Dear Reader,

            Do you know the effects of drug abuse? The impacts it has on people’s lives. How it destroys them both physically and mentally, or maybe the fact that their whole future can go to waste because of their addiction. This all can happen to a person effected by drug abuse. It isn’t pretty but it still continues to go on. Most when they see the problem they blame the user because they don’t know how addiction works. I see those who are hurt differently.

            I see those who are burdened with abuse much differently than others. They don’t choose to be addicted, and if given the choice most would quit. They don’t want to spend money to get a fix or to fix the damage done to their bodies, but this is the consequence from abusing these substances. If they never started they wouldn’t have to try and quit, but I’m not here to judge and point fingers. I chose this topic to bring light upon those affected. For example, the user wants to quit but cannot because their brain has been changed and thinks differently and now needs the substance to survive. Also, their family, friends, and loved ones, these people live with others choices and they can feel firsthand the problems of their drug abuse. Whether it can be a mother and husband in a financial crisis or a parent who hallucinates and causes harm to others or themselves.

            I just want people to know that addiction can happen to anyone and quitting is not as easy as many think. Drugs change who the brain functions and how it thinks. Just giving up and not using the narcotic doesn’t mean all the side-effects go away. They can go through withdrawal or be tempted and pressured by others to do it again. I also want others to be made clear that it doesn’t just affect the user. It hurts and cripples those around them, those who are a part of their lives, but sadly to help someone quit they need all the support they can get or they’ll just continue down the never ending stairway of abuse.

Sincerely, Andrew Hanthorn