My Speech : The Role of Youth in Fighting Against Drug Abuse

Did you know that drug abusers only in this country include around 800 of elementary school students, 7000 of junior high school students, and 10000 of senior high school students? And those numbers will definitely increase year by year. And all their potential, gone. All their hopes and dreams, gone. All their future, gone.

I often hear about drug abuse in our environment. And I have some big questions in my mind. Why do people abuse drug? If you look around you, there are a lot of banners telling you about the effect of drug abuse. So, I think people who abuse drug must have already known about the effect of drug abuse before they began using drug. Well, some may think that they might be immune and the effects of drug won’t affect them. Some people use drugs because of peer pressure. Some want to experiment and try something new. Some feel depressed or bored.

So, will we do nothing to save ourselves, our friends, from this abusing drug? Yes, we’ll do something. Now, I know some of you might be thinking, “What can we do? We’re just a kid.” Right? Why do you think that because we’re just a kid, we can do nothing to fight drug abuse? Well, we can start from ourselves. Participating in some drug education program can be a good idea. Joining some clubs in your school to explore your talent like speech club, science club, or basketball club must be fun. And after all you can influence people around you, your friends, your family, and your neighbors.

Now, what if you know that your friend is a drug abuser?
What if you know that he has been addicted to drug?
What are you going to do?
There are three options that you can choose:
- First you can just ignore him and stay away.
- Second, you can tell him about what he has done, that it was wrong.
- Third you can tell him and try to help him.
I recommend you to choose the last one.

But, how to help a friend with drug addiction?
- Set a positive example and let your friend know how much you care for him and let your friend feel that he can count on you for support.
- Try to educate yourself more on the consequences of drug abuse by going to the school library or browsing the internet for more information.
- Ask the help from your school counselor and ask your counselor if there is a drug education program that you and your friend can participate in.

You got to believe that you can make a change to people around you even though how small what you did. A real story I took from a website about a girl who had a friend with drug addiction.

She writes:
"My friend started using drug after hanging out with people that I wasn’t interested in hanging out with. The drugs had a huge impact to her life. She lost her priority in academic career. So I told her that I wanted to help her. But she didn’t like it and she chose to keep using drugs that would be her decision. I started pushing the issue when we had a girl talk. Then she allowed me to help her. By being in schools club, we kept ourselves busy and met people who had similar interest with. We got involved in drug prevention program in high school which helped her stayed positive and avoid using drugs." - Renya

Her story is only one of other stories which proves to us that we can make a change to people around us.