
The word drug is defined as “any substance other than food that can affect the way your mind and body work.” There are hundreds of different drugs, each with its particular effect on the body’s nervous system. For instance, narcotics are a series of drugs that affect the mind, causing mental changes. The United States Government will not allow new drugs to be prescribed by a doctor or sold by a pharmacist until the drug has been thoroughly tested and proven to be medically safe. These tests take as long as years to be approved for public use. Unstable drugs, referred to on the streets as Crack, PCP, Ice, LSD, Speed, and many others, are made up of several chemical substances which are produced illegally under poor circumstances. Unstable drugs are responsible for killing thousands of young people each year, those who escape death are sometimes confined to a mental institution. (http://netunlimited.net/~cdapnc) . 
The topic of drug abuse prevention is a big one among the leaders in America. Kids as young as eleven years old experimenting with drugs. Signs to look for, for people getting into drugs, according to the D.A.R.E. Manual are dramatic changes in behavior, signs of physical deterioration, identification with drug culture, signs of paraphernalia, dramatic changes in school performance, these are only a few. We are taught as children to avoid danger, though it does not always come through in the end. And the sad thing is that the people who suffer from these killers (drugs) place them in their own bodies. The end result is the same. So what is the difference? (http://saynonow.org). 
Drugs are effecting the economy and America. I think we need to make a stand now, because the kids of America today, do not need this. We are the leaders of tomorrow. Drugs are affecting us by changing our feelings, thoughts, and emotions. If I was high right now, I couldn’t write this paper. 
The economy is being effected as we speak because of substance abuse. People are spending their hard-earned money on Ice, Crack, LSD, and Dope!?! The money spent on drugs is less money for taxes to pay for the building of better schools, or making of better roads, money not being spent on helping a child, or even buying videocassette tapes. This takes us to the word opportunity cost, which means that the real cost of a product is not the amount of money spent, but the things that cannot be bought because money is spent. Now let me tell you this, when you’re dealing with drugs, there is opportunity cost going on there. Let’s relate to the younger generation: You’re walking down the street, it’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and there’s a big anniversary date that night with your girlfriend. You see a guy you recognize and he offers you marijuana for $100.00. You accept the deal thinking nothing of it. Later that night the bill comes in at the Italian restaurant, that same restaurant where you had your first date at, and the bill comes out to $95.41. Now, the money you spent on drugs for Sunday would have bought you the meal, but instead you have to stay after and wash dishes to work off the money.
I guess what I’m trying to say in this paper, about how drugs affect the economy, is that the biggest stab is at the younger generation. I think we are the people of the new millenium. Being these people we do not need drugs to ruin the things that we will bring to the economy. Especially the things we bring that will make us the best … for the “next thousand years.”
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