There are many people in this world with bad addictions to alcohol, tobacco and drugs.  Abusing these things can have a very negative effect on people’s lives.

There are a lot of dangers in tobacco use.  There are three bad things in tobacco, they are nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide.  Nicotine is the substance that keeps you addicted to the drug.  Tar is what they use to pave roads.  Carbon monoxide is gas cigarette smoke and it causes less oxygen to go to the heart.  One of the diseases that is caused by smoking is heart disease.  Tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals and about 70 of them are known to cause cancer.  Smoking is the number 1 cause of lung cancer.  Smoking also causes many breathing problems like pneumonia, asthma and emphysema.  Even if you don’t smoke tobacco, you can still have the same problems as a smoker if you inhale second-hand smoke.  Smoking is not just dangerous for smokers, but also for those that are around smokers.

There are many dangers involved in alcohol and drugs.  Alcoholism and drug abuse can affect many of the organs in your body including your heart, liver and brain.  Alcohol and drugs can cause problems with your  heart that include cardiomyopathy, stroke and high blood pressure.  High blood pressure can also lead to kidney disease.  Alcohol and drugs can also make the liver less effective in the body because it slows the breaking down of the fats causing bad stuff to happen to the body.  Drugs and alcohol also affect your brain function, which affects your behavior and coordination.

Alcoholism will also affect your relationships with others.  While using drugs you will probably hang out with bad people.  If they are always high or drunk they will make bad decisions and if you hang out with them, you will too.  That can also affect your ability or desire to work or be productive.  As it becomes more of a habit, it will affect your relationships with your family members.  Alcoholics and drug addicts are often abusive to others, they are unreliable to the people that need them.  When they realize how bad they are getting they can become depressed and just drink more or do more drugs.

Addictions to drugs or alcohol can make you not have a close relationship with God.  Those addictions can make you make bad decisions that you will feel guilty about and that will make you not want to go to church.  That’s exactly why Satan wants you to put something other than God first in your life.  It will keep you from being close to God and make you feel not worthy of God’s love.

My thoughts on substance abuse are that drugs are just completely stupid to do.  Tobacco isn't the smartest thing to do either because it can ruin your life forever.  If I know of anyone who does drugs or is thinking about doing drugs I try to tell them not to because it is stupid and it can flip your life upside down in a split second.

I learned a lot in this unit and now I know more about the effects my future decisions will have on myself, others and my relationship with God.