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Drugs and Sorrow
Have you ever dealt with the effects of drugs firsthand in your life? Well I have and in
this essay I’ll be informing you of the causes and effects of drugs as well as a story of my own
experiences with it. Drugs are a substance that has a psychological effect when ingested or
otherwise introduced into the body, in particular. I believe I was around the age of six when I
started noticing the signs of my Aunty Wendy becoming extremely skinny and looking
somewhat unhealthy. As a child I didn’t know much about drugs except for what your parents
and teachers at school tell you which is, “Just say No” Well Eventually the family started seeing
less and less of my aunt and then out of the blue she turned up one day at the backdoor of my
grandpa’s home. I remember it like it was yesterday I was playing on the steps of grandparents’
home like I always did and she was trying to get in the house I’m not sure if it was for money for
drugs or for food. Convenient enough my Aunty Sharon, her sister, was in the kitchen and let her
in, but my grandfather came out of his room when he heard her voice. They all quickly got into
an argument because my grandfather didn’t want my aunt in his house if she was on drugs. Not
too long after that day my Aunty Wendy got into trouble with drugs and was sent to rehab. It
made me happy to see how much healthier she was after rehab and the best part was that she
started baking her Gooey M&M cookies again the kind of cookies that just melt in your mouth
when you taste them.
Sadly my Aunty Wendy eventually got caught up with the wrong kind of people again and got
hooked on drugs. By going back to dugs it only a matter of time before hse got into trouble
again. This time the judge showed no leniency and sentenced my Aunty Wendy to deportation
back to Trinidad & Tobago for eight to ten years at which time she would be tried again by a
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judge to see if she was firt to return to the United States. Well its been al ost fourtenen years or
so since I’ve seen my Aunt and in all honesty I believe it didn’t make any sense to send a drug
addict back to their home country where the drugs are easily accessible. Unfortunately the
ending to this story isn’t a happy one because according to my Grandfather and family down in
Trinidad she’s constantly going missing for days while also appearing drugged up when seen and
lashing out due to her bipolar disorder.
Drug addiction can cause a numerous amount of problems in a family, but most of all it
can lead to a record that the addict never thought they would ever have when they first started
using. Essentially a drug addiction is a disorder that causes the user to be helpless against the
urge to keep using no matter what the cost or outcomes may be (Durrant). Most addicts find
pleasure in the use of drugs when they first start out , but as time goes on the only reason that
they use is to keep from feeling the pain of withdrawal (Kemp). According to the, Familial Risk
Factors Favoring Drug Addiction Onset Article that I read it says, “The ever-growing prevalence
of opiate drug abuse has eventually led to crises in modern society and traditional family ways; it
has jeopardized fundamental social virtues and values and led to a rise in criminal behavior”
(Zimić). So once you become addicted drugs in a sense you might as well throw your family as
well as yourself under the bus, because if you keep using drugs everyone’s just going to keep
getting run over.
It is said sometimes that if your parents or anyone in your family has a history of drug
addiction those traits in their genes have a decent chance of being passed down to the children
causing problems for them later in life. According to the Drugs and Addiction article in the 2009
Addiction Journal, “Family, twin and adoption studies suggest that the heritability of substance
use disorders is moderate to high (ranging from 0.30 to 0.70), with shared and non-shared
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environmental factors important” (Wong). Also one of the leading causes or reasons for using
drugs and becoming addicted is the fact in which it may give you, the user, a retreat from the
world or just make them feel good where it be physically or mentally (Kemp). If that’s the case
then why isn’t everyone addicted to drugs? Well the answer is simple most people are aware of
what harmful drugs can do to their system, but if they don’t know it’s due to a lack of
information given by the person distributing the drugs whether it be a friend, family member, or
a drug dealer. In a sense this is probably the reason most kids today are targeted by people
soliciting drugs because they don’t know much about drugs and can sometimes be easily coaxed
into using.
As started in the previous two paragraphs a drug addiction can cause many problems and
it also can sometimes be passed down through generations. Sadly those aren’t the only ways
drugs can affect us. Drugs and drug addiction are sometimes subject to a gender. According to
Gender Differences in Crime, Drug Addiction, Abstinence, Personality Characteristics, and
Negative Emotions article in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, “’Research demonstrates that
female drug addicts commit relatively fewer violent crimes compared to males, and were more
likely to engage in drug-related crimes, such as property crimes and prostitution,’ ‘Compared to
females, mal drug addicts are more likely to resort to violent crime, armed robbery, and drug
dealing to support their addiction’” (Chen). Of course it can’t all be blamed on the person’s
gender you have to sometimes blame the parents, because neglective parental and child
relationships can lead to destructive behavior by that child in its later years of life (Zimić). The
factors that go into someone becoming an drug addict or an addict in general is so vast and varies
upon the type person that it would be kind of hard to really pinpoint the specific reason why the
person chose to use in the first place.
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So I hope from this information you’re able to understand how drugs can cause people to
become addicts whether the reason between the parents and their child. Even though we may
turn a blind eye to it drugs will always be a problem in societies today whether we like it or not,
but the most important thing is how we deal with it when it confronts us. All in all drugs aren’t a
problem unless you make it one so take care of yourself and make the right choices.
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Works Cited
Chen, Gila. "Gender Differences in Crime, Drug Addiction, Abstinence,
Personality Characteristics, and Negative Emotions." Journal of
Psychoactive Drugs 41.3 (2009): 255-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17
Feb. 2013.
Durrant, Russil, et al. "Drug Use and Addiction: Evolutionary Perspective."
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 43 (2009): 1049-56.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.
Kemp, Ryan. "The Lived-Body of Drug Addiction."Existential Analysis: Journal of
the Society for Existential Analysis 20.1 (2009):120-32. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.
Wong, Chloe C.Y., Jonathan Mill, and Cathy Fernandes. "Drugs and Addiction: An
Introduction to Epigenetics." Addiction 106.3 (2011): 480-89. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.
Zimić, Jadranka Ivandić, and Vlado Jukić. "Familial Risk Factors Favoring Drug
Addiction Onset." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 44.2 (2012): 173-85.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.