Fig.1. Smoking among teenagers is very common, especially in America there are millions of teenagers that are addicted to smoking or doing drugs.
Right before entering senior year, my friend Jesus and I would play basketball everyday during lunch with the rest of our friends. Jesus and I have become best friends, we would play every day constantly since middle school. And of course, our friendship was not always stable, we would fight from time to time but what united us together was our love for the game. Jesus was a kind friend, he would never physically hurt someone, or argue the way he showed his frustration or anger was by ignoring that person and refusing to talk to them. He wore basketball shoes and wore his basketball shorts every day to school. Unlike me he was in the middle school and freshman basketball team, he played as center since he was over six feet tall. He loved watching basketball on television and was a huge Lakers fan. He would always talk about going to college and playing basketball there and eventually going to the NBA. And he was quite talented, he was very tall, played great defense, and was amazing at grabbing rebounds, he was a very valuable player for his team.
When I found out that he dropped out of high school last year I was in shock. Jesus was a quiet and good kid, besides, he had great talent in basketball. The reason he dropped out was because of drugs, he never told me directly, but I would see his stories on social media, and he would be posting videos of himself smoking almost every day. Senior year was not the same, since lunch was divided into two lunches my friends and I were separated. That year was the end of basketball. The news of Jesus dropping out was still unbelievable, he had vanished like a ghost without even saying a goodbye. The only thing I knew was that he was an addict, and that was all I knew. Eventually when senior year ended, we started talking again, he has a family now. He has a girlfriend pregnant with his soon to be son, has a stable job and stopped smoking and doing drugs. He made a brand-new Facebook where he posts pictures of his girlfriend and his son which shows that he has begun a new chapter in his life.
The magazine, The Teenage Brain on Weed explores the effects of marijuana on teenagers. The author is Joe Castaldo emphasizes the brain effects on teenagers that start using drugs at a young age. An enlightening part of the book focuses upon teenager Sean Savoie who started smoking around the age of 14 and he first started smoking as a way to fit in and make friends. Eventually it involved and he would find himself smoking every day. But after five years of constantly smoking he noticed that his short-term memory started to worsen, he wouldn’t go out and felt anxiety which led to him having depression. The main focus in this magazine is the dangers of weed. The author uses Sean Savoie’s story to convey to others the dangers behind weed for teenagers and people of all ages. And how you can get help to stop the addiction. The author states that Sean “ called a friend to take him to a mental health clinic. Savoie, who had been prescribed antidepressants a couple of weeks.” Which is a great way to stop the addiction.
Bradley Steffens’ book Issues in Society: Is Marijuana Harmful? questions whether if weed is harmful or not. The author first goes on to say how weed is very helpful for medicine. Weed can be used to help reduce pain and reduce illnesses. The problem that the author mentions is how the number of weed users are increasing and increasing with America having the highest number of users in the world. After stating the ever increasing number of weed users he states “A great deal of scientific evidence stands behind the INCB's concerns. Studies have shown that marijuana use impairs memory and cognitive performance, alters brain structure, and is linked to increased risks of psychosis and suicide.” Meaning that weed isn’t at all just healthy but can cause some serious harm if abused constantly. The author mentions statistical reports and the number of users and how it increases everyday to show that it's bad. It first starts off saying how weed is very useful to treat pain and illnesses then turns switches and goes on to say that regular people shouldn’t be using it as it may affect them in the long run making it harder for them to quit then.
In the newspaper, The Kids Will Be All Right, we get a completely different take on weed. The author Andre Picard first goes on to state “After four years of legal cannabis in some U.S. states, the health impact has been negligible.” The author talks about Washington State and how it legalized marijuana in 2012. At the time 17% of grade 10 students have reported to have smoked in the previous month which remained the same four years later. In Washington State they predicted the use of weed to increase by a lot but has not and has remained almost the same. The author also states “It legalized medical marijuana in 1998 and had 130,000 authorized users. After the legalization of recreational marijuana, that number fell sharply to about 30,000.” Such details convey to the readers that the use of marijuana isn’t a big deal and that instead of the increase of users, it’s had the opposite effect. And to seal the deal the author finishes with this big statement, “There has been no appreciable increase in cannabis use, especially in young people, there has been no increase in impaired driving and only a slight blip in emergency-room admissions, which Dr. Wolk attributes principally to pot tourists who come to Colorado and overindulge, particularly on edibles.” Meaning that they expected young users to start using more weed. They expected the number of users to increase drastically but it had the opposite effect and dropped. Stating that there is no real danger.
Drug use among young people have increased in the past couple of years; now with drugs such as weed being legal in many states it increases the sales. And many teenagers smoke weed to fit in with their friends not aware of the dangers it causes when constantly smoking it daily. There are people who see drug users as losers, as people who have nothing better to do in the world. But most drug users have mental problems such as anxiety, stress, depression, and many other mental problems. Research shows that many young people that do drugs are either suffering from problems ranging from mental problems or outside issues they have no control over. And to forget about it all people they choose to smoke, to smoke their problems away. When smoking weed some teenagers get so addicted to the drugs that they end up dropping out of school. And that should not be happening, parents should be more involved with their children to understand what they are going through. And this will reduce the number of teenagers doing drugs. When my cousin James became an addict to drugs, he lost his state of thought and began seeing things that were not there. After he was treated and received care, he became his old self, he realized he messed up and took responsibility for his actions and moved on with the help of his family. He is currently still receiving a lot of help to make sure he does not relapse. For people like James who suffer from many problems and resort to using drugs to numb their pain, we family members and parents must be more involved in their lives to make sure their children do not have to deal with issues alone.
Many young teenagers who suffer from severe anxiety or believe that they will not be successful in life often turn towards drugs to numb their pain. The most important part of being a teenager is having to be successful in school, since your future relies mostly on what you accomplish academically. In this essay I talk about my cousin who had a dream to become a football player; such a smart young man who went straight to a 4-year college to have his dreams crushed. James was his name, he would always joke around saying “watch bro, I’m going to play for the Chargers, trust!” but I knew he really meant it. After playing football his whole life, since elementary, middle school, and high school years he was dedicated to that profession, to become a top tier football player. At first what seemed like a way to reduce stress eventually became an addiction, constantly smoking to numb his pain, anxiety, stress, etc. After having spent months using weed, he changed, dropped out of a major college, went back home where he continued to get high constantly every day.
I have known my cousin James for all my life, he was born nearly three years before me. I remember when James and I were younger we’d play video games together or play basketball outside everyday. Eventually, as years passed we grew apart after our grandpa passed. Since his passing his family stopped coming to family parties and began spending more time with his mother’s family side. But one day at some random family party his family came and so did James, he was different much older and different. He was wearing these white earrings, dreads, a white sweater with a turtleneck, black jeans, and white stylish shoes. “I'm just tryna match my appearance to how I feel inside,” he said. When asked about his completely unique change. Since he loved rap and Bob Marley, along with football and anything with black culture he loved. James explained how he finally felt at peace with his appearance: “I just love black culture man, it’s everything, rap, sports, music, style, everything cool is made from Black people man, and it’s amazing.”
When James found himself depressed and alone, struggling in college, as well as addicted to smoking weed he dropped out. He found himself getting more addicted, smoking every single day at his parents house. Once he started smoking one joint he just couldn’t stop and would keep going until he was as high as a kite. James would try to make it seem like he knew what he was doing and that he just needed time to keep progressing in his career business but deep down he knew he was broken. James would spend his time throughout the day smoking to numb his pain, his embarrassment of having gone from this smart and athletic kid to this college dropout. When he wasn’t high he would say “I’m starting this business with my friends man, we’re gonna do good and be making bank, trust, I just need more time and you’ll all see.”
Recently, when James and I talked I could tell he wasn’t James anymore he was different, the drugs did something to his brain where he doesn’t know who he is anymore. Displaying this childish and sudden change in behavior, along with a sudden outburst of anger at times. I noticed he stopped showering and brushing his teeth and was on his phone most of the time. When I mentioned how he was, he stated “I’m chilling fam, I be chilling you know.” And then he would go back on his phone and laugh loudly at the YouTube videos he was watching. After a couple of months of treatment and rehab James eventually came back. He was himself again. “I’m sorry guys for what I did, I was just angry at the world, like football was my life man,” James admitted. “I really thought I was going somewhere in playing football.” He said it really crushed him. He spent his childhood years playing football, middle school playing football, and high school years playing football, he really had love for the sport so having been rejected really angered and hurt him. “I just didn’t want to disappoint my family, I was a great football player and doing good all the time,” James proclaimed. “I got straight A’s dominated on the field, I really thought it would take me places.” The problem was he saw nothing else beyond football, he thought he was going to play football in college and eventually play in the big leagues.
“I’m sorry dad,” was what James first said to his dad when he was finally released from his rehabilitation. “I was stupid for thinking these drugs would help me.” James said, “I’m never going to smoke again and that’s on god.” After being his old self he told us that he was really struggling in college and he wasn’t doing so great in class. Stating that every time he saw the football field he would begin crying, his hopes and dreams gone before his very eyes. After realizing there’s more to life than just football James opened up with his family. “I know I messed up, and I learned from it, I’m never going to touch that crap again.” James said. For he has finally begun to begin a new and positive change in his life.
James assured us that he will never go back to that stoner again. It was challenging, he admitted. He was depressed most of the time and smoking would help a lot. But he made a promise to his family and to himself to never smoke again, so he helped around the house to forget about smoking. For he is trying to cope with his pain to move on in his life. James is a down to Earth time of person; he has always been humble and not cocky. Always learning from his mistakes and adjusting to a change of events that being financial, academic, or even football wise. Overall, James is a great person, smart and funny guy. And in school he is loved by all his friends who are always at his house which shows just how much they like him. So how can this smart wonderful person become addicted to drugs? Since we are all human, we all make mistakes, we all feel depressed or guilty at a certain point in our lives. “No matter how hard life gets, we have to keep pushing forward” was what my mom would always say. What I learned was that depression affects everyone. For example, at one point I thought that I was the only one in the family dealing with sadness and always looked up to James because he was the star in the family. He was the smart one, the most athletic one, and overall, the most talked about.
James says that after going through severe depression and experiencing all the pain and embarrassment; after going through it all he believes he will never use drugs ever again. The research says that after three years of abstinence only 34 percent go back to drinking or doing drugs again. But that all depends on the emotional support, and my cousin has his whole family supporting him so I believe he will be true to his word. Since James has a big family that loves and supports him, I believe that he will hold true to his words. And in case he does not we are all there to pull him back out and be there for him.
Work Cited
Arindam Shivaani. HEALTH AND SCIENCE (Links to an external site.) “Study finds more teens vaping marijuana even as mysterious lung illness claims young lives.” cnbc.com, December 18, 2019
Castaldo, Joe. "The Teenage Brain on Weed." Maclean's, Jan 19, 2018. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.imperial.edu/docview/2265934782?accountid=38876. (Links to an external site.)
Picard, Andre. "The Kids Will be all Right." Globe and Mail, May 29, 2018. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.imperial.edu/docview/2266256675?accountid=38876. (Links to an external site.)
Steffens, Bradley. Issues in Society: Is Marijuana Harmful? , 2017. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.imperial.edu/docview/2260274278?accountid=38876. (Links to an external site.)
Picard, Andre. "The Kids Will be all Right." Globe and Mail, May 29, 2018. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.imperial.edu/docview/2266256675?accountid=38876. (Links to an external site.)
Thomas, Samson. “If you smoke pot, anesthesiologist needs to know.” nbcnews.com, August 1, 2019.