The Truth about Drugs
Drugs destroy millions of lives every year. The most disturbing aspect of this problem is the damage drug abuse does to our young people and the threat this represents to the future of our country. With more and more young people being introduced to drugs it is vital to provide educational materials with factual information about their dangers.
This page is dedicated to the individuals and organisations working to salvage others from the ravages of drug abuse. Society owes them a debt of gratitude for their co-operative efforts and we hope this information will help them.
Sadly some in society seek to promote and spread drug use for profit or gain - a fact that has been exposed too many times for anyone to be fooled.
Our Drug Culture
Drugs have been part of our culture since the middle of the last century. Popularised in the 1960s by music and mass media, they invade all aspects of society. The problem has many faces - from the college student dancing for three days straight in an Ecstasy - or methamphetamine-fuelled rave, to the school child addicted to Ritalin (methylphenidate); from the mother who cannot get through the day without taking pills for depression, to the CEO addicted to cocaine.
An estimated 200 million people internationally consume illegal drugs. In the US, results from the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Heath showed that 19.5 million Americans (or 8.2% of the population aged 12 or older) were illicit drug users in the month prior to the survey.
You probably know someone who has been affected by drugs, directly or indirectly.
The most common used - and abused - drug in the US is alcohol. Alcohol-related car accidents are the second leading cause of teen death in the US.
The most commonly used illicit drug is marijuana. According to the United Nations 2005 World Drug Report, about 4% of the world's population abuses cannabis.
Young people today are exposed earlier than ever to drugs. Based on a survey done by the Center for Disease Control in 2003, 45% of high school students nationwide drank alcohol and 22% smoked pot during a one-month period.
In Europe, recent studies amongst 13-year-olds suggest that use of cannabis varies from under 10% to over 30%, with the highest rates reported by boys here in the UK (42.5%). Use of cocaine in Europe is also on the increase. In Spain and the UK the level compares with that in the USA (2.5%). Cocaine use amongst young people has risen in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
"My goal in life wasn't living... it was getting high. I was falling into a downward spiral towards the point of no return. Over the years, I turned to cocaine, marijuana and alcohol under a false belief that it would allow me to escape my problems. It just made things worse. I had everything, a good job, money, a loving family, yet I felt so empty inside. As if I had nothing. Over 20 years of using, I kept saying to myself, I'm going to stop permanently after using this last time. It never happened. There were even moments I had thought of giving up on life." - John
"It started with the week, then the pills (Ecstasy) and acid, making cocktails of all sorts of drugs; even overdosing to make the rushes last longer. I took copious amounts of these chemicals very day for as long as two years until I had a bad trip one night and went into toxic psychosis. I prayed and cried for this feeling to go away; I had voices in my head, had the shakes and couldn't leave home for 6 months. I became very withdrawn and thought everyone was watching me. I couldn't walk in public places. Man! I couldn't even drive.
I ended up homeless and on the streets, living and sleeping in a cardboard box, begging and struggling to find ways to get my next meal.
I asked myself if this is rock bottom, I decided that I had had enough. Yes, I wanted drugs but I realised that I could want life more" - B.K.
Why do People Take Drugs?
People take drugs because they want to change something about their lives. Here are some of the reasons young people have given for taking drugs:-
- To fit in
- To escape or relax
- They are bored
- It makes them seem grown up
- To rebel
- To experiment
They think drugs are a solution. But eventually, the drugs become the problem.
Terrifying as the consequences of drug use are, and as hopeless as they can seem to the addict, there are solutions to the drug problem.
Just growing up and living in the modern world can be emotionally draining. But talking problems over with a friend or a minister or trusted family member can work wonders. Simply taking a long walk to look at the objects in one’s environment until one is able to focus one’s attention outward and feel relaxed will also help.
And for the person you may know who has a drug problem, there are solutions that work. Narconon, a drug rehabilitation programme that utilises the methods of L. Ron Hubbard, has one of the highest success rates of any such programme. As hundreds of thousands will attest, those addicted can free themselves of this tyranny and face life with renewed vigour and hope.
The real answer, however, is not to take drugs in the first place. Difficult as it may be to face one’s problems, the consequences of drug use are always worse that the problem one is trying to solve with them, since drugs rob life of the sensations and joys that are the only reason for living anyhow.
“During the whole time I was on drugs I thought I had control over my life and that I had it great. But in my wake, I destroyed everything I had built up and fought for in my life. I cut ties to all my drug-free friends and disconnected from my family, so I hadn’t any friends but my drug mates. Every day revolved around one thing: my plan for getting the money I needed for drugs. I would do everything possible to get my amphetamine – it was the only thing in my life.” – Pascal
How do drugs work?
Drugs are essentially poisons. The amount taken determines the effect. A small amount acts as a stimulant (increases activity). A greater amount acts as a sedative (suppresses activity). A still larger amount poisons and can kill.
This is true of any drug. Only the amount needed to achieve the effect differs.
Drugs block off all sensations, the desirable ones with the unwanted. And while drugs might be of short-term value in the handling of pain, they wipe out ability, alertness and muddy one’s thinking.
One has a choice of being dead with drugs or being alive without them.
Drugs Affect the Mind
When a person thinks of something he or she gets a picture of it in his mind. These mental pictures are easy to see. Close your eyes and think of a cat and you will get a picture of a cat. The mind takes many pictures every second and files them away to solve problems.
Normally, when a person remembers something, the mind is very fast and information comes to him quickly from the pictures in the mind. But drugs blur the pictures in the mind, causing blank spots. When a person tries to get information through this cloudy mess, he can’t do it. Drugs make a person feel slow or stupid and cause him to have failures in life. And as he has more failures and life gets harder, he wants more drugs to help him deal with the problem.
This can distort the drug user’s perception of what is happening around him. As a result, the person’s actions may appear very odd or irrational. They can even become violent.
Drugs Destroy Creativity
One lie tale about drugs is that they help a person become more creative. The truth is quite different.
There is a scale of emotions from enthusiasm to apathy. People move up and down on this scale as they go through life.
Someone who is sad might use drugs to give himself a false sense of happiness, but id does not work. Cocaine lifts a person into a fake kind of cheerfulness, but when the drug wears off, he or she crashes even lower than before. And each time the emotional plunge is lower and lower. Eventually, drugs will completely destroy all creativity a person has.
Drug Residues Store in the Fatty Tissues of the Body
One of the discoveries of L. Ron Hubbard, since proven by scientific testing, is that residues from drugs and other toxins lodge in the fatty tissues of the body and stay there, even years after they have been ingested. These residues can continue to affect the individual adversely long after the effect of the drug has apparently worn off.
Such drug deposits can cause lowered perception, tiredness, confused thinking and other reactions – all of which impede a person from achieving increased spiritual awareness and ability.
Recognising this, Mr. Hubbard, devised what independent researchers acknowledge as the safest, most effective – and only – detoxification procedure of its kind: The Purification Programme.
Developed to address the biochemical barrier to spiritual gain, the Purification Programme is a carefully designed regimen of exercise, nutrition and sauna use which dislodges drug residues and other toxins from the fatty tissues so that these substances can be elimination from the body. A person undergoing this programme is closely monitored by specially trained personnel in liaison with GPs to ensure that each aspect of the programme is conducted precisely – and the desired benefits are attained.
The programme is described in the book “Clear Body, Clear Mind” by L. Ron Hubbard.
“I started drugs due to my own inability to face problems in my life and communicate to those around me what was really going on and how I felt. I also believed that drugs couldn’t hurt me and that I could control my use. This was not the case.
For a 12-year drug dependent veteran who could manipulate the system as well as anyone, it was nothing short of a miracle to find the answer. It has been nearly five years since that day. I am now married. I help to get other people free from drugs and I have met so many wonderful, caring people that it is a joy to wake up in the morning and say that I am drug free.” – Francesca
More information about different types of drugs.
Real Solutions to Drugs
There are solutions to the drug problem. The first step is to understand why a person becomes trapped by drugs. In May 1969, author, humanitarian and founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard wrote:-
“When a person is depressed or in pain and where he finds no physical relief from treatment, he will eventually discover for himself that drugs remove his symptoms.
In almost all cases of psychosomatic pain, malaise or discomfort the person has sought some cure for the upset.
When he at last finds that only drugs give him relief he will surrender to them and become dependent upon them often to the point of addiction.”
The best solution, however, is not to begin using drugs in the first place. Taking drugs is not an answer. As difficult as it can be to confront one’s problems, the consequences that come with drug use are always worse than the problem one is trying to avoid.
And the long slide into hell that comes as a result of taking drugs is even worse.
“Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life” is a community drug education and drug prevention programme initiated by the Church of Scientology International. It educated children and teenagers about the danger of drugs and challenges them to remain drug free and to set a good example to friends and family.
Experience has taught us that people in general, and young people in particular, who understand the destructive effects of drugs, and who are provided with positive role models and the support of their peers to remain drug free, inevitably come to the conclusion: “I don’t want to take drugs” – which is, of course, the ultimate purpose of the programme.
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