Eleven: the number of rehab centers in Visalia, California. Twenty: the number of rehab centers in Fresno, California. Fifteen thousand: the number of rehab centers in the United States. Two-hundred thousand: approximately the number of people killed due to drug abuse worldwide each year. Lives affected: countless. All that most people see here is numbers. I should know, I’ve seen them before. As a high school student, I have seen my fair share of drug abuse awareness assemblies, drug-free red ribbon weeks, those little papers you sign in middle school on which you “promise” never to take drugs or drink alcohol, health classes, and tv commercials. I’ve seen it all, but I’ve also seen kids who saw all those things alongside me and signed that little paper pledging to be drug-free, fall in the same hole that thousands of other kids and adults do. This is why we have …show more content…
A memorable quote from this piece is “People who don’t fit this cultural ideal respond by disengaging and rebelling.” (Brooks 6) In this quote, Brooks is talking about how many boys fail to meet the standards the school system sets for success. When I read this I realized it could be compared to many things, the drug epidemic being one, especially in relation to adolescents. This can go many ways. People who feel like they don’t fit in with the “overachiever crowd” often times rebel by participating in drug use, people who feel like they don’t fit in with the crowd that does drugs sometimes give into peer pressure and do drugs. People who feel like they don’t fit in with their families culture or their city’s culture or their country’s culture often times turn to drugs to look for instant relief, from stress, from depression, from pressure, and from loneliness. The big picture is drugs have become a huge part of our culture, rebellion has become a huge part of our