While you are growing up, there is a possibility that you'll have an experience with cigarettes, alcohol or illegal drugs like marijuana. You might face peer pressure to try drugs, and you might feel guilty because adults you trust have told you not to use drugs. The decisions you make in these situations are up to you, even if many other people have told you what they think you should be doing. You're the only one who can make healthy choices for mind and body.

• General Introduction
• Tobacco
• Alcohol
• Marijuana

General Introduction

Drugs are harmful for anyone, but especially for someone who is still growing. Your body is still changing and can't deal with the substances in drugs, so the effects can often be even worse than they are in adults. Also, kids are smaller than adults and the smaller you are in size; the more a drug can affect you. Everyone is different. While a substance may affect one person one way, it can affect a different person an entirely different way. Everyone has a different reaction to drugs.

There are many different types of drugs and substances that can affect your body. Some of the most common are:

• Tobacco (found in cigarettes and chewing tobacco)
• Alcohol (found in drinks like beer and wine)


• Marijuana (also known as pot, dope or weed)

Some common substances, such as glue, are also used as drugs. They may be sniffed, smoked or eaten. Abusing these substances by putting them in your body is just as dangerous as using illegal drugs.
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Tobacco

Tobacco is found in cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco, and it comes from the dried leaves of the tobacco plant. Tobacco contains a substance called nicotine, which is very addictive (meaning it's hard to stop putting nicotine into your body once you've started).

Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco. Cigarettes and cigars are especially bad for you because the tobacco has to be burnt before you can inhale it. Tobacco smoke puts many poisons into a smoker's mouth, throat and lungs, as well as pollutes the air around the smoker.

Some people might think that smoking cigarettes makes them look cool, feel attractive or stay thin, but smoking actually has some very unattractive effects.

Short-term exposure to tobacco smoke can cause:

• Yellow teeth and fingernails
• Bad breath and mouth sores


• Stinky odors on hair, clothes, furniture and in the air

Long-term exposure to tobacco smoke can cause:

• Feelings of sickness
• Cancer, especially in the lungs, mouth and throat
• A strong increase in the chances of heart attacks and strokes

400,000 cigarette smokers die each year from smoking cigarettes.

For more information about the risks of long-term smoking, visit Facts About Smoking.

Chewing tobacco, or smokeless tobacco, is also very damaging. Tobacco chewers are even more likely than smokers to get mouth, throat, cheek or stomach cancer, and they usually have mouth sores and yellow teeth, too.
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Alcohol

Alcohol is found in many different drinks, including beer, wine and liquor. Drinks in the liquor category usually contain more alcohol than beer or wine, but all forms of alcohol are dangerous. Remember, drinking and driving is dangerous. Never get into a car with anyone that has been drinking alcohol.

Drinking alcohol can cause:

• Bad breath
• Weight gain (alcoholic drinks have a lot of calories)
• Vomiting or nausea
• Loss of coordination and clumsiness
• Difficulty thinking about even the simplest things and forgetfulness
• Poor judgment, which makes you more likely to do things you normally wouldn't and get into dangerous situations
• Black outs, which means you can't remember anything after the alcohol wears off that happened while you were under the influence of alcohol


• Death, if you drink too much

Frequent alcohol consumption (drinking) can cause:

• Addiction


• Many different types of cancer, because it travels around your body through your blood
• Brain damage
• Black outs or passing out

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Marijuana

Marijuana, which is commonly called pot, dope or weed, is made from a dried plant called cannabis. People either smoke it like a cigarette (called a joint) or add it to certain foods. They call the feeling they get after smoking or eating marijuana a high. The main chemical that makes you feel funny is called THC, which actually changes how your mind works, sometimes making it hard to think and damaging your brain.

Marijuana joints have more of the cancer-causing chemicals than cigarettes do. Smoking five joints in a single week is as bad as smoking an entire pack of cigarettes every day for a week!

The first time you use marijuana, it can make you feel:

• Silly or giggly
• Very hungry
• Off balance and sick, even hours after the high wears off
• Unable to use good judgment (just like alcohol can) and make situations more dangerous
• Forgetful about what happened while you were high

If you keep using marijuana, it can cause:

• Yellow fingernails and bad breath, just like cigarettes


• Addiction


• Damage to your memory


• Challenges to learning and concentrating, making you do worse in school
• Cancer in the lungs, mouth and throat

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