Drug Addiction among Teens

Drug Addiction among Teens 

As you may know, many teens across the U.S are being exposed to street drugs and home made drugs. Teens are getting smarter and smarter learning the in’s and out’s of drugs each day. As they intake and embrace these drugs, some are getting addicted to them. While unfortunate, the sad truth is that it is happening more and more to teens in the United States. Addiction is a harmful disease that does not discriminate. This disease is taking an impact on teens life that let these harmful drugs enter their lives.

As I went around and talked to students and adults about the devastating topic of drug addiction, I asked very general but powerful questions. I asked first “What do they think their life would be like if drugs were in their life?” Mr. Nobers a teacher here at Eastern Guilford answered “Wow, that’s a great question... I guess I would just try and cope with it and find a rehab center. I then asked him how he would feel and how he would react if he found out his child was on drugs? He then replied “I would first try to find out where this is coming from then stop it; I would get (her) the help she needs.” Since the topic is impacting more and more teens daily, I asked some. When asked “What do they think their life would be like if drugs were in their life?” to Tim Johnson a Senior Wrestler at EG and Mariah Peavey a Senior Cheerleader at EG; Tim replied “I think drugs are stupid, I don’t know why people take them. I wouldn’t even get attached to them.” Also Mariah replied “I think that if I were on drugs I would try to stop and get the help I need to get clean”. The last question I had about this topic was “how would you feel if you lost someone to drug addiction or drug violence” and I asked Kiran Morrison a Eastern Guilford Graduate, he gave me a answer that had to do with the Chandler Peraldo situation. He said” I see how many people miss him (Chandler) and how people are so hurt because of his death, and I wouldn’t want that for anyone. So I would feel pretty hurt myself if, especially if it was a person I knew very well. That’s with any death.”

The article below is an article about my friend Chandler Peraldo, who was addicted to drugs. The drugs just happened to take over his life. His death devastated the whole Greensboro community. He left behind a sister, mother and father who are trying to cope with his sudden death. Despite their loss they are making sure others do not make the same decision their son did. They are creating a foundation for drug addiction prevention. In this article Lyn Peraldo (Mother of Chandler) goes into detail about the night and days leading up to her son’s tragic death. In bold to the left in the margin there is a statement saying “I told him it was OK to go and he was gone. The week before, he was upset and said, ‘Mom, I can’t take this anymore. I want to go.’” As this article may be a little low-spirited and dismal it proves a point.

http://www.news-record.com/news/lost-battle-leads-to-new-fight-for-parents-of-chandler/article_6a036148-a4a9-11e4-961e-c3cd8a6139ee.html

Over the past few years of my life I have seen lots of people come and go out of this life. The most devastating deaths that I have been impacted by were the deaths of teens my own age.  Life is such an important thing to take care of and some people are taking it for granted, letting life go past without living life to the fullest each day. Doing stupid things like using drugs takes away from your life span in my opinion. Just a few weeks I had a friend of mine kill himself because he was addicted to drugs. He let drugs enter his life and take over. No matter how much he tried to fight the temptation and desire to quit, he just couldn’t. I’m here to try and stop some of you from following in the same footsteps of my friend, because I don’t wish addiction on anyone. It effects families, friends and most of all it effects you. Seeing his family suffer at his funeral was one image I don’t want to ever see again. Look, you always have other options in life. There is always someone there for you. Somewhere there to be in your corner when you think there isn’t.