Dear Future President,

Drugs have been around since the dawn of time. Cocaine is a drug that has been used throughout centuries. Since World War 1, cocaine has been used for medical anesthesia and as a stimulant that gives the soldiers energy and strength, however, the consequences are much worse than the few minutes of relief it can give you. Drugs continuously control and ruin the lives of thousands of people.The drug abusers continue to scrounge for money to buy the drugs. Whether its pain pills, prescription pills or black market drugs, drug abusers always seem to find their way of getting them.

Most drug abusers don’t have jobs and tend to steal from the people they care about the most. “Coming up with this money is a full-time job, and can force users to sink to unimaginable depths in order to feed their addiction.” “Ashley’s friend, a former straight-A student, who asked that her name not be used, has had to resort to prostitution in order to “stay well,’’(Addicted to Heroin). They need the money to keep their addiction alive and don’t care how much money it wastes.

It is understood by many, that people can become drug dependant for many reasons, for every individual should have the means to cope with life's various problems. Coping does not mean to hurt yourself or put your life in danger, but rather to face the harsh realities in life without drugs. Coping should be about healing, not about creating an even bigger problem for yourself. By taking these drugs, families are torn apart by losing loved ones due to a drug that is unnecessary and not needed to be happy.

The black market for drugs is becoming cheaper and cheaper. With low prices comes attraction from America's youth. Teenagers in general do not usually have loads of money and to turn to heroin is a cheap route to happiness, but at the cost of one’s life. Heroin has become the most popular black market drug for today's youth, “ Since 2007 the amount of heroin users in the U.S. has nearly doubled and half of the users are younger than 26 years old” (Addicted to Heroin p.11). Teens and adults are getting hooked off the intense high you feel after smoking the heroin.

Hannah Morris, a drug abuser, states, “Oh yeah. Let's say I've never done a drug in my life. I would normally be happiness at a six or seven, at a scale out of 10, you know. And then you take the heroin and you're automatically at a 26. And you're like, I want that again,” (Heroin in the Heartland, CBS news). This feeling of intense happiness is the cause for so many people becoming hooked on the drug.

Knowing this, teens are very susceptible to peer pressure making them try it and getting hooked on it at such a young age. I have seen this first hand, my neighbor growing up, named Michael, actually used heroin. We were the same age but I watched himself fall apart because of the drug. It’s very difficult to get into someone's head that what they want is not the right thing. He became dependent on the heroin to be happy and without it he felt lost, like he had no purpose in life. His uncle actually died from heroin in August 2016, he was going to get help from a rehab center but decided to take it one last time. That was the last time he would ever be able to do it. Now, his son is living with the fact that his father overdosed on heroin.

No one needs drugs to live and maybe for some it makes life a little better, but the fact is it is a killer. A cold blooded murderer with one intention of ruining your life. Life is about perspective and you don’t need to do drugs to be happy. People need to learn that to be happy, you must think positive and not turn to drugs for their happiness. Fake happiness isn’t even happiness and to think it could cure your problems momentarily, really it's creating the biggest problem of all.

You cannot force someone to not try something that they are more than willing to try. The only solution to this drug epidemic is to teach America’s youth about the effects of doing the drugs. By making America educated, hopefully, the drug epidemic will cease to exist and the rate of death's will drop significantly.

Sincerely, Sierra W

Sullivan, Andrew. "Addicted to Heroin: 'I'm Literally Just Rotting'" ABC News. ABC News Network, 29 Oct. 2010. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

"Heroin in the Heartland." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.