Essay On American Drugs

Drugs have affected our nation, state and community in a variety of ways, more negative than positive. Everyday people may suffer from drug addictions, whether it is over the counter prescriptions or bought on the street. The United States of America top three most commonly abused drugs are: Alcohol, Tobacco and Painkillers. Though there are many more other substances that are abused by Americans, those three top the list.
Number one on the list is alcohol many people don’t view alcohol as a drug, but a drug is considered to be anything that may have a physiological or physical effect on the human body. Therefore alcohol is considered a drug, it is the most commonly abused drug in the US. About 17.6 million Americans suffer from alcohol abuse or dependency. Many problems come with alcohol in my opinion, when a person is under the influence they may become aggressive

and violent. Making them act out of the norm, there were approximately eighty-eight thousand alcohol related deaths in the year 2014 in the US. Worldwide the annual alcohol related deaths is 2.5 million.
Next on the list is Tobacco, it has been around for a while.

Tobacco comes in many different forms such as dip, cigarettes, and also cigars. No matter the form it comes in it still has affected Americans and also other countries. Over 16 million Americans are living with a chronic disease caused by smoking. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which also includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Smoking may also cause erectile dysfunction in males. More than 480,000 deaths occur annually in the United States, generally men lead in death numbers due to tobacco. Worldwide tobacco kills around 6 million people a year, while more than 600,000 non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke die from it, 70% of tobacco users started at age 18 or earlier. Discontinuing the use of tobacco is hard for the users, most users are physically addicted to nicotine which is the key ingredient in tobacco. A user giving up tobacco usually goes to counseling or uses nicotine patches, nicotine gum, or varenicline (Chantix) are non-nicotine pills and

etc.
Third on the list is pain killers, many and most people who have become hooked on pain-killers usually do not mean to get addicted to them. Most people use them when after they have had surgery and pop them to cope with the pain. Some may start liking the feeling that it gives them and the way it helps subdue the pain that they are experiencing. Overdoses has become the norm in America. There has been former students of Putnam City North who have died from drug overdose. The most popular prescription drug is Xanax, Xanax is a benzodiazepine. Xanax are highly addictive and have impacted the younger generation, I know a few students who partake in this. Nearly 2 million Americans age 12 or older have either abused or were dependent on painkillers in the year 2013. Due to the rise of deaths caused by painkillers has risen and doctors are no longer giving large amount of prescriptions and also limiting the amount of refills given.
Drugs have affected our nation, state and community in a variety of ways, more negative than positive. Everyday people may suffer from drug addictions, whether it is over the counter prescriptions or bought on the street. The United States of America top three most commonly abused drugs are: Alcohol, Tobacco and Painkillers. Though there are many more other substances that are abused by Americans, those three top the list.