Drug Abuse and MisuseBy Summer Swensen

Drug Misuse – the use of a substance for unintended purposes or for intended purposes but in improper amounts or doses.

Drug Abuse – the deliberate, persistent, excessive use of a substance without regard to health concerns or accepted medical practices.

A few years ago, my uncle started smoking pot. My grandma eventually ended up kicking him out. He lived on the street for three months, and at some point during that time, he started using meth. He was sent to the ICU because he had a hole burned in his lung. On the second day in the ICU, he died. Thankfully, they were able to bring him back, but they had to put him into an induced coma. He was in the coma for nineteen days before they let him wake up. He was in the ICU for two more days before he went to his regular room so that they could observe him for a few more days. Every one was stressed out while he was in the hospital, wondering what they did wrong. When he got out, my grandma put together a photo album with pictures of him in the ICU. He would look back at those when he wanted to use the meth. He stayed off the drugs for four and a half years before he snapped, and started using the pot again. He soon got tired of the pot, and went back to the meth. He was arrested in May of this year with meth on him. He is serving a six month sentence.

Mental/Emotional

You would always being doing stupid things, and after wards, you would feel guilty, and you would have no one to blame but your self.

Your family would feel horrible, and everyone would feel like a part of them is dying with you every time they have to walk into the hospital room and see a bunch of tubes coming out of you, when the tubes are the only things keeping you alive.

Physical

You would be jittery if you weren’t regularly using the drugs, and if you were, you could get cancer, or, like my uncle, burn a hole in your lungs.

Social

If your friends were smart, they wouldn’t hang out with you any more, because they wouldn’t want to be tempted to do drugs.

18 year old Amelia Sorich was injected twice with a mixture of drugs known as a speedball by her supposed friend, Macall Aubrey Peterson. Amelia passed out and didn’t wake up. Not wanted to get caught, Paterson and her boy friend took the body and dumped it in the foot hills of Bountiful. Person was taken to court, and admitted to every thing. "I was very high and I wasn't thinking," Petersen tearfully told parole board chairman Curtis Garner. "I was being completely selfish."

Physical;1. Small

blood spots on your skin

2. Hyper-excitability

3. a faint skin odor- either sweet or acrid

Social: Your friends will be stressed out and not want to hang out with you.

Mental/emotional: You will be grumpy unless you are using the drugs, and if you are using the drugs, you could do stupid things.