Drug Abuse and Addiction, a Twentieth Century Plague

Posted by Tony Bylsma on March 1, 2010 under Drug Abuse Prevention Education | 2 Comments to Read

In the past there have been problems that would run right through a generation. Sometimes it was a plague, an illness that brought a generation to it’s knees like polio. In other times, famine or wars that pulled families apart and sent towns or whole regions into exile.

These times were marked and remembered and from them we learned. The plagues of the middle ages were brought on largely because of a complete lack of hygiene. Eventually, the customs changed and bathing is now the norm. Cures or preventions were discovered for illnesses and some of them, small pox, for example, have faded into history. We learned, and the learning is what made the difference. Mankind rose above the ignorance and gained another step away from barbarism.

Now we are in the midst of another epidemic; one that takes the lives of millions of people, worldwide, each year. That plague is the plague of drug abuse and drug addiction. This, however, is a different type of sickness. This plague is intentionally spread into our cities and our towns by people who profit from the unfortunate individuals who become addicted to their poisons.

These drug pushers prey on the young and the uneducated because those are the easiest targets. Educated and experienced people don’t so easily fall for the tricks of the drug pushers, so these “dealers” spend time around places where the young gather, trying to blend into the group and look like a friend or just another kid when really, they are there only for the purpose of spreading poison for profit.

New drugs are invented constantly, and older drugs are given new names so the warnings of the past don’t apply to them and the pushers convince the youngsters that this drug is safer than the old drugs. They push the lie that older people and doctors are wrong or are simply lying about the dangers of using it.

Advertising is slick and aimed directly and the target audience– the young and impressionable kids who are out for fun and adventure. Expensive advertising displays young, healthy people, smoking, drinking and using marijuana or ecstasy seemingly without any consequences. This is so common that it goes without notice from the older generations, but the kids see it well and take the hidden messages without realizing they’re being sold a bill of goods. Entire movies are dedicated to making illegal drug use seem not only acceptable, but normal to the point of being expected.

There is only one defense against this newest plague. Only one thing that can defeat the army of drug dealers and growers who walk among us anonymously, picking out strays. That defense is drug abuse prevention, drug awareness. These cockroaches cannot stand the light of day, the light of truth.

If the young are made fully aware of the existence of these creeps and their intentions, drug pushers will no longer have customers. If every kid  fully knows the damages that smoking anything can do to their lungs and heart and mind, the dealers will have to go find some other slimy way to make their money.

Support efforts to really educate our youth about the dangers and pitfalls of drugs. Give to local drug abuse prevention campaigns and to fundraisers in your neighborhoods to raise drug awareness in schools and on playgrounds.

If we all pull together long enough and hard enough, this plague will end up a memory, a memory like small pox. Then it will just another subject to be studied in history classes.

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