroin abuse is a problem that does not discriminate along lines of socioeconomic standing, race, or age” (Howard, 29). Heroin is becoming more popular as the years go by and teenagers find more reasons to try these illegal drugs. The health consequences of heroin addicts are innumerable and many are exceptionally serious. The most serious being overdosing on the drug or any drug in particular. If a user overdoses on heroin, “the drug’s depressant effect on the respiratory system prevents the body from getting a sufficient amount of oxygen, and the user falls into a coma” (Howard, 44). At some point the body loses the pulse to be able to breathe and the user will go into cardiac arrest and die. A study done at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1964-1994 showed, “that 284 of the original 581 participants-more than half- had died. Of these deceased participants, 22 percent died of overdose, 15 percent died of chronic liver disease, and 20 percent died from homicide or suicide. Many of the remaining 43 …show more content…
Being a powerful stimulant, cocaine once inside a user’s body, drives up the heart rate and blood pressure, expands the lungs; breathing tubes, and constricts blood vessels. Cocaine, along with other drugs alters the mood, allowing a user to feel a sense of energy, alertness, and even well being. Being well known around the world, cocaine is highly addictive and is illegal all around the world (Levert, 7). The chance of dying from overdosing on a certain drug is very likely and happens to many teenagers nowadays, cocaine being one of the drugs causing death or very serious medical conditions. Short-term effects from this drug can include increased energy, decreased appetite, increased body temperature, increased blood pressure and heart rate. Irritability, mood disturbances, hallucinations, and addiction are examples of long-term effects. Medical consequences from cocaine users can be heart attacks, chest pain, respiratory failure, strokes, seizures, headaches, abdominal pain, dehydration, etc (Levert, 38). Snorting cocaine is only one of the many ways to use the drug, although it leads to nosebleeds, loss of smell, and even a chronically inflamed, runny nose (Levert, 46). Injecting cocaine may lead to scarring, allergic reactions to either the drug or the needles being used. Permanent damage to the lungs is only one devastating effect cocaine has on the respiratory system along