



Facts
Tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana are considered gateway drugs because they are most often used before a person graduates to stronger drugs. They remain the most widely used drugs among teens, with alcohol taking the lead. Cigarette smoking among younger teens increased by as much as 50 percent between 1990 and 1997, with nearly one in three high school seniors identified as regular smokers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one million teenagers start smoking each year and that a third of them will die of tobacco-related diseases if they don't quit. Now that the law forbids selling cigarettes to anyone under eighteen, authorities are hoping to see this number drop substantially. A study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reveals that young cigarette smokers are fourteen times more likely to abuse alcohol than nonsmokers. And since ten million teens drink regularly, the potential for future drug abuse has experts on the alert. young people aged twelve to seventeen who use all three gateway drugs are 266 times more likely to use hard drugs such as cocaine than young people who never used a gateway drug. Also, the younger children are when they first use a gateway drug, the greater the risk to their physical and mental development (an adult can take from five to fifteen years to become addicted to alcohol while it takes a teenager only six months to two years), and the higher the chance of them turning to other drugs when the appeal of the first three has worn off. Gateway drug users also have a greater chance of being exposed to people who are using or selling stronger drugs. More than half of the estimated costs of drug abuse were associated with drug-related crime. These costs included lost productivity of victims and incarcerated perpetrators of drug- related crime (20.4 percent); lost legitimate production due to drug-related crime careers (19.7 percent); and other costs of drug-related crime, including Federal drug traffic control, property damage, and police, legal, and corrections services (18.4 percent). Most of the remaining costs resulted from premature deaths (14.9 percent), lost productivity due to drug-related illness (14.5 percent), and healthcare expenditures (10.2 percent). Cannabis remains by far the most commonly used drug in the world. An estimated 162 million people used cannabis in 2004, equivalent to some 4 per cent of the global population age 15-64. In relative terms, cannabis use is most prevalent in Oceania, followed by North America and Africa. While Asia has the lowest prevalence expressed as part of the population, in absolute terms it is the region that is home to some 52 million cannabis users, more than a third of the estimated total. The next largest markets, in absolute terms, are Africa and North America. Alcohol increases the risk of heart attack. Drinking moderate amounts of alcohol does not protect against heart attack. Alcohol increases the damaging kind of blood fat, which may increase the risk of a heart attack. Alcohol abuse increases the risk of stroke. |
Therapeutic Community
An effective therapeutic community attends to the many needs of the individual, not just his or her drug use. Care given at a therapeutic community addresses the individual's drug use and associated medical, psychological, social, vocational, and legal problems. Also, a therapeutic community will continue to be flexible and provide ongoing assessments of the individual's needs, which may change during the course of care.
Remaining in care at a therapeutic community for an adequate period of time is critical for treatment effectiveness. The time depends on an individual's needs. For most people, the significant improvement is reached at about 3 months in treatment.
Drug Abuse
Drug abuse is defined as the chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance to alter states of body or mind for other than medically warranted purposes. Drug abuse is a problem which has an effect on people of all income levels,
ages, and stations in life. Quite often the last person to see that there is a
problem is the drug abuser them self. Every year, more and more people become
drug addicts in their pursuit to get "high".
Drug Side Effects
Drug addiction and abuse comes with a heavy price. There are drastic drug side effects associated with drug misuse and abuse. Drug side effects from legal and illegal drugs can range from mild itching to comas and death. In addition to the physical drug side effects mentioned, there are many psychological drug side effects of drug abuse; the most serious being drug addiction and overdose.
Drug Addiction
Drug addiction is a pattern of repeated drug taking that usually results in tolerance (the need for greater amounts of the drug to achieve the same effect), withdrawal (physical and cognitive effects when drug use declines or stops), and compulsive drug taking behavior (drug taking that persists despite efforts to reduce intake and despite problems with family, friends, and work). Drug addiction encompasses a diverse range of drugs (such as alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines, and cocaine) and is caused by many different factors.
Drug Overdose
A drug overdose occurs when you consume more drugs than your body can tolerate. Drug users are constantly flirting with the risk of a drug overdose. There is a
fine line between the high they're seeking and serious injury or death. While many victims of drug overdose recover without long term effects, there
can be serious consequences. Some drug overdoses cause the failure of major
organs like the kidneys or liver, or failure of whole systems like the
respiratory or circulatory systems. Patients who survive drug overdose may need
kidney dialysis, kidney or liver transplant, or ongoing care as a result of
heart failure, stroke, or coma. Death can occur in almost any drug overdose
situation, particularly if treatment is not started immediately.
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