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Saturday 4 July 2015

Substance Abuse / Drug Abuse

What is a drug?
A drug can be described as any substance that enters the human body and can change either the function or structure of the human organism. Drugs are made from plants such as coca bush for cocaine, opium poppies for heroine and cannabis for marijuana.

Purposes of Drugs
For hundreds of years, people have taken psychoactive drugs for:

1. Curative Purposes- Drugs used for curative purposes helps to heal or cure a disease or sickness. Some examples of curative drugs are Advil, Tylenol, etc.

2. Religious Purposes- Drugs used for religious purposes helps with spiritual, pleasure or medicinal purposes. Some examples of religious drugs are mushrooms, caffeine, etc.

3. Recreational Purposes- Drugs used for recreational purposes can be either legal or illegal. It is the use of drugs with the intention of enhancing life or for creating pleasure. People do this in their leisure time. Some examples of recreational drugs are cigarette, cocaine, etc.

Reasons for Substance Abuse/ Drug Abuse
The following are some reasons for drug abuse:
  • curiosity and experimentation
  • peer pressure
  • enhancement of performance in sport e.g. steroids 
  • to assist in coping with life's problems
  • role modelling effects as alcohol is used to celebrate most social occasion
  • persuasive advertisement (especially alcohol and tobacco) 

Substance abuse have negative physical and mental effects on people and alters the normal functioning of the human body. Over a long period of time, people become so dependent on these drugs that they take and overuse and die. 

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