There are many reasons why people turn to drugs, and many reasons why they choose to get help. Some people choose to use drugs because of pressure from family. Others feel peer pressure from friends. Some people simply want to experiment. There are also some that want to get away from a painful reality.

Parents and other family members do not realize the damage they can do, and how they can effect their relatives. Family has the power to make people feel the need for drugs. I recently had a friend return to a detoxification program for heroin addiction. She was addicted to heroin for years, but went to rehabilitation and was clean for over ten months. Her family had been pressing her and felt she was still using drugs, even though she was clean. Due to the pressure from her parents, she used heroin again about a week ago for the first time in months. She did not want to do it, but she did. For the following week, she had to continue using just to survive, or else she would go through withdrawal and it was horrible. She is now in detoxification for a week, and plans to stay clean. She knows she messed up by using that one last time, but she felt she needed it, and that is why she is getting help.

Pressure from one s peers can cause a person to use drugs. If a teenager is at a party and there is marijuana around, they may feel they need to smoke the marijuana to be accepted. If everyone at the party is smoking, the teen may think he or she will be criticized or ridiculed if they do not smoke with the other attendants of the party.

There are times in one s life where they are in an experimental phase. Many times this comes around the time of adolescence. Adolescents may feel the need to try all kinds of things to learn for themselves the effects. Many adolescents want to learn from their own experience, and if someone tells them the effects of a drug or an action, they want to find out for themselves. Many people want to experiment with all different kinds of things, whether it be drugs, alcohol, piercings, tattoos, or anything else.

There are many people who live a life that is painful and which they want to escape from. If they are having family problems, financial difficulties, or employment issues, there is a reality that is too painful for them to deal with. If a person wants to escape from reality, he or she will sometimes turn to drugs. Drugs can put him or her in a different state of mind, and help him or her forget what their problems are.

The effects of drug use are numerous. Addiction, sickness, and death, are just some effects which drug use can have on a person. Those effects are only physical. There are also emotional and mental effects of drug use.

There are many causes of drug use. Some of the ones I mentioned are the more common reasons. I know this from the experience with my friend, and some of her friends, as to why they started, or why they chose to try drugs.