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The Risks of Using Drugs

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Submitted By DresdenDoll
Words 763
Pages 4
Abstract
In recent years, the society and scientists have expressed alarm about the growing problem of drug abuse. This paper identifies some of the risks of experimenting with narcotic substances. It contains the brief history of drug use and how it changed throughout the years. This paper examines three major risks: health risk, addictiveness of drugs and antisocial behavior.
Keywords: drug, narcotic substances, risk, behavior, addictive.
The Risks of Experimenting with Drugs
For thousands of years, people have used drugs. Archeology and literature help us to assume that narcotic substances were known by mankind throughout the whole history. They were used by different people, for different reasons. For example, Ancient Greeks used drugs in their religious rituals, cannabis was known in Ancient China as a very good painkiller and shamans of different tribes used hallucinogenic mushrooms. In the early history of the humankind drugs were considered sacred. Only much later, people began to realize the negative consequences of the use of narcotic substances. Nowadays pretty much all people know about risks of experimenting with drugs. But still, according to the latest research, 1 in 20 people aged 15 to 64 worldwide used an illicit drug at least once in 2009 (“Worldwide illegal drug use estimated at 200 million people a year”, 2012).
Probably the most talked-about risk of experimenting with drugs is health risk. Narcotic substances can cause different illnesses, both physical and mental. Consequences of drug use may differ, depending on the type of narcotic substance and the duration of use. For example, marijuana leads to memory and concentration problems, impaired lung functioning, sexual problems, possible immune system damage; Hallucinogens can cause convulsions, coma, heart and lung failure, and even death: Stimulants may result in psychoses, severe

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