Kristina Schriver

English 113A
Professor Altman
October 28, 2014

Drugs in Society
Drugs, what are they to us? We use drugs in different ways like for treatment or
experiments. A problem we have with drugs is the abuse found in that area. People abuse drugs
because it makes them feel good and dulls the pain in their lives. Drug abuse also sprouts from
peer pressure and addiction. These reasons are why drugs, such as meth, cocaine, marijuana,
etc. are a danger in society, not only to people themselves, but to others as well.
The commonly used drug in society is marijuana which shows on the chart in Addiction:
Concepts and Definitions that marijuana has the highest potential of being abused because of
the effects it has on the user. Examples in Marijuana page 190 say that when the person is high
off marijuana the user may feel euphoria (intense well-being), uncontrollable laughter,
alteration of ones sense of time, sharpened vision, and depersonalization (a sense that one is
detached from ones environment, and is watching one-self from a distance). This causes the
person to be calm, relaxed and in a dreamlike state. Which may seem harmless and not a
danger but has you keep taking it, it can cause serious health effects like depression,
schizophrenia, and even death. The first time you dont feeling anything, but as you take more
of it youll start to lose sense of reality and develop paranoia or mania. It destroys your body
and mind and yet why do they take it in the first place? What could cause people to take such a
serious, illegal drug?

One reason is addiction. That is something people struggle with every day when they
are taking drugs. They feel a strong need to continue taking the drug and try to obtain the drug
by any means necessary. Its like they cant live without it which causes them to overdose. They
just cant stop and have no reasons to stop. They are dependent on that drug and will continue
to take it no matter the risks. It is very hard to break an addiction, because it will cause the
body to be use to the drug and a constant reflex to taking it. Its like habit you cant break like
biting your nails or scratching your ear. It will take days, months, and even years to help break
it, but the worse is the withdrawal you have when you dont take the drug. Those effects feel
worse than the effects the drug which causes people to want to take the drug or feel the need
to go back to that drug. In the end its better to not take the drug in the first place so you dont
have these issues to deal with. Although sometimes there are situations that has the person
taking the drug in the first place.
When you have problems in life that you dont want to deal with or you have
depression, people resort to taking drugs to dull the pain. For them its a way to deal and get
through lifes hardships and problems because it usually makes you feel better about yourself
than you did before. It makes them feel good which causes an addiction to taking them. They
have chemicals in them like nicotine that makes you feel good and addicted to them. Its like
alcohol, when you drink it you dont feel any consequences in what youre doing or worries
which is what a lot of people try to escape to. Makes life seem easier and better in the eyes of
someone on drugs like when you take happy pills. It also helps deal with pain like pain killers so
they take it many times when they feel pain or are down. Theyll do anything to not face reality
and deal with their issues or problems because hey why should they. Just seems better and

easier to take a drug than face life. I had a friend who use to smoke marijuana and weed
because she had a lot of issues at that time and didnt know how to deal with it. That was her
way of dealing with her problems which made her sick and unhealthy. She stopped and is now
moving on in her life. Another example of people taking drugs to dull the pain is in Brave New
World people took a soma to make themselves feel better and emotionless. For one of the
characters; Lenina falls in love with John and at one point thought John was going to sleep with
her but he doesnt which has her feeling these emotions she shouldnt be having. Drying her
eyes, Lenina walked across the roof to the lift. On her way down to the twenty-seventh floor
she pulled out her soma bottle. One gramme, she decided, would not be enough; hers had
been more than a one-gramme affliction. But if she took two grammes, she ran the risk of not
waking up in time to-morrow morning. She compromised and, into her cupped left palm, shook
out three half-gramme tablets. (Huxley p.171) Instead of dealing with her issues and the risks
of taking the soma, she chose to take it anyway. Also in Brave New World, thats what society
pressured people to do in those situations. Which brings up to a big point in how people come
into abusing drugs.
Peer pressure, thats something a lot of people fall into when it comes to drugs. People
tell people to take it by saying things like, Come on, one wont hurt, Dont be a loser and just
try it, or Everybody is doing it. These sayings put pressure on the person because they either
want to fit in or think its safe. Even if you say no the first time, they still push you into doing it.
Which is an abuse on making others take drugs. Those people feel they have the power to make
decisions for you and tell you what you should do. Making a profit out of you once you start
taking drugs because they know once you start you cant stop. Its like for business, theyll be

coming to you for the drugs which puts money in your bank account. Thats how drug deals get
clients by getting them addicted and into drugs.
Also for some people, its mostly to fit in. You dont want to be one of those losers who
isnt smoking or drinking so you feel the need to do it just so you can be part of the crowd.
Another friend of mine started smoking because her friend told her to and said that people do
it all the time. She started smoking meth for a long while with her other friends and would get
high whenever she could. She was just following what the others were doing. Its terrible
because we live in a society that makes it seem like drugs are cool. Like in movies or TV shows,
theyll have the main characters who are the good guys smoke or taking drugs which shows
that since the good guys do it, its ok and I can do it. Were basically programing that drugs
arent bad, but they are. Imagine if they had shown in movies or TV shows just the bad guys
smoking and the good guys totally clean instead. Then people would look at drugs as bad not
good. Thats what we should be doing instead of making drugs look good.
This is why people abuse drugs. We have easy access to them and use them for our own
selfish reasons. Whether its to dull our pain, addiction, or from peer pressure, none of it
benefits anything. We need to look at the seriousness of drugs in society and keep it under
control, by stopping the drug abuse now before it increases. People are taking and abusing
drugs every day as we speak and a lot of people have died from drugs that have caused
diseases like cancer and infections. These can also be transmitted to other people who dont
even take drugs like through sexual intercourse or smoke in the air. People are dying from
drugs and others die from being with someone who is on drugs by the smoke, sex, or even the

aggression of someone who has no sense of control. We as a society should not be letting this
happen and need to take a stand and end it before it gets worse.