Let�s Start Talking Before They Start Smoking

In recent years one of the very negative elements on our society is Drug abuse and addiction. Due to the widespread nature of drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, heroin and a host of others, has added heavily to an already harmed society. It is a silent epidemic amongst the youth in Ghana .It is one of the primary diseases in the world, leading to many diseases. Many are genetically predisposed to the disease of addiction, while others acquire the disease through experimentation. Ghana is now a destination nation (for illicit drugs), and also a place of storage and transit, apart from Cannabis which is grown locally. We are now paying with our young people taking hard drugs indiscriminately on our streets because we allowed the drug traders to transit through Ghana. We do not need to be pretentious about the physical, social, economical and psychological effects substance abuse does to our society and youths. We must therefore as people join hands to redress the anomaly, promote healthy and ensure a drug free life-style for all. Let�s all start talking before we lose our future leaders to substance abuse and addictions. There is a high impact of crime on Society, because of the use of drugs. A close connection exists between crime and drug use globally. Psychoactive drugs alters the mind and changes the mood of users and this leads to risky behaviors that primarily link to unprotected sex-(HIV/AIDS), road accidents, school drop-out, homelessness, madness, cultism, rape, domestic violence, armed robberies, streetisms etc. A visit to the Juvenile prisons and the and that of the adults will reveal to you, that majority of inmates are there because of drug related crimes or direct involvement in drug businesses. The major impact on drug-addicts is that they are prone to commit crimes. They need money to finance their drug taking habit and for that they seldom have money, so they indulge themselves in petty crimes and consequently, they entangle themselves in big crimes also. The cost of their incarceration therefore has two components: keeping them behind bars and the results of their non-productivity while they are there. Government-backed education and prevention programs designed to steer youngsters away from drugs appear to have had "very little impact" on experimentation with illicit substances by the youth. It seems there is a national apathy when it comes to the issues of drugs and its effects on our society. Parents do not care about what their children are into nowadays as everybody is busy chasing money and competing amongst themselves. Ask a parent today how many minutes he or she spends talking to their children in a week and most find out it�s less than 120 seconds. (I randomly ask this question at churches that I was invited to speak at and almost everywhere I went to, parents are guilty of this phenomenon-non communication in the home). The media is the worst culprit as they are churning out false representations of the drug world as they do not show the sordid life of drug addiction in their movies or songs but glorify it to make it more enticing to be a drug user or dealer. Also drug peddlers and dealers do not use bureaucracy and technocrats in their line of work and so are always ahead of the government agencies when it comes to education and arrests. Pushers are always creating myths about drug use to entice the youth, most popular being its aphrodisiac properties and intelligence improving qualities, which is not true as drug addicts generally are very intelligent people before they started doing the drugs. The most common types of drugs that people abuse fall into four categories: stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens and opoid. While the effect of each group of drugs is different, all of them are harmful to your body. Drugs affect the way your body functions, but also, using drugs put you at risk of fatal consequences. Stimulants-like cocaine, crystal meth and amphetamines-give you an increased amount of energy. Repeated use of stimulants can cause violent behavior, panic attacks, psychosis and mood swings. People who abuse stimulants also have an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Depressants slow brain function, which often causes people to lose concentration easily and become dizzy and fatigued. Long-term effects of depressants use include sexual problems, sleep problems, breathing difficulties, chronic fatigue and depression. These drugs also increase your risk of developing high blood sugar and diabetes. Hallucinogens can have psychological and physical effects on your body. Users can become paranoid, have mood swings, have outbursts of violence or develop extreme depression. Opoid�s are generally pain killers.