DRUGS

Drugs. A nasty word even when you just say it. This epidemic has sent America, and almost the
whole world into a state of crisis. Over dosing is affecting more people day by day. So, who is affected by
this? Where and when does it take place? What happens if we do nothing about it? And most
importantly, how do we fix this?
First of all, when? We think that this is happening present day, which it is, but when did it start?
According to the internet, cocaine was first produced in the mid eighteen hundreds. Coca is the plant
that is what cocaine is derived from. Long ago, tribes in South America chewed on coca leaves to get an
“energetic high”. The 1850’s are the first years in which cocaine was isolated from the plant. They called
it the “wonder drug” back then. So the cocaine part of this drug epidemic has been happening for over a
whole century. Did you know that a couple drugs are traced back even farther than that? Back to 3,400
B. C. E.! More on that later. Well anyway, let us talk about the problem this present day. Amazingly,
there has been a dramatic decrease of fatal over doses from 2016 to 2017, and we continue to make
progress. However, this progress must continue for quite some time until we can say that this epidemic
is behind us.
Now onto where. In the beginning of manufacturing cocaine, it was mostly in South America,
but it spread through the the world when it first was isolated from the plant. However, you definitely
have not only heard about cocaine, there is something you should know about those other addictive
drugs. Morphine, opiates, and heroin all are traced back to the opium poppy. These are the drugs I was
talking about before. In Mesopotamia, the first evidence of cultivation of that specific poppy dates back
to 3,400 B. C. E.! I guess we have been at this for a long time.
Who and how? Who do you think is affected by this, and how? Basically, everybody! Let’s say an
orphan has lost his or her parents at a young age, due to an overdose. They automatically are more
likely to make bad decisions without parents, but parents that overdosed is just making the chances off
the charts. Since he knows how to crouch medications and put them in water to inject them, so he tries
it. Now he goes to school and he offers cocaine to his friend. His foolish friend takes some, and now is an
addict. The orphan now dies from an over dose, and his addict friends now take more to deal with their
emotions. Their sibling then start to have an increased chance of taking drugs, and they do them. Now
an addict throws the drug out of the window, and a dog comes and eats it. Another way animals get
hurt, is addicts abuse their pets to get drugs. Now not only do we have dead humans but dead dogs too.
I believe you now have a better understanding or who is affected by this epidemic.
What would happen if we just let this epidemic be? Let me start out by saying an incident
happened down south quite recently with cocaine. There were some normal run of the mill balloons
that were just sitting on a school bench and some students decided to play with them. They layer until
they popped, reveling a “mysterious white substance”. It was verified that it was cocaine as the kids
were rushed to the hospital to be treated. That usually happens down there so that can not happen
here. Right? Wrong! This could happen at our very own school, so we can not do nothing about it. There
are many crises that have happened in other places that can happen here. For example there was a
mother in Missouri whom took drugs from her own dying daughter. We definitely do not want that
happening in out community. Another thing that is starting to happen even in our community, is the
budgets for many community organizations are being cut. If this continues, many jobs are at risk already,
and there are no longer that many jobs to start with! Need I say more?
To figure out a solution to this problem, we should look at how other regions of the world have
dealt with it, or tried it. What are those other possible solutions? Illinois has been looking into a solution
for this epidemic recently. They have been prescribing marijuana medically to stop opioid addiction. So
far it has been decreasing the amount of times that doctors have to prescribe opioids. This could be a
possible solution, but what can we as a community do about it, we do not control the whole state! Let
us take a look at some communities fighting against the opioid crisis. In West Virginia, the Cottageville
School District is helping children with addict parents. We are lucky that there are not many people
suffering from this at our district, but listen in to all the things Cottageville is doing for their children. The
principal of their elementary school sees her students as her own children, especially the ones that have
irresponsible, or even parents in jail. The students are not punished for being late to school, because
their parents could have been partying all night and have slept in. As they walk in, the principal is close
with the press, so she will immediately know if one of their parents have been sent to jail. When the kids
come in, they are most likely hungry because they do not get food at home, if you can even call it that.
They feed a free breakfast and lunch, to their students that have no will to go back home. The school
even donates clothes if a student is in need. We are blessed to not have this epidemic that bad here in
our town, but what is stopping us from helping out?
Time to find a solution! I have thought up a couple helpful solutions that may not only help our
community, but others half-way across the country! Firstly, we need to deal with our own problems to
help others with theirs. We could set up cameras all around the outside of all three schools. The town
should also invest in having every part of it supervised at all times. Now we have more jobs, and less
addicts! What if students are rewarded if they say something? Since we have just finished discussing
our own problems, let us take in to account ways to help other communities. One option that we have is
to start a donation box or something similar. In the cafeteria there could be a box that people can put
their spare change. I am sure that you have heard of box tops, right? What if every box top a kid brings
in, they get a PBIS ticket. The school can get the money from them and give it to other schools in need.
We can also hold fundraisers and other things after school to help our programs, and fund schools more
severely impacted by this crisis.
How do we act? First of all, we need to spread the word. Th first step is to how this to our
teachers, and our principals. If we can get enough people trying to help out, the more money we raise
for this epidemic, the more people will try to help. It is sad, but money controls everything.