Back to: Kerala Board Class 12th English Guide and Notes
Table of Contents
Introduction
With the title being self-explanatory, the chapter talks about the advancement of science and drugs and how although a boon to humankind, if not used with care drugs can be devastating and fatal.
Need or Greed?
Drugs have been developed to prevent and cure physical ailments, as well as to reverse the symptoms of various mental illnesses. People believe that any sickness, infectious or psychic, may be healed by taking a pill. Doctors prescribe them, and the general public expects them to work miracles. It’s unsurprising that drug misuse has spread in such an environment. People who rely on drugs to solve their issues lose their ability to deal with life’s challenges through tenacity, self-discipline, and mental effort.
Hippocrates, the Greek physician who is recognised as the father of medicine, is credited with introducing the use of pharmaceuticals in medicine twenty-three centuries ago. His principles have been passed down in the form of the axiom that medicine must be tailored to the ailment and the patient. The distinction between medicines and sensual drugs is simple. Sensual drugs are ones that the body does not require but that provide a high sense of pleasure to the user.
The pleasure centres in the brain are activated by sensual drugs. A drug user’s need for the drug persists, yet he is becoming increasingly dissatisfied. Artificial stimulation has damaged his brain’s pleasure reactions. The addict is despondent, and he is unable to respond to his surroundings or to other people. His mental disturbance resembles paranoia in certain ways.
The Dangers
Addicts can even lose their sense of self-awareness. They are ‘dead on the inside.’ Addicts often push their fingers firmly into their arms or legs to comfort themselves that they are in control. There might be few objections to consuming drugs if they provided a safe type of pleasure. However, in light of the known dangers of continued drug use, the assertions that they are safe must be dismissed.
Possible results range from incidental delirious effects to death from overdose; the dangers that lie between the extremes are the degeneration of health and the depletion of brain function. Injecting drugs using dirty needles can lead to abscesses in the arms and veins, liver disease, venereal disease, and kidney and brain infection. Sniffing cocaine and amphetamines can harm nose tissue, and smoking marijuana and tobacco can lead to lung disease.
Heavy drinkers, users of volatile solvents, amphetamines, and marijuana users may suffer lifelong liver damage. Babies born to opiate-dependent mothers are more likely to be addicted and experience withdrawal symptoms. Hair loss is a side effect of cocaine and amphetamines. Because of his lifestyle, a drug user is more susceptible to pneumonia, TB, malnutrition, and weight loss. Sensual drugs affect the chemistry of brain cells. Finally, an overdose of any sensuous substance might result in respiratory or cardiac collapse, as well as death.
Conclusion
Drugs are dangerous and any other claim contradicting this is false. Drug users lose their ability to deal with life’s obstacles through perseverance, self-discipline, and mental effort. Addictions are not pleasant and one must seek immediate help if they are struggling with an addiction.
