Students need to be realistic about the effects drugs have on those that abuse them, and they must not embrace how society portrays them as things that are needed for having a good time.
Neither should they view them as a safe way of enhancing the way their bodies function.
A drug, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, is “a substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body.”
This definition of a drug would definitely include the caffeine found in tea, coffee and energy drinks.
Since college students (for the most part) are autonomous adults, they have the power to make their own choices about what substances they want to put into their bodies.
If they want to drink booze on the weekends with their friends or drink Red Bull to get them through their days and long nights, they are free to make those decisions.
However, students’ attitudes toward drugs and their actions with them ought to be based on knowledge.
This is not an argument for temperance or a cry for prohibition, but here are a few of the harmful realities of abusing alcohol that students should be aware of according to collegedrinkingprevention.gov:
• “About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers and receiving lower grades overall.”
• “Among drivers with BAC levels of 0.08 percent or higher involved in fatal crashes in 2010, more than one out of every three were between 21 and 24 years of age.”
Alcohol is not alone when it comes substances which have negative effects.
“Long-term caffeine intake may cause ongoing spikes in blood pressure levels and raise (one’s) heart rate (livestrong.com).”
Regular marijuana smokers have a one in five chance of developing a psychosis and a long-term effect of smoking marijuana is becoming schizophrenic, according to health.harvard.edu.
In light of these facts, drugs should not be treated by students as things that are a must for a fun time with friends In the long run, abusing these substances would not benefit a student that is trying to obtain an education for the purpose of having a decent career.
If students are offered a beverage at an event, they should be sure of what they are drinking lest they wind up as Drew Barrymore’s character did in “Never Been Kissed” with having “loser” stamped on her forehead after being coaxed into eating “special cake” when at a club, at the least.
Take the time to know the short and long-term effects of the substances you are using, and always be mindful that any moderate abuser of a drug could stop if he would and any addict to a drug would stop if he could.
