Can you get help?

For any drug abuse, there are many ways that other indeviduals can help you. Very obvious ones would be asking a peer, friend, family member, or sometimes teacher about it. There are also websites that can give information on how to prevent or stop your drug abuse. There are telephone numbers that have services to help you if you have drug problems, and help help to solve and prevent them from happening.

Getting help is easier and more effective than trying to solve a drug related problem by yourself, and is recommended aswell.

Consequences with the Law

Consequences with the law involving drugs include both illegal and legal drugs used in abundance. Drugs that you can get prosecuted for would be marijuana, cocaine, crackm heroin, crystal meth, and any other street drug you have probably heard of. You don't have to be using these drugs in order to be prosecuted, just having possetion of the illegal drugs can get you arrested.

Possession of marijuana can be treated as either a Class A misdemeanor or as a Class C felony, depending on the person's prior criminal history and whether or not the marijuana appears to be for other than personal use. If a person already has a conviction for marijuana, then any further arrests for marijuana will be charged as Marijuana First Degree, a felony.The misdemeanor can result in a maximum of one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Some cases also invlove prohibation.

Possetion of any illegal drug can be a risk to not just you, but your family, because they can also be prosectuted for use.

Medicine Abuse

Medicine abuse is the use of drugs that can be prescribed to you by a doctor or bought at pharmacies, but used at high levels. The most known abused drug is Dextromethorphan, a safe and effective active ingredient found in many prescription and nonprescription cough medicines, including syrups, tablets, and gel caps. If used as directed, Dextromethorphan has little side effects and is well known for its safety. When used in high amounts, it can cause a "high" feeling. The effects of an overdose on Dextromethorphan cause effects that include confusion, dizziness, doubled or blurred vission, slurred speech, loss of physical coordination, abnormal pain, nausea and vomiting, rapid heart beat, and numbness of toes and fingers.

37% of teens today say they have close friends who have abuse prescription painkillers like Vicodin, OxyContin, and Tylox. 29% say the same about prescription stimulants Ritalin and Adderall. Teens who abuse or have abused medicine are, more often then not, likely to report abusing drugs such as Marijuana and Ecstacy.

Short Term Effects or Drugs

Short term effects of drugs are not as bad as the long term effects, but still are very bad for your health. Short term effects hit you much faster and also start effecting you faster. To name some drugs and their short term effect there is: Amphetamines, their effects are increased talkativeness, increased aggressiveness, increased breathing rate, increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, reduced appetite, dilated pupils, visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, compulsive, repetitive action. Other effects of large doses can include fever and sweating, dry mouth, headache, paleness, blurred vision, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, tremors, loss of coordination, collapse.

For Cocaine/Crack there is constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, increased temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, insomnia, loss of appetite, feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. Duration of cocaine's immediate euphoric effects, which include energy, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity, depends on how it is used. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. However, the faster the absorption, the shorter the high lasts.

Heroin's short term effects are from user reports feeling a surge of euphoria ("rush") accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and heavy extremities. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes "on the nod," an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Mental functioning becomes clouded due to the depression of the central nervous system. Other effects included slowed and slurred speech, slow gait, constricted pupils, droopy eyelids, impaired night vision, vomiting, constipation.

Marijuana's short term effects

Long Term Effects of Drugs

The long term effects of drug abuse can effect your whole life from start to finish. Even if you quit the drug(s), the effects still damage and even kill you untill you are cured of the illness(s). Some illnesses of drug abuse in the long term are fatal kidney and lung disorders, possible brain damage, permanent psychological problems, weight loss, insomnia, malnutrition, lowered resistance to illnesses, liver damage, stroke, and death.

Drug abuse can effect a persons personality or lifestyles in the long term as well. Most effects from drug abuse are minor, but here are some that are a little more serious: depression, hallucinations, disorganized lifestyle, permanent psychological problems, violent and aggressive behavior, behavior resembling paranoid schizophrenia, decreased social life, poor coping abilities, and disturbance of personality develpoment. The effects of long term personality or lifestyle disorders effect not only you, but the people you interact with.

Long term effects of drugs just give more reason why not to do, or even try drugs due to the addiction factor, without drugs a person's life is better for him/her and everyone around.