As a counselor for alcohol awareness classes, I always ask my students why they did not choose to take a taxi instead of choosing to risk their lives and the lives of others and driving under the influence. How many do you think considered taking a taxi or calling someone to come and give them a ride home? Think about that for a moment. Do you think most do? About half? Less?

The answer should surprise you – about ten percent. That means nine out of ten never even considered alternative transportation. In this day and age, with so much money spent toward promoting education and punishing behavior, can so few even consider the possibility? Following is a true story from one of my students in my alcohol awareness class.

Keith’s Story

It was an extremely cold winter night, just before Christmas. Keith had just gotten home from college and was anxious to visit with his old buddies. The plan was to get together at a friend’s house and then go out for a few drinks.

Keith was the high school jock, one of the most popular kids in his class. He never was a real drinker, but really enjoyed socializing. In high school he always was the designated driver. His first real drinking experiences occurred while rushing a fraternity at college.

Keith, driving his dad’s new Lexus picked up three of his friends and they headed to the football field at their old high school to meet up with some others. He and his friends started with a couple of beers and then began making bets, where a loss meant a shot of hard liquor. The drink of the night was tequila. After a few hours and many drinks it was time for the party to break up.

Now six friends jumped in the car with Keith. It was crowded and cramped and the windows quickly steamed up. The first sign he should not have been driving was he could not get the key into the ignition. Second, he ran over the small, concrete parking barrier because he put the car in “Drive” rather than reverse. There was strong damage to the front-end. Third, may have been the flashing red and blue lights around the corner. The police had pulled over their friends who had left a few minutes earlier.

Alerted by the sound of the Lexus crashing over the cement parking barrier, a police cruiser investigated. Keith was behind the wheel. The police made him perform both a field sobriety test and a Breathalyzer. While he was able to touch his nose, he could not stand on one leg, nor could he walk a straight line. His blood-alcohol level was.15.

Keith’s Punishment

Keith’s punishment: suspension of his driving privileges for 6 months, $500 fine, $1,500 in attorney’s fees, a mandatory alcohol awareness class, and a night in jail. A $15 cab ride would have been a lot less expensive, don’t you think?

When asked why he decided to try and drive that night he said, “my friends were relying on me. I drove. Besides I would never let them drive my dad’s new car.” Interesting logic, huh?

Keith admitted he had a number of people he could have called to pick him up, including his parents. His father, who had brought him to the alcohol awareness class, said if Keith had called him to pick everyone up, he would have been proud of his son for his responsible actions.

Humans are rational being. The problem lies with the affect alcohol has on the brain and our ability to make rational decisions. If you knew before getting behind the wheel that, like Keith, you WOULD get caught, and it would cost you thousands of dollars and more, rationally, I know you would find alternative means of transportation.

We all know that illegal drugs has too many bad effects to health. But there are still many people who take different illegal drugs despite the dangers it possess to one’s health. Governments all over the world are doing everything in their power to eliminate this kind of crime but the problem still persist to exist until today.

What is the real objective why people take drugs? Most people are taking illegal drugs to escape from personal problems, enhance entertainment and to satisfy their curiosity through the excitement that drugs offer. People never understand the danger of using this substances and once they knew, its already too late.

Understanding the facts about drugs can help you avoid its health risks and prevent drug addiction. First, below are the list of illegal drugs that you should avoid for life.

* Marijuana (derived from Cannabis plant)
* Cocaine (derived from Coca plant)
* Ecstasy (MDMA)
* Opium (derived from Poppy plant)
* Meth

These illegal drugs can be taken through smoking, injecting, melt, snorting and simply swallowing like a usual tablet supplement. The effect can be severe to the central nervous system and can produce hallucinations.

Drugs are designed to improve health and treat disease, but there are people who uses drugs for other purposes. This is where this illegal drugs come in. Once this substances enter your bloodstream, it will be transported into different parts of the body such as your brain. Since the brain controls everything, this drugs can manipulate or alter your memory into something you cannot control. It also takes away your different senses such as resistance to pain.

The effects of these drugs varies from different reasons and can be helpful or harmful to human body. The factors include how often the drugs was used, how quickly it reaches the brain, how much is taken and depending on the kind of drug taken. Body size or mass also contributes on how harmful drugs are to the body.

Teens are more prone to this type of substances because of the curiosity and other factors such as family or school problems. Teenage period is the start of vices like alcohol, smoking tobacco and illegal drugs. Drugs can ultimately damage their over all health especially their brain if they continue to do this bad habits. This is the reason why many teens nowadays are involved into many habits such as drunk driving and unwanted pregnancy.

Aside from curiosity, people sniff drugs because of the pleasure it brings. Others using it to escape mental illnesses such as depression. People often feel relax and good with these substances that is why they even suggest it to others rather than to stop doing it.

Others also think that drugs can help them mentally in school or at work. Some believe that it makes them more popular, make them stay more active and improve their performance in any activities. Few used drugs just to gain attention from parents or friends. There are a lot of reasons why people take drugs, but none of them seems so reasonable enough to consider this habit beneficial to health in any way.

Drugs is a health damaging habit. Below are its bad effects.

* Effective stimulant.
* Loses mental judgment and coordination
* Mental disorders (depression and anxiety)
* Addictiveness (physical, emotional and psychological cravings)
* Blood poisoning
* Cardiac arrest (speeds up heart beat and increases blood pressure)
* Breathing problems
* Hallucinations or intense paranoia
* Hepatitis and AIDS (when sharing needle injection)
* Nasal infection (snorting effect)
* Aggression (sudden intense feeling)
* Immediate death

Illegal drugs must be avoided at all cost. Never involve yourself to this kind of activities in work, school or within your neighborhood. Choose the people you have to socialize in and avoid those who you think posts some risks. Consult your doctor if you are obliged to take depressants and antihistamine drugs. These drugs can also be addictive and health damaging. Remember to love yourself and your family, stay away from this illegal drugs and live life clean and healthy!