Claudia Delgado

English 2010
Professor Pack
Report
Word count- 1384

Substance Abuse
Many people do not know what substance abuse really is. It is defined as excessive use of
a drug (such as alcohol, narcotics, or cocaine): use of a drug without medical justification
(Webster). When people are young they are most likely to be offered drugs because that is who
drug dealers target to sell their products. When people are in a tough position at home or have
friends that influence them to do something bad then they will most likely be susceptible to
actually experimenting and they use a gateway drug such as marijuana.
Marijuana
gives you a high and
makes you feel like
everything in life is
good, but it is also
highly addictive.
Throughout the years
I have seen many people fall victim to these drugs. One of the kids that tried it was brought up
by a good family and had a good life, but his friends persuaded him to try it telling him that it
will make him feel better and that all his worries would go away and he believed them. Ever
since that day he was hooked, every time he felt depressed or that life was not going the way
that he wanted he would just get more marijuana and get high. Once that stopped working for
him he moved on to something stronger like cocaine or alcohol or narcotics.

Claudia Delgado
English 2010
Professor Pack
Report
Word count- 1384

Some people abuse substances because they are trying to forget something traumatic that
has happened in their lives. We hear stories about soldiers coming back home like this story that I
read on Jamie Beavers in the Huffington Post. Jamie had gotten a basketball scholarship, but
because he got injured and couldnt play anymore his scholarship offer was revoked. Jamie then
enrolled in the Army. He went on two tours to Iraq in total 27 months in combat suffering
through many IEDs (improvised Explosive Devices) and coming across many other things that
were traumatic. When he came home he had a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD (Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder). The medics in Iraq had supplied him with many pills to keep him
going on the tour.
As time passed he
became more and more
dependent on those things and
eventually ended up in jail sick
and alone. He has been quoted saying "Seems like I'm a 10 year-old kid in a 30-year-old body,"
he said. "I just lost a lot of things people take for granted. And I became an addict of opiates. It
just kinda spiraled out of control." His traumatic brain injury has dimmed his ability to think and
speak and has left him so dizzy he has to often walk with a cane (Huffington Post)
A big part of my job is watching psych patients and sometimes I am watching them for 38 hours of my 12 hour shift. There are some that have taken meth and they are the ones that
cause the most problems they get agitated at any moment and you have to be very cautious with
them. Sometimes when I am watching them I have security on standby so if they come at me

Claudia Delgado
English 2010
Professor Pack
Report
Word count- 1384

like they are going to attack me I they can take them down and I dont get hurt. There have been
cases where it is not only the ones who are on drugs, but also on alcohol.
When people think that they do not have responsibilities or faults. When they do things
that they think that wont have consequences they do it. I had a patient who punched and kicked
me while he was staying at the hospital and when he sobered up they took him to jail for hitting a
healthcare provider. Those are the times when you realize that you can get hurt by people who
abuse substances very easily. They live in a world without care and they believe that we live in
that world with them.
It is a hard life for them and we try to get them help by having them talk to our social
worker and then usually they can find a psychiatric facility for them to sober up and not be a
threat to themselves or others. Our policy is to help anyone who comes through our doors and
unfortunately we cannot help those who wont come in and who dont want to get help. There are
many people who are homeless and into drugs and they do not want to get out of that situation. If
they do not want help then we
cannot do anything for them.
What most of these people
do not understand is that they are
not only affecting themselves with
the decision of abusing drugs and/
or alcohol. They affect everyone
that is close to them such as
spouses, kids, family and friends. When you have to help them through the process of trying to

Claudia Delgado
English 2010
Professor Pack
Report
Word count- 1384

get them to stop. It is not easy it takes a lot of time and effort. When you lose your job because
you dont show up or the quality of your work is poor your spouse has to pull your weight on top
of theirs.
Some people grow up with a troublesome past and that drives them to try new things and
to try to escape reality. When people get into these kinds of things they get often steal from their
loved ones to keep their habits going. While they do that it is hard both mentally and
financially. They are trying to keep up with the high that they have gotten used to and they like.
Women who are addicted to substances are likely to continue using if/ when they get
pregnant. Untreated opiate dependence in pregnant women is
associated with many environmental and medical factors that
contribute to poor maternal and child outcomes. Illicit opioid
consumption is associated with a sixfold increase in obstetric
complications such as low birth weight, toxaemia, third trimester
bleeding, malpresentation, puerperal morbidity, foetal distress
and meconium aspiration. Neonatal complications include
narcotic withdrawal, postnatal growth deficiency, microcephaly,
neurobehavioural problems, increase in neonatal mortality and a
74-fold increase in sudden infant death syndrome (EMCDDA).
Regular people are not the only ones that can be targeted there are many celebrities that
have unfortunately fallen victim to substance abuse some cases for example are Lindsay Lohan,
Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away by a heroin overdose, Michael Jackson died by
overdosing on prescription drugs, Amy Winehouse died of fatal alcohol poisoning, Whitney

Claudia Delgado
English 2010
Professor Pack
Report
Word count- 1384

Houston also passed away from drowning; complications of cocaine and heart disease (alcohol
and drugs).
The only reason that I bring these celebrities up is to point out that it does not only
happen to regular people. It can happen to anyone and unfortunately as we see with history it
happens quite often to many individuals. We might not hear about just regular people as much as
we do celebrities, but according to the latest surveys, cited by the DEA themselves, there are
about 12.7 million people who have used some illegal drug in the last month and perhaps 30 to
40 million who have used some illegal drug within the last year (Drug Library).

Works cited
"Alcohol and Drugs: Untimely Celebrity Deaths." Alcohol and Drugs: Untimely Celebrity
Deaths. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.drugs.com/celebrity_deaths.html>.

Claudia Delgado
English 2010
Professor Pack
Report
Word count- 1384

"Drug Use in the Military: Is It Affecting Our Troops?" Michaels House Treatment Centers.
Michaels House, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.- Picture
Greene, Miriam. "Legal Cannabis Consumers Private Club in Barcelona." Legal Cannabis
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everything picture
"Heroin Addiction Help." : How to Beat Roxy Addiction. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.- Picture
of pills, cocaine and weed.
"How Many People Use Drugs in the United States?" How Many People Use Drugs in the
United States? Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax2.htm>.
"Pain Pills' Littlest Victims." WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.-Growing Concern Picture
"Pregnancy and Opioid Use: Strategies for Treatment." EMCDDA. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/emcdda-papers/pregnacy-opioid-use>.
Substance Abuse. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster,n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.
Wood,David. Veterans: Coming Home. The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com,02 Oct.
2012. Web.27 Jan. 2015.