It does not take much to do injury to someone. Whether the cause is physical or otherwise, we can all be hurt by many things. One constant threat is drugs, which hurt people directly and indirectly.
The thing about teenagers is their bodies have not fully developed yet. People generally are growing, both physically and mentally, until the age of twenty-five. Due to this, teenagers need to be especially careful around drugs.
Teenagers often forget that life is relatively long and teenage life is relatively short compared to everything else. We need to take care of our bodies from a young age, so that when we are older, they will still be strong.
As for how exactly drugs damage the body, there are many mediums. When smoking a drug, you have to deal with the damage from the actual smoke. For example, tobacco smoke permanently damages the alveoli and leads to the development of emphysema. While it takes many years for serious problems to develop, other problems can show up sooner, such as difficulty breathing or frequent coughing. Smoke can also lead to infections, or in the worst case, cancer, which is something that nobody wants to have to battle with.
In some way or another, nearly all drugs negatively affect every organ of the body, so continued use creates an exponential rate of decline that ultimately ends in full blown addiction or death. You have to be very careful when messing with anything that affects your mind or body, even substances that are not traditional drugs.
Drugs also impair the mind to a great extent. Those who use drugs usually have lower cognitive abilities than nonusers, depending on the length and intensity of use. Some people who moderate their drug use exhibit very little cognitive deficiency.
Despite all the adverse effects of drugs, many people are still tempted by them. Some have even gone so far as to say an altered conscious is a “fourth drive”, after food, water, and shelter. Logically, no policy could ever completely eliminate drugs from society, assuming the fourth drive theory has some legitimacy.
One could say it is ideal to avoid drugs throughout your entire life, but in reality, that is impossible. There is no way to avoid drugs, whether it is caffeine, nicotine, prescription pills, OTC, or illegal. Ironically, many people who fight against cannabis drink alcohol, a powerful mind intoxicant that is at least five times stronger than cannabis and light doses of opiates.
