Drug Facts

FACT 1: DIFFERENT DRUGS CAUSE DIFFERENT FEELINGS AND PHYSICAL RESPONSES

• Drugs such as dagga, heroin, Ecstasy, Mandrax, tik and cocaine are illegal.

• Further, you could experience a very pleasant response to one drug, yet another drug could have a very frightening reaction B it could even kill you.

• Like any business, the illicit drug industry is profit-driven. Therefore, drug dealers use a variety of substances to cut drugs.

• Some of these substances may be more harmful than the drug itself.

• The drug you are offered tomorrow may look the same as the drug you were offered yesterday, but you can never be certain of what it contains.

• The only way to be sure that you do not ingest it is to avoid taking drugs in the first place!

• Drugs can be swallowed (pills), smoked, inhaled or injected.

• You can never anticipate the effect that drugs will have on you.

• It is a mistake to think that experience increases your tolerance levels or that nothing will happen to you if you take a drug that you have used before.

• It is a well-known fact that seasoned drug addicts often die of an overdose.

• Drug addiction seduces you into wanting more and different and stronger drugs, against your will and the natural tolerance of your body.

• No matter how good you may feel when using drugs, your body suffers. Drugs are dangerous.

• If you take drugs, you are at great risk of becoming addicted.

UPPERS (Cocaine, Ecstasy, Speed, Crack-Cocaine, Tik)

• Uppers are designed to make you feel great. They make you feel alive, dynamic, and energized.

• Depending on your personal response to the drug, you could, however, also feel anxious, nervous and paranoid. You could even die.

• Uppers put a terrible strain on the heart. Long-term use destroys your nerves, takes away your appetite and causes sleeplessness.

• You will end up taking a downer as your body suffers withdrawal symptoms when the drug wears off.

• You will feel depressed and, sometimes, suicidal.

DOWNERS

(Dagga, Heroin, Mandrax)

• Downers make you feel relaxed or laid back.

  • Unfortunately, you cannot control just how relaxed you will be.

  • Long-term use of downers causes lethargy and makes it harder for you to do the things you need to do as a functional member of society.

  • Schoolchildren and students who use these drugs find it hard to study or complete assignments, and relationships inevitably suffer.

  • Too much of a powerful downer like heroin, causes the systems of the body to shut down, eventually leading to death.

HALLUCINOGENS

(LSD, mescaline)

• These drugs cause powerful hallucinations or dreams in which your reality is changed.

• You cannot predict whether the dream will be enjoyable or be a hideous nightmare.

• A Abad trip@ can haunt you for the rest of your life, with flashbacks occurring at any time.

FACT 2: DIFFERENT PEOPLE RESPOND DIFFERENTLY TO THE SAME DRUGS

• Drugs cause different reactions in different people.

• Never take a drug based on someone else=s reported experience of using that drug.

• Never persuade someone else to take a drug based on your own experience of using it.

FACT 3: THE MORE DRUGS YOU TAKE, THE MORE YOU NEED.

• The first time you take a drug, you will probably experience an exhilarating high.

• As your body becomes used to the drug, you will need more and more of it to experience the same intense reaction.

• This increasing tolerance to a drug is actually a growing addiction.

• Addiction comes with a big price tag.

• The more drugs you want, the more money you need to feed the habit.

• Drugs are expensive and their effect on you makes it unlikely that you will be able to earn enough money to afford them.

• Some drug addicts turn to crime and other high-risk behaviour.

• Many are arrested and go to prison.

• Others turn to prostitution and live tragic and tainted lives, and almost inevitably die young.

• Some people take drugs for a while and then manage to escape before they become addicts or before irreparable harm is done.

• It is not weak people who become drug addicts, its drug addicts who become weak people.

• No addict takes that first drug believing that he or she will become addicted.

• All addicts start out believing that they could give up drugs any time they wanted to.

• Every addict is sad proof of how wrong that belief is.

FACT 4: LIFE IS TOUGH ENOUGH BUT DRUGS ONLY MAKE IT TOUGHER

• When you feel that you cannot cope with life’s challenges, you may feel tempted to take a drug to make you feel vibrant and confident, or to change your sense of reality B even if only for a short while.

• Instant gratification, a sense of peace, a wonderful trip, or a feeling of power B all these things you are promised by those who offer you drugs.

• Such persons often describe the effects of drugs in glowing terms. But they do not tell you that you cannot control your response to a drug.

• When you feel that you cannot cope with life=s challenges, you may feel tempted to take a drug to make you feel vibrant and confident, or to change your sense of reality B even if only for a short while.

• Instant gratification, a sense of peace, a wonderful trip, or a feeling of power B all these things you are promised by those who offer you drugs.

• Such persons often describe the effects of drugs in glowing terms. But they do not tell you that you cannot control your response to a drug.

• The more you like a drug, the more you will want it and eventually you will become addicted.

• When the drug wears off, reality will still be there with all the problems from which you were trying to escape.

• Uppers make you need downers and a combination of the two can kill you.

• Drugs let you lose control, which, in turn, makes you lose the ability to do certain things (for instance, to drive your car).

• However tempting it may be, using drugs to take a break from reality will not make your problems disappear or make life better.

• If you feel that things are spiraling out of control and you are overwhelmed by problems, seek real help from someone who cares.

• People who try to sell you drugs are not interested in your well-being.

• You may already have used drugs and you may be scared of becoming addicted.

• But remember: No matter how much trouble you think you will be in if you ask for help, you will be in worse trouble if you do not.