Drug and alcohol addition quite simply put, ruins people’s lives. Many people wake up one day to find that they may no longer have a play to live or a place of employment, or that they have destroyed and lost the relationships that have meant the most to them. On top of that, when left untreated or ignored, serious illness and death is the final result in most cases. So it is no wonder that many people search for the answer, for the ways to guarantee that this will never happen to themselves or to those whom they love and care about. The thing about it all is that is a complex weave of life that creates a drug addict or an alcoholic, and simple campaigns with tee-shirts and bumper stickers reading “Just Say No” are not enough.
It is naive to think that that would have ever been enough. The previously stated campaign, and the current campaign titled “the War on Drugs” are such that they may try to go after the symptoms, but they do not attack the cause right at the root. The Crystal Meth images on billboards today, are indeed, very powerful and tragic images, however this kind of circumstance does not happen over night as the campaigns and the billboards suggest. This is the result of many years, and can not be fixed with one three word slogan. The only way one can prevent this from happening to themselves, is by making decisions that one realizes will affect the rest of their lives.
And the only way to ensure that young people will not become addicts, is by instilling in them this kind of decision making skill, and making certain that they realize that they, and the decisions they consciously make, matter. This is a funny culture we live in, filled with mixed messages…of “glamorous heroin models” on the sides of buses, and meth addicts with no teeth on the billboards. Each person must really take stock, must understand if they may have the tendency to overindulge and to take the active stance on protecting themselves.
