I'm a bit alarmed that so many young people seem to think vaping is a "harmless" alternative to smoking, especially since news reports are indicating that it will disintegrate your health several times faster than "old-fashioned" smoking. But I also understand that one of the reasons young people start it is because they are trying to keep up with the cultural pressures of being thin, and so they substitute ingesting poison instead of food.
I feel very dismayed that mainstream America is literally drugging itself to death. What were once seen as dangerous drugs that only "people from the wrong side of the tracks" tried or became addicted too are now seen to be as normal as reaching for aspirin. Having worked at jobs that require a lot of lifting, I've listened stories from co-workers who started out with prescription drugs for back surgery, then moved on to taking heroin because it was cheaper, or because they could manage their pain with street drugs while selling their actual prescriptions for huge profits.
These aren't "bad" people -- they're everyday people whom Jesus loves who are trying to hold it together so that they can support their families.
What alarms me the most is that drugs aren't even seen as "bad" anymore, but a necessary part of getting through each day, and are all the more justified if we can get them from a doctor. I remember going to a doctor once for a handful of ailments (lower back pain, allergies, problems sleeping) and receiving no less than 6 prescriptions. Out of fear of becoming reliant on any kind of medication, I filled just what I felt were the 2 most necessary, took them for 2 weeks, and threw all the others away.
It's only by the grace of God that I haven't become attracted to anything myself, and with the health challenges most of us face, it could happen any day.
I am genuinely shocked and saddened when I hear my young co-workers talking about using cocaine at parties "just because it's there", and taking their friends' prescriptions (such as Adderall) or trying to get their own in order to have enough energy to pull all-nighters before exams.
As long as it's seen as some form of "medicine" -- even if all it alleviates is boredom or improper time management -- it's seen as being ok. What amazes me most is that I NEVER hear a single person talking about the fact that some of these drugs could also land them in a concrete closet for a very lengthy amount of time. Has the fact that illegal drugs are, well, ILLEGAL, totally gone by the wayside?
Now, I am most certainly NOT trying to criticize anyone who has to take medicine for their health AT ALL. Rather, what I'm trying to say is how did we get to a point where people are taking drugs 100 times more powerful than previous generations, whether handed out by doctors or dealers (is there still much difference these days?), and now somehow call it "normal", as if there won't be a slew of terrifying repercussions just waiting to swallow us whole?
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