Drugs, drugs, drugs!

This picture shows the effects that drugs can have upon a person after a few years of abuse. Drugs can destroy a person both mentally and physically, making their health deteriorate leading to health problems, sometimes even death.

I know people are warned not to do drugs and everyone is aware of the damage they can cause, some cases it leads to addiction or the moving onto other drugs that are harder. Sometimes people only use drugs recreationally between friends in social circumstances etc etc. But my personal opinion is that if people want to do drugs they will, ther is no stopping them, as adults everyone can make their own choices whether they are percieved as others as right or wrong. Using drugs recreatinally can lead to addiction there are many celebrities in magazines who are seen taking drugs or who have admitted to having an addiction, such as Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss, this is glamourising the use of drugs to the people who choose to read gossip magazines, not setting a good example to younger children who see these people as role models. The picture in my blog of the woman shows the change in her physical appearence over a few years from using heroin.
If more things like this were published although i am not making out that it would stop poeople taking drugs it might make them think twice.

When i was at secondary school a man came in to give us a talk about taking ecstasy and the effects it can have upon a person.

The man was the father of Leah Betts, in brief - she had taken ecstasy numerous times before, on this particular occassion it was her birthday. Her and her friends had taken ecstasy. A few hours later her mum and dad found her in the bathroom screaming in pain that she had in her head.She went into a coma and sadly never came out of it. It was believed that the amount of water she drank when taking the pills contributed to her coma.

To read more about this story and to see some shocking sad pictures of leah that her parents allowed to be published look here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/13/newsid_2516000/2516593.stm

http://ecstasy.org/info/dangers.html

To here the devastation that ecstasy bought to this family, and to hear her father still get emotional when talking about it after years of going round schools giving the talk, was really upsetting. And this will stay with me.

I feel like although the lecture on drugs was not condoning the use of drugs, it never really bought up the awareness of the effects drugs can have upon you.

Comment response to,thedarkside2.blogspot.com

Response to
http://thedarkside2.blogspot.com
I agree with what you are saying about people changing their looks to give themselves more confidence. I do agree that chnaging your body image will not alaways change the way you think about yourself mentally. People have to be ready to be prepared to change menatally, before they change the way they appear physically. Although lots of people think that by chnaging themselves physically, that it will change the way they think mentally. Although sometimes when people who have low self asteem change their appearence to the extreme it can give them the confidence to be the person that they have alaways wanted to be.

Religion

Religion is a topic that divides people. It is a subject that people have different thoughts and opinions about. We live in a society that is multicultural, with people from different religions and minorities living together and for the most part being tolerant of each others religions and beliefs. I went to a christian school and have been bought up as a christian, although i never attend church apart from weddings, funerals and christenings. I feel i am an atheist as i have never really believed that there is God as such. Although at certain times in my life such as when someone dies, it gives me reasurrance to think that they have gone to 'heaven' to be looked after by God, although i am not to sure that this exsists either, i would like to think that there is a place where people go when they pass away. I find comfort in believing that, even though i am not to sure what it is i belive in.
This website offers an explanation on what atheism actually is.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/intro.html

I found the lecture on religion informative but also a bit uncomfotable especially at the begining when, the whole lecture theatre was subjected to hearing a prayer. I didnt like the fact that we were not given a choice to listen to it or not, and the fact that i felt awkward for the people from other religions who may have not wanted to listen to it.

Under age smoking

I know that this is personal opinion, but this picture on the left makes me feel really sad. It is a picture of a three year old little boy smoking a cigarette, i think the only reason why i think it saddens me is beacuse the fact it is a child. If it was an adult over the age of 16 i don't think it would bother me.

The child in this picture, his family may ignorant to the risks of smoking such as cancer, and emphaseima not throught their own doing but maybe because they have never been properly educated. Maybe children are allowed to smoke becuase their families view it as a social activity.

And i understnd that even though child smoking at such a young age is a rare occurance, i still think it needs to be stopped, even though in England the law for smoking is that you have to be over sixteen years old, although in some countries it is legal for children to smoke. According to BBC news onlinehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5134218.stm

"One in 10 under 15s smoke, but prosecution rates for shops which sell cigarettes and other tobacco products to under 16s tend to be low and fines are small". This makes both the under age smokers and the government at fault. Because the children who are smoking are breaking the law and it is obvious that the goverment are being too easy on shop keepers who sell gigareetes to children.

Tattoos

Personally i do not see getting a tattoo as 'being bad'. It is not harming anyone else and it is the individuals personal choice as to whether or not they want to choose to ink their skin that will permenantly stay with them for the rest of their lives.

In my opinion the only time when it becomes 'bad' is when tattoo parlours give tattoos to under age people, as this is against the law.
There was a case in the town where i live in where the tattoo parlour got shut down because they where giving tattoos to minors without checking i.d. I know this is true because i myself had a tattoo done there when i was 16. They did not ask for any form of i.d and performed the tattoo straight away. The only thing they required was my signature.

looking back now i know this is bad practice and people should not do it!!!

This is a website that offers tips about getting tattoos and some considerations that should be taken into account

http://www.msu.edu/~krcmari1/individual/getting.html