Drug Awareness - Fact File
Fact File on Drugs
Deal with reality – do not take drugs
The more you know about how drugs work and the effect they
can have on your body and mind, the more you will be able to
protect yourself against them.
FACT 1: Different Drugs cause Different feelings and
physical responses.
Caffeine, alcohol, dagga, heroin, ecstasy, mandrax and
cocaine are all drugs but they have little else in common.
Whereas caffeine and alcohol are legal drugs, drugs such as
dagga, heroin, ecstasy, mandrax, and cocaine are illegal.
Further, you could experience a very pleasant response to one
drug, yet another drug could have a very frightening response –
it could even kill you.
Drugs such as dagga and heroin are derived from plants.
Others drugs such as ecstasy and mandrax are and man-made. Pure
drugs are far more expensive than drugs mixed or “cut” with less
expensive substances. Like any business the illicit drug
industry is profit-driven. Therefore drug dealers use a variety
of substances to cut drugs. Some of these substances may be more
harmful than the drug itself. The drug you are offered tomorrow
may look the same as the drug you were offered yesterday, but
you can never be sure of what it contains. The only way to be
sure that you don’t ingest it is to avoid taking drugs!
| Drugs can be swallowed (pills), smoked, inhaled
or injected. You can never anticipate the effect
that drugs will have on you. It is a mistake to
think that experience increases your tolerance
levels or that nothing will happen to you if you
take a drug that you have used before. It is a
well-known fact that seasoned drug addicts often die
of overdoses. |
 |
Drug addiction seduces you into
wanting more and different and stronger drugs, against your will
and the natural tolerance of your body. No matter how good you
may feel when using drugs, your body suffers. Drugs are
dangerous. If you take drugs, you are at great risk of becoming
addicted.
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UPPERS (cocaine, ecstasy, speed,
crack-cocaine)
Uppers are designed to make you
feel great. You make you feel alive, dynamic, and energized.
Depending on your personal response to the drug, you could,
however, also feel anxious, nervous and paranoid. You could even
die. Uppers put a terrible strain on the heart. Long-term use
destroys your nerves, takes away your appetite and causes
sleeplessness. You will end up taking a downer as your body
suffers withdrawal symptoms when the drug wears off. You will
feel depressed and, sometimes, suicidal.
DOWNERS (alcohol, dagga, heroin, mandrax)
Downers make you feel relaxed or
laid back. Unfortunately, you cannot control just how relaxed
you will be. Long-term use of downers causes lethargy and makes
it harder for you to do the things you need to do as a
functional member of society. Schoolchildren and students who
use these drugs find it hard study or complete assignments, and
relationships inevitably suffer. Too much of a powerful downer
like heroin causes the systems of the body to shut down,
eventually leading to death.
HALLUCINOGENS (LSD, mescaline)
These drugs cause powerful
hallucinations or dreams in which your reality is changed. You
cannot predict whether the dream will be enjoyable or be a
hideous nightmare. A “bad trip” can haunt you for the rest of
your life, with flashbacks occurring at any time.
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FACT 2: Different People respond differently to
the same drugs
Drugs cause different reactions
in different people. Never take a drug based on someone else’s
reported experience of using that drug. Never persuade someone
else to take a drug based on your own experience of using it.
FACT 3: The more drugs you take, the more you
need
The first time you take a drug,
you will probably experience and exhilarating high. As your body
gets used to the drug, you will need more and more of it to
experience the same intense reaction. This increasing tolerance
to a drug is actually a growing addiction. Addiction comes with
a big price tag. The more drugs you want, the more money you
need to “feed the habit”. Drugs are expensive and their effect
on you makes it unlikely that you will be able to earn enough
money to afford them. Some drug addicts turn to crime and other
high-risk behaviour. Many are arrested and go to prison. Others
turn to prostitution and live tragic and tainted lives, almost
inevitably die young.
Some people take drugs for a
while and then manage to escape before they become addicts or
before irreparable harm is done. Do not rely on being one of
those people – being strong is not enough to withstand the
horrors of drug addiction. It is not weak people who become drug
addicts, its drug addicts who become weak people. No addict
takes that first drug believing that he or she will be addicted.
All addicts start out believing that they could give up drugs
any time they wanted to. Every addict is sad proof of how wrong
that belief is.
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FACT 4: Life is Tough Enough - Drugs only make
it Tougher
When you feel that you cannot
cope with life’s challenges, you may feel tempted to take a drug
to make you feel vibrant and confident, or to change your sense
of reality – even if only for a short while. Instant
gratification, a sense of peace, a wonderful trip, or a feeling
of power – all these things you are promised by those who offer
you drugs. Such persons often describe the effects of drugs in
glowing terms. But they do not tell you:
-
that you cannot control your
response to a drug;
-
what a drug contains;
-
the more you like a drug,
the more you will want it and that you will eventually
become addicted;
-
when the drug wears off,
reality will still be there with all the problems from which
you were trying to escape;
-
uppers make you need downers
and a combination of the two can kill you; and
-
drugs let you lose control,
which, in turn, makes you -
-
lose the ability to do
certain things (for instance, to drive your car); and
-
more vulnerable to
sexual or physical assault.
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However tempting it may be,
using drugs to take a break from reality will not make your
problems disappear or make life better. If you feel that things
are spiralling out of control and you are overwhelmed by
problems, seek real help from someone who cares. People who try
to sell you drugs are not interested in your well-being.
You may have already used drugs
and you may be scared of becoming addicted. But remember: No
matter how much trouble you think you will be in if you ask for
help, you will be in worse trouble if you do not.
SANCA is an organisation that
has caring professionals who deal with drug abuse on a daily
basis. If you need help or if you know of someone else who does,
you can phone the following helpline:
SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE CRIME STOP
08 600 10111
SAYING NO TO DRUGS TAKES COURAGE AND
STRENGTH.
TAKING DRUGS TAKES YOUR LIFE.
The tide has turned!
Build a people’s contract for
a safe and secure South Africa!
A product of South African Police Service,
Communication Planning, Research and Marketing. P/Bag X94,
Pretoria, 0001. June 2003.
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