Drug Abuse Resistance Education for Drug-Free Future

Do you want to be smart? Do you want to be in a good college? Do you want to get a good job? Well, I do. And thanks to Officer Batt, now I know that tobacco(or cigarette), alcohol, or any drugs would cause heart disease, memory loss, or poor judgment. Actually, those are just a tiny part of it. There are much more! For example, there are more than 400,000 deaths related to drugs. All those facts I learned in the DARE program made me aware of drugs.

Alcohol and Its Impact

As I was in DARE, I first learned about alcohol and cigarette(tobacco). Alcohol is a substance that can make a person mentally and physically sick. If you're under the age of 18, it would be illegal to drink it. The reason why it is illegal to drink alcohol under the age of 18 is that children and teenagers are not fully developed, which actually means that drugs are more harmful to them. And if you drink too much alcohol, you can get lose coordination and balance and even experience memory loss. It can make you say some weird stuff too. You could damage every organ in your body if you'd drink over the limit. There are an estimated 75,000 death related to alcohol. Just for drinking! That's impressive. But we can stop this!

Tobacco: More Than Just Smoke

Now I'll move to tobacco/cigarettes. Similar to alcohol, it's illegal to smoke under the age of 18. It's not any better than alcohol. Actually, it's better than alcohol. More than 400,000 people die from smoking each year, and believe me, that's a lot. Plus, if you smoked, you would be inhaling more than 200 harmful chemicals, and if you were a chain smoker, you could get lung cancer. Cancer is very bad for your body. And if you got lung cancer, you would be putting your life in danger. Smoking can also reduce blood flow to your brain, which can cause poor decisions, bad grades, etc. l genuinely believe that alcohol and tobacco are killing thousands of people because they weren't instructed enough to understand the consequences of substance abuse. It's very ironic how alcohol and tobacco are super addicting, but they can ambush you at any second.

Empowering Against Peer Pressure

I didn't learn just about drugs. I learned about peer pressure and how to go through it. Resistance Strategies are strategies about how to stay away from a dif?cult or bad situation/peer pressure. Some resistance strategies are to walk away, say no, avoid, change the subject, give an excuse, and there is always strength in numbers. For example, your friend offered you some cigarettes. You don't want to smoke, but you're nervous that your friend will be angry and break the friendship with you. You can just change the subject, like "No thanks. Let's just play basketball." If that doesn't work, you can avoid the situation, like, "Wait, I forgot to tell Mom my test score. My mom would be so mad! Sorry, I have to go fast. Bye!" Resistance strategies can be used in bullying situations or in situations where you don't want to do something that could hurt or affect you in the future or now. Many of these situations will happen in real life, and anyone should always use these strategies if they want to live a happy and healthy life.

Life's Value: A Privilege and Responsibility

Life is way more important than eating deadly pills or smoking and drinking harmful chemicals. Life is a privilege given to us once. l was given the chance to live when I was born. For how long I've lived, I've never done anything seriously wrong. Honestly, l have accidentally hurt someone or broken something, but nothing that endangered my life or someone else's. But when we pick up a cigarette, eat too many painkillers, or drink over the limit, we are losing our privilege to live. We're abusing it, and soon enough, that privilege will be gone forever. l, YooHyun Noh, promise to never eat drugs, drink alcohol over the limit or smoke a cigarette/tobacco in my life.

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