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From the Desk of Bill Cirone...
August 5, 1999
Things Young People Need To Know About Drugs
The good news, as recently reported by Fighting Back, is that drug use among young people in Santa Barbara County is on the decline. Years of efforts in educating young people to the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse seem to be paying off. However, even with this decline, the number of young people experimenting or using drugs and alcohol is far too high and lives are being ruined every day.
Also, each year another group of young people gets exposed to the risky and dangerous realm of drugs, and each week students who have already said "no" are asked again just to try some. For these reasons, we can't slacken our efforts in this most important area.
Here are some very important facts that young people need to know about drugs, in case they are tempted to experiment:
Marijuana can be laced with deadly drugs like PCP without anyone even knowing it.
Marijuana can make anyone gorge on junk food, causing weight gain.
Using cocaine just once can cause a seizure or a fatal heart attack, even in young people.
Cocaine often causes intense depression, edginess, and a craving for more cocaine.
Sharing needles to inject cocaine and heroin can result in hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and other diseases.
It is absolutely false that sniffing heroin is safer than injecting it; it is every bit as lethal no matter how it is taken.
Inhalants can make you lose control over your bladder and your bowels.
Inhalants can kill you in at least four ways: difficulty breathing, suffocation, choking on vomit, and cardiac arrest.
Abusing alcohol can cause scarring and cancer of the liver.
Drinking too much alcohol in a short time can kill you.
Heroin can kill you. Combining alcohol and other drugs can kill you.
Of course, knowing these facts in and of themselves will not necessarily cause young people to abstain from drug use if they are inclined to do so. But knowledge is power. Facts provide important ammunition for young people who know they should not experiment with illegal substances, and can make use of good, solid reasons for saying "no." Knowing how to say no when faced with peer pressure is the other half of the battle.
© Santa Barbara County Education Office
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