Liz Murray's Drug Informative Essay: Drug Addiction

The publication by Christina M. Gaudio is critical of the War on Drugs and focuses on its effects on juveniles. She takes time to outline the issues that are present with our current system, and specifically how the system is particularly unjust to juveniles. Gaudio details how the juvenile justice system operates state and federally, then she gives a brief history of the Drug War, the Drug Wars effect on Juveniles, its overall effectiveness, and possible solutions to what she sees as the problem.

David Sheff’s memoir contains emotional appeal to achieve its purpose. It is packed with heart-wrenching moments that make the reader feel his pain. For instance, Sheff is always worried sick when his son disappears without saying where he’s going. One particular time, when Jasper asks where his older brother is, Sheff responds, “with more emotion than I intended to betray: ‘We don’t know.’ Jasper begins to cry” (Sheff 101). This moment makes the audience feel for Sheff and his family, because it is a new side of the common addiction story that has more impact emotionally than one may think. People hear the side of the addict themselves so much more often, that the parents’ point of view is more shocking and emotional. Thus, they are able to understand better because they can relate to his normal family, that is going through an abnormal

Ellen Hopkins wrote Ccrank , which is a powerful and moving story about the struggle of addiction , she tells how easy it is to fall into the trap of drugs and also how hard it is to get away from the drugs that have ahold of you. She tells about how the kids that are least likely to do drugs , are just as easy to get addicted as other kids who are born around drug abuse. This drug addiction can lead to many vast decisions , which are not always good ones that can effect your life in many good and bad ways.

Drugs, they kill us, cause addiction and destroy lives. Those are the things most commonly associated with them whenever someone brings it up. Every article you read, story you hear or news report you see shows you that drug use in itself is dangerous and bad, addicts are the bottom of society and addiction is brought upon oneself. But what knowledge do we have when we never took the time to dive into the subject? I feel that knowledge is way too little and that the people suffering from addiction are not getting the help they need because of it. Our perception is based mostly on incidents that make the news and hearsay stories. Therefore I feel like the way we think of drugs and addiction

Ellen Hopkins’ Crank is an epic poem geared toward warning young people of the various consequences of using dangerous drugs. However important its message, it provides a single story, a stereotypical tale influenced by pop culture about addiction and the people it affects. In the poem, the heroine, Kristina Snow, gets addicted to methamphetamines, otherwise known as “crank”. Her life takes a downward turn that includes pregnancy and dropping out of school. The poem depicts just one experience with drug abuse and links it to what is perceived to be the most likely thing to happen if you get addicted to drugs, providing a false single story for the young people it targets. The stereotypical race of Kristina for the specific drug, the pregnancy,

As a nation proud of the philosophies revolving around freedom, equality, etc. it is far-fetched and unseemingly to good to be true. In the “Deaf in Prison” documentary, “there are more than two people incarcerated” (Deaf in Prison, 2013). We shift our attention to issues that should not be started as an issue, mass incarceration for little crimes such as an individual sentenced ten years for holding very little marijuana, primarily targeting those who are a person of color, screams a lot about the system as a whole. There is a whole lot of fragments that need fixing within our unjust judicial system, and that is why we need to curb the efforts of providing the best resources possible for those convicted wrongfully and those who want a second

Some substance abusers life is “dominated by drug related activates” (Stevens & Smith, pg. 113). The entire day is spent in the pursuit of their next fix” (Stevens & Smith, pg. 113). A person who uses drugs; “will immerse themselves in talking about drug and other people who use” (Stevens & Smith, pg. 113). When a person has no regard for personal harm to gain drugs they are completely out of control. There only purpose in life completely revolves around their drug use and they’ll do anything to get it.

Addiction had not only consumed Jesse’s life, but it had taken his father’s (163). When Jesse started dealing in his college years, “He was kicked out of school…and barely escaped without jail time” (162). At this point in his life, Jesse, “could not be

Within the text The Addict by Katherine Fleming it addresses several serious ideas and issues within Australian society. Fleming has conveyed these ideas through several structural and language conventions in order to convey her own values and beliefs around these issues. In The Addict We hear from the author and testimonials from Heath, A recovering addict and her interviewee. This article has been written for an Australian audience and was published in a state-wide newspaper called “The West Australian” and is distributed both digitally and physically.

Liz Murray’s mother and father were drug addicts living in the Bronx. She was born in 1980 with drugs in her blood because her parents religiously uses cocaine and heroin. (Murray 11). A vicious cycle of her parent’s use of drugs and mental illness seem to carry throughout several chapters. Murray and her sister survives on egg and mayonnaise sandwiches, toothpaste, and even cherry-flavored chapstick. They reside in a freezing cold and filthy apartment. Her parents just focus on how to maintain their high. From the time she was five, Murray recalls, we were a “functional government-dependent family of four” (Murray14). Her mother was legally blind and a schizophrenic, which qualifies their family for welfare to only pay for her parents’ drug ritual. Throughout, the years of drugs the girls are brought around other users and Liz receives abuse from Ron while her mother is gone to the liquor store one night. Her mother also eventually breaks the news to Liz that she has HIV. The drugs drive a wedge in between her parents which leads them to separation. This seems to really affect Liz along with the new diagnosis of her mom.

About 64% of high school students have stated that they have come into contact with drugs. An drug addiction can take over your life the minute you do it. A lot of people do not have self control,which then Leads them to their addiction. Drug addictions maybe be easy to start, but not finish. Once people stop and try to get better, they soon break and a certain point. Relapsing is the hardest part, the drug is out of your system and many just want to have a little bit more and so, the cycle starts back up. Drugs are not something to be taking

In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues, Baldwin writes about an unnamed narrator and his younger brother during the Harlem Renaissance. The narrator is essentially stable in life, whereas his younger brother, who is a very talented yet troubled jazz musician, sells and abuses heroin and goes to prison early in the story. Due to the younger brother, Sonny, heroin addiction the two brothers are not as close as one thinks. The theme in this story got me wondering how heroin addiction affects families. I have decided to research this topic to answer how heroin affects children born to heroin-addicted mothers, how heroin affects the families of addicts, how it affects the addicts relationship with their families, and the acts of intervention and sobering which are just a few of the most intriguing questions to me.

“Growing up I lived in a two family household. My mother was a school teacher and my father was a police officer. I was the middle child of three. I had one older brother and one younger brother. We lived in a suburban neighborhood and went to private school. We lived a typical life. Had dinner together, went on family trips and most importantly my parents were involved in my life. Even with my father being a police officer, I cannot name a time he was not there for me.

Drug abuse is one of the top issues defying the country today particularly among the teenagers. Occurrences of drug and alcohol abuse and related anti-social behavior have massively expanded lately. This has become a matter of concern to the government, parents and teachers. Teens regularly try different things with an assortment of activities and substances. Unfortunately, this experimentation can prompt substance misuse and addiction. Measurements demonstrate that drug abuse is a developing issue among teenagers. Drugs should be forbidden all over the world because for teenagers it destroys their social life. On the other hand, many teenagers believe that it should remain because it helps them to cover from painful memories in their past. Despite the many causes and effects of drug abuse, two of the main causes are Lack of parent to child communication and low self-esteem and two of the main effects are Health problems and Behavioral problems.

Addiction is the reliance on a routine. There are many addictive stages. Addiction, as it comes along, becomes a way of life. The persistent use of the substance causes to the user serious physical or psychological problems and dysfunctions in major areas of his or her life. The drug user continues to use substances and the compulsive behavior despite the harmful consequences, and tries to systematically avoid responsibility and reality, while he or she tends to isolate himself/herself from others because of guilt and pain (Angres, & Bettinardi-Angres, 2008). All these characteristics led to the conclusion that drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use. It is considered as a brain disease because drugs change the structure of the brain, and how it works. Every drug affects different systems of the brain. For example, in the case of cocaine, as the brain is adapted in the presence of the specific drug, brain regions responsible for judgment, decision-making, learning, and memory begin to physically change, making certain behaviors “hard-wired.” In some brain regions, connections between neurons are pruned back. In others, neurons form more connections. (Martin, 2000) These brain changes can be long-lasting and can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse drugs.